The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1941-01-16

~ the figures.
But the two main
Grantland Rice topics of interest
you run across out
this way are the following:
l. How or where can they dig up
horse which can prevent Challedon
from cracking Seabiscuit's all-time
money record with so much gold to
shoot at?
2. Will there be truer racing form
in the wake of the recent jockey
scandal when so many alert riders
were located in the pay of crooked
gamblers, who had no trouble pick
ing winners in advance?
This latter system gives the pick
er, on the inside, great chance for
a mOp-up. The main idea is that he
can't miss, which is at least finan-
cially sound. So those who are on
the outside, meaning only SO per
cent, who were badly stung, are now
waiting to see what will happen.
Which means that beaten favor
ties, even those beaten on the
straight level, will be regarded with
deep suspicion unless the normal
average above IS per cent is main
tanned.
Around the East this favorite
average was dropping down to
something like Is per cent or less
or the size of your hat. Don't think
the East was any too pure.
This Jockey Stuff
I can say this much. In Jerry
Geisler, California has one of the
best and smartest chairmans of
racing commission the sport has
ever known. He is both completely
honest and just as able.
With sportsmen such as Carleton
Burke and others on the lookout,
Santa Anita has built up every
known precaution against cheating.
1t will take an extra shrewd manip-
ulator or an extra clever jockey to
open some new form of chiseling.
There is nearly always chiseling in
racing, wrestling and the fight game.
They just happen to be built along
those lines, in so many ways. It's
a vital part of the trade-ike poll
tics.
1t so happens that racing has the
widest gap of all-the drop from such
sportsmen as Al Vanderbilt, Garlic
ton Burke, Charley Howard, Bill Boz
ing and many others to jockeys and
few trainers, who happened to
be lured by the fragrant odor of
easy, if tainted, cash.
Racing is thrilling sport. On the
average it carries far more thrills
for those who have 81 across or $40
on the nose, than any other sport.
1t is no way to make any money.
Anyone who thinks he can beat IL
per cent is what you might call
comical in the cupola. Ask Colonel
Bradley about the extreme difficult
ties of beating So per cent at rou-
lette. Or even steady 4 per cent.
But as long as the men and wom-
en-, the boys and the girls, like to
have their whirl, why try to stop
them? You can't, anyhow.
Back to Santa anita
Doc Strube, general manager of
the Santa Anita track, figures this
will be his best year. He has flock
of purses that run from $4,000 to
100000, including several $4,000
tests. This naturally has brought
out a full share of the best horses,
in an off year.
They have brought in crack thor
oughbreds from all over the bombed
and unbombed world to run for all
this money, including three of Eng
lands best. St. Andrews II from
the British Isles has run the mile
and a quarter in 1:59ss, which is
motorcycle time.
But the shadow of Challedon, the
Brann Blaster, the Maryland Spe-
cial, still hangs over Kayak II, Milo
land and others now pointing for the
main swag.
The 1910 opening was technically
or officially known as a gala event,
wherein a flock of motion picture
stars shared the spotlight with good
horses and more than 5000, 900 flow
er blooms, not including orange
groves shadowing the rim of the
track.
Inspiring as these flowers, noun
tains and orange groves are to argus
eyed tourists, they are merely in
cidental to most of the fans who
come here to watch the horses.
Track Surroundings
I could tell you again about the
snow-capped peaks that hover over
the tropical blooms around the
track, where they can handle $1,000
spectators without too much crowd
ing.
I could write more about Bing
Crosby, Louis B. Mayer, Loretta
Young, Pat O'Brien, Joe E. Brown,
Guy Kibbee-in fact, about all the
beauty and chivalry, all the glamour
and oomph of Hollywood, which can
tell you is strictly unimportant to
those trying to win few bets.
They don't concentrate on the
flowers or the movie stars out here
at the track. They have no bets
on the snow-capped mountains.
They lack both the early and the
late foot. Their main interest is still
in the horses which are carrying
their dough. Your interest follows