The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1945-07-26

/ wonder how many racing fans,
porting over the Daily Racing
Form trying to pick a winner,
know how the charts, giving the
past performances of every horse
entered in race, are compiled?
My guess is that there are not
many who are familiar with all the
details, so let's take an imaginary
trip to the press box and see ex-
actly how it is done.
During the recent Hagerstown
race meet the charts were made by
]. Mickey" Mcclure and Wilson
Ford, of the Racing Form staff, and
those boys really know their stuff.
When the horses come on the
track Mickey Mcclure trains his
glasses on them and starts memoriz-
ing the name of each horse and its
Jockeys colors. He does this by re-
peating to himself, over and over
again, the name of the horse and
the colors. If you were standing
alongside of Mickey, you would
hear him muttering over and over
to himself, "Palgene, white, red
sash, white cap, Palgene, white, red
sash, white cap, bonneville, red,
brown sleeves, red cap, bonneville,
red, brown sleeve, red cap" and so
on until he had memorized the name
and colors of every horse in the race.
With this done, he puts his glasses
down until the horses near the start
ing post, when he trains his glasses
on them once more and quickly goes
over the colors again in his mind.
In the meantime Wilson Ford has
listed the horses entered in the race
on chart sheet, according to their
post positions. Opposite each horses
name are spaces in which can be
entered the position of the horse at
the start, the quarter, the half, the
Oh GtSl1 d1AO biIG 1A1llS1l.
From the second the horses enter
the starting gate, Mickey's glasses
are trained on them and immedi-
ately the barrier is sprung he gives
Ford his first call, such as, "Tooner-
vile length, Palgene a half, Mer-
RE Shot by two,' and so forth. AS
they come to the quarter mile pole,
he again gives the position of every
horse, repeating the performance at
the half, as they enter the stretch
and as they cross the finish line.
Immediately the race is over, Mic
key sits down at his typewriter and
bats out brief description of the
running of the race while it is fresh
in his mind. While he is doing this.
Wilson Ford adds to the chart he
has compiled during the race, such
details as the time the horses went
to the post, the time they got off,
the running time of the race. the
mutuel payoff, the odds each horse
IN the race would have paid had
it won and the condition of the
track at the time the race was run.
All this takes not more than about
five minutes. The completed chart is
then turned over to the telegraph
operator, who dispatches it to the
Racing Form plant in New York.
Since this only takes matter of
a minute or two, the printing plant
can actually be setting up the chart
and account of one race, before the
next race is over That is why YOU
can pick up your racing form in
Hagerstown tomorrow morning and
read an accurate chart of every race
run today, whether at Belair, New
York, Garden State, Suffolk, or
Chicago.
That, in brief, is how race charts
are made, except for, to me at least,
the most interesting and amazing de-
tail of all, and here it is:
Ii you were to ask Mickey Nc
CURE, five minutes after lie had call
ed race, what the colors Of a GER
tain horse were, or what the posi-
ton of a certain horse was at the
finish, he couldn't tell you Through
years of training, Mcclure has
trained himself to blank his mind of
everything concerning each race,
Immediately after that race is over.
He told me that if he didn't do this
he would be unable to concentrate
on the next race, since names and
colors of the previous race would |
unconsciously pop into his mind and /!