The New York herald., 1921-01-09
JUDGING RACERS
BY THE TIME TEST
Best Evidence of Man o. Wars
Greatness Afforded by the
Stop Watch.
BY GURNEY c. CUE.

When a follower of harness racing ex-
presses his opinion of a trotter he often
does so by saying "He can go in 2 10 :"
or whatever the number of seconds more
than two minutes may be which meas
ures the speed of the horse for one mile.
While he does not form his opinion
solely according to this time test. still
II Is the first thing he talks about when
buying or selling a trotter or PAGER.
And from the very beginning of harness
racing it has been the basis of handicap
ping or classifying horses in races.
On the running tracks it Is altogether
different What the buyer or the bettor
wants TO know is not how fast the horse
has run n certain distance but what
horses he has beaten. C''Pay no attention
10 the time; II means nothing is re-
mark often heard among turfmen. In
England. where official time was not
taken for many years, this is the almost
universal opinion, and it is not so manv
years ago that movement was started
here TO adopt the English view by aboi-
ishing official time in races on the
ground that il was not a test of merit
and was misleading
Time Means Something.
That a change Is taking place, or has
lately taken oece. among American rae
Ing men in their attitude toward the
time test seems to be indicated by the
prominence given TO the breaking of
records by Man o. War and other
horses in last seasons campaign The
SURPRISING speed of the great three
year-old of 1920, as measured by the
watch. was heralded with all the en-
phasis which marks the performance
against time of some great trotter on
rhe Grand Circuit And it is we'll to re-
member in this connection that if the
movement to abolish official time had
prevailed here II might now be rather
difficult to convince old time turfmen
mat Man o War was the Incompatible
s'acehorse SO many believe him u be
Tested by the question, What did he
beat?' his campaign could hardly be
ciassed as the greatest ever made by a
three-year-old.
In the twenty-one weeks between May
is and Oct. IL he started in eleven races.
all of which he won without meeting a
competitor that could make him run
from end to end. Those he defeated in
cluded John p. Grier. Upset. Wildair.
Donnacona. Damask. Paul Jones, Blazes
and Sir Barton. All except the one last
named were colts of his own age. none
OF which could be rated as first class.
His One Hard Race.
John p. Grer alone was able to make
Man o. War show his best speed. When
the great son of Fair Play was conced-
ing Is pounds TO the Whitney colt in the
Dwyer Stakes at Aqueduct he had TO b.
hard ridden near the finish of the race
at one mile and a furlong, and Grier was
once in the lead by n very narrow mar
gin about a hundred yards from home
Grier was the one that first cried
enough" however. and the Riddle
champion had him thoroughly beaten
through the last sixty yards.
In the Potomac Handicap at Havro
de Grace Man o. War gave so pounds 20
Wildair and won easily by an open
length at the end OF a mile and a six
toenth. In the majority of his races he
had practically only one competitor to
beat. and that one he far outclassed. In
nearly all his races he won away off or
else was under restraint at the finish
The greatest distance he ran was one
mile and Ave furlongs in the Realiza-
ton Stakes at Belmont Park
In the light OF later Developments IL,
Maryland Man o. Wars victory over Sir
Barton in the widely heralded match"
at Windsor meant less than IL was at
first supposed TO mean. The majority
OF turfmen now believe his four-year-old
competitor on this occasion was far
from beingthe all conquering Sir Barton
that had shown his heels so impressively