Evening star., 1940-01-21
BY ALFRED GWYNNE
VANDERBILT,

President. Belmont Park and Pimlico
Race Tracks.
BALTIMORE, Jan. 20 P.-The
year 1910 will be a banner one in
American racing.
1t will produce probably the
best group of handicap horses
this country has had in some
years. Several horses will win more
than 100000, and mathematically-
minded sports fans will compute
that in such celebrated race as
the Belmont Futurity the winner
will net $1,000 a second for the
actual time of the race.
Casual readers will look with envy
upon the horseman whose morse
has flashed across the finish line
to win a lavish purse and coveted
trophy. Little or nothing Will De
written about the horses that are
a dead loss, or the next thing to
1t. to the hundreds who own them.
Some revealing figures on this sub
iect have been compiled by dis
interested statisticians.
Turfmen Operate at Loss.
The entire sum of all money to
horsemen in purses, stakes, prizes
and trophies has been totaled for
one average year. Then the average
cost of keeping a horse alive and
in good condition throughout a cal
endar year was estimated and null
tiplied by the number of horses
that raced in an average year. These
two totals, when compared, give
the answer to the man who reads
of huge purses and interprets them
as huge profits.
These estimates show that for
every dollar spent on the care of
q horse, the average return is just
over rs cents. When it is under
stood that this covers just the ex-
penses, and not the original invest
ment, it can be seen that those big
purses are not all gravy.
Race horses cost more than they
win in unspectacular expenditures
of which the casual reader never
thinks. Wages, feed, transportation,
jockey fees, starting fees, stall rent,
veterinaries, medicines, colors, sad
dies, are just few of the necessary
expenses. How many horses did
that lucky owner of the Preakness
winner buy and feed and care for
before he won it-and at what ex-
pense? No, it's not all gravy to the
horseman, even when he's lucky
enough to have winner carrying
his colors.
Owners Getting Better Break.
The picture isn't all black, how
ever. Sometimes an owner can
make money with his horses, but
he must work against odds. A lot
of stables will make money during
certain years, but few stables will
make money every year-a very
few. AS rule, the bulk of stable
accounts are written in red ink.
The now rising total purse money
distributed throughout the country
shows the tracks are beginning to
understand that the horseman now
is in the same situation as an actor
who is paid wage so small he
cannot live without reaching into
his own pocket. Racing cannot 60
on without the horseman, and he
must be given better chance to
survive.
The public is better off than the
horse owner. The average percent
age against the wagering public is
IL per cent; against the horseman it
is about 25 per cent on upkeep alone.
OF recent years, fair-minded tracks
with the best interests of racing
at heart have been increasing their
purses to give better break to the
owner, who, after all, puts on the
show This is far and away the most
significant contemporary step to-
wards the solid future Of racing
more important than mutuels, hand
leap horses and triple crowns. Higher
daily purses are courageous effort
on the part of racetrack owners
to help the horseman carry what
a 1yY,o !. I,4o