view raw text
RACING GOSSIP The Jockey Club would be intelligent if it kept its present eye on the daily racing gun It should do so It was born for that end But it does follow its destiny It is careless inter ¬ mittent mitten splurgey splurge and incorrect The turf is a sport that needs daily keenness and constant attention Why not It has 10000 or more items moving from place to place and hosts of keen members who take advantage of what turns up The only way to rule such a vast body is the way of daily attention and keen and constant intelligence No present turf body goes to its clientele that way No past turf body has used such methods The result is of course natural and what it should be The Turf Congress which pretends to rule Western racing is fat headed and regularly makes rules and laws which are not kept and were hardly made to be observed The Jockey Club which declares to rule the East keeps its rules and laws better than the Western turf body Yet it is even more fathoadod fatheaded in its legislative movement movementThe movement The Jockey Club held a meeting at New York Thursday last and took radical action on the rules of racing The touts of dictation give this report of what was done An entirely new feature is a scale of weights which will materially add to the weights here ¬ tofore twofer carried by the jocneys jockeys and will in this way favor riding by heavier boys Among the changes are these This Jnew New rule is to be in ¬ serted sorted under Part III regulations for race meetings The number of starters in any over ¬ night race shall be limited by the width of the track at the starting post Every horse shall be allowed five feet of width of the track The number of starters shall be reduced to the pro ¬ per number by lot or divisions of the race at the option of the association associationRule association Rule 77 is amended by increasing the weights and providing special weights for certain mounts mountsIn mountain In races of intermediate lengths the weights for the shorter distance shall bo carried carriedIn carried In races exclusively for threeyearolds or for fouryearolds foretold the weight shall be 126 pounds and for twoyearolds toeholds 122 pounds poundsExcept pounds Except in handicaps and in races where the weights are fixed absolutely in the conditions twoyearold toehold fillies shall be allowed three pounds and mares three years old shall be allowed five pounds before September 1 and three pounds afterward Geldings shall bo allowed three pounds poundsWelterweights Welterweights shall be 28 pounds added to the weight for age ageIn ageing In heavy handicap the top weights shall not be less than 140 pounds poundsIn pounding In all handicaps the top weight shall not be less than 126 pounds 1 f in a handicap for which there is a minor forfeit declared by a fixed time the highest weight accepting was originally less than 126 pounds it shall bo raised te that weight and the other acceptances equally equallyRule equally Rule 83 is amended to read Any jockey presuming to start or even to put his horse into a trot or gallop with a view to take advantage before the flags are dropped hanging behind or refusing to obey the com ¬ mands ands of the starter in any respect whatever shall be reported to the stewards The suspen suspend ¬ sion scion of a jockey shall not take effect until the last race of the day of his sentence sentenceRule sentence Rule 119 is amended to provide that in run ¬ ning Ming off a dead heat the horses shall take the same relative positions at the starting post as they did in the original race and that the same weight and overweight shall be carried carriedRule carried Rule 126 relative to the fiv five pound allowance to apprentices provides that the owner shall not be permitted to abandon such allowance except by the consent of the stewards provided no horse shall thus carry less than 84 pounds poundsSome pounds Some of the items of this array are in line But that of raising the scale is merely in re ¬ sponse spoons to a loud and superficial demand The new scale will not increase the crop of jockeys A crew of riding hasbeens hastens and their admirers have demanded such an increase for years If the scale of weights was put to 150 pounds the same crew and the same auxiliaries would be howling for another increase The crowd is short and is always after the lagniappe of cant doism Daoism Effort is successful and failure out of line whether it be the failure of weight or gen ¬ eral feral ability mental and physicia physician The most intelligent human and racing law is that which uses what it has to the best advantage Weight raising is class legislation and out of modern line The present need of the turf is general regulation and government Little effort is being used for such an end Yet all else is com ¬ paratively proactively beneath notice
