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RACING GOSSIP There isnt a keener or more intelligent figure ID the American turf than John J McCafferty Ho is one of your brainy selfsustaining kind who wins everywhere and whines nowhere TaJking recently of racing side issues he gave his reason for always running his horses with long tails The reasons are full of common sensibility A long tail on a horse said Mc ¬ Cafferty is useful to brush off the flies in hot weather A horse which has been banged will frot and become restless in fly time With a banged tail he has no means of getting rid of it Even in the stall he scrapes and frets until he Is wornout and many times a horse will rub all the hair off his hip bones in his efforts to rub vff some annoying insect This is my first rea ¬ son Again a horse is not nearly as liable to be rut down in a race when he has a long tail as whpn banged When a horse is running he always waves it This being the case a horse corning from the rear cuts either to the inside r outside as soon as he catches a glimpse of a h rses tail in front of him Consequently the longer the horses tail is the less liable is a Lorse to jump on him himNervous Nervous horses always train better with long tails They are generally thinskinned and have short hair consequently are bothered more than a thickskinned horse with insects and a long tail is almost a necessity to keep them from fretting and scraping until they become so weak and illtempered that they are not fit to race I have found quite a difference between a thinskinned horse and a thickskinned horse The latter class is lazy and has to bo pushed to work It also has a heavy coat and does not answer to the whip and spur as readily as a thinskinned horse horseMy My reason for running horses high in fiosh is the fact that they run stronger and run longer Ahorse with plenty of flesh on his bones will run race after race without feelidg it while a horse k yedup to the highest pitch will surely go back after a race and has to be indulged before ho is fit to race again I am a great believer in running horses high in flesh The English Jockey Club a far wiser body as tn turf legislation than our own because it has tho leisure for study and the conservatism of noninterest has passed some new racing rules which are worth some attention The most important of the new laws bears on the handi capper It runs this way wayThe The top weight to be allotted in a handicap nhall not be less than nine stone 126 pounds If in a handicap for which there is a minor forfeit declared by a fixed time the highest weight ac ¬ cepting was originally less than nine stone it shall be raised to that weight and the other ac ¬ ceptances equally It shall be in the power of the stewards by notice in the programme to extend this last mentioned rule to the highest weight left in at 10 oclock the preceding even ¬ ing in handicaps for plates and stakes where there is no declaration of forfeit provided the weights are fixed the night before running runningA A third rule declares In the absence of spe ¬ cial agreement a jockeys retainer terminates at the ebd of the racing season Half of the agreed retaining fee must be paid in advance and the remainder at the termination of the re ¬ tainer
