Arizona republican., 1920-08-23

That the human race has gambled on the speed of it's racing animals since the day when Old Bill Stoneface, a million years ago, first got the idea that his pet pterodactyl could fly fas- ter than the brute belonging Jim Tiger tooth, living three caves away in the direction of the wallow where sthe mammoths came to drink" and that it will continue to gamble as long there is a trotting horse, a high powered automobile or an airplane in existence, is the assertion of B. Y. Smith, turfman and racing authority, who arrived in Phoenix yesterday. MT. Smith, who has been attending the grand circuit meeting at Toledo, is well known in the west, having been a prominent if gure in the betting ring at Tijuana in the palny days before the war when the lower California track was attract ing votaries of the ponies from every section of the United States.
 "The man who owns a fast horse, or thinks he does,'' said MT. Smith yes terday, naturally wants his neighbor to know it, and the SureSt way to prove to his neighbor that his horse has speed is to race the horse after the owner has backed his judgement or his sentiment with cold cash. I suppose it is the demon of pride that started horse se-racing-just as pride has started lot of other things, good and bads in this old world of ours.'
 Mir. Smiths discussion of the track yesterday concerned itself chiefly with the singular occurrences during a long aequaintanceship with the vagaries of owners and of what they owned, Tor MT. Smith has as much respect, as he said yesterday, for the intelligence of many a racing steed as he has for that of any number of human beings with whom he has come in contact.
 he e--id in 0nnnaCfi0n with the foregoing, profess to hold the intelligence of the horse in contempt. But even in the excitement and furry of a hotly-contested race, horses have been known to show a good quality or gray matter. For instance. there was Alexine, a near record-holder of ten years ago, which nearly cost a dozen jockeys all their honors on the track. At almost every meet where Alexine appeared during the last year of his career, jockeys riding him round that judges were looking askance at them, and that rumors of their disqualified ton were becoming too thick to be pleasant. Inquiry then uncovered the fact that Alexine had found a way to keep himself ahead of the field once that he had gained length on the other horses. His system was simply to lash sideways with his hind feet without losing his stride, the maneuver being used when another horse was
 creeping up on him. The result was
 that judges noticed that Alexine had a
 peculiar stride whenever horse be- gan to edge him, and naturally thought
 that the jockey was trying to get away
 with some dirty work, although they could not figure out exactly what was
 going on.
 The strange part of it was that the ! jockeys were as ignorant as the judges
 and it was not until the horse was 1 watched closely and the sore legs of
 other horses competing against Alexine were examined that the trick was | found out. And then they tell me that a horse can't think"
 Every section of the country. says l MT. Smith, has it's stories of the fast horse which looked like 9 hay-rack ] and which could out-run the best ot
 blooded stock. MT. Smith commented
 upon this yesterday, and then told the l story, of the Arizona Rangers and the race horse they picked up on the bor- | der several years ago. The story as | told by MT. Smith runs about as fol-