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VALUE OF THE TIME TEST The most sensible journal representing the harness racing side of the turf is The Horse Review of Chicago Its figures are keen and to the point and the editorial comments of the bright young men who write them are always keen and pointed Now and again the Horse Review comments on thoroughbred racing When it does its comments are common sensible and up to date In the current Review Volunteer always a close and concise critic has the following to say of the much discussed time test and the English idea of it itOne tOne One of the most interesting topics of the turf ever discussed is that of the time test It is usually viewed from one of two radically differ ¬ ent Kent standpoints either as delusive or else as the one infallible test of a horses quality Among thoroughbred owners and trainers the former belief is most largely entertained while the latter is the opinion of the average trotting horseman horsemanThe horseman The discredit of the time test on the running turf originated in England There but little credit is allowed it timeouts no figures with the handicappeiipr handicapped critics a horses class being determined entirely by the horses he beats and the weights tfeicarries ternaries and distances at which he is able to win In America however it is not so strong many of our prominent owners and trainers are guided by English examples but many more are of a different school and place almost as much confidence in the efficacy of the watch as do their trotting brethren The race going public in this country is also ever hungry for broken records whether at a run ¬ ning Ming meetingWith meeting or a harness meeting With this in view the recent utterances of Country Life the most sumptuous of all British publications which give close attention to the sport of kings upon the subject are pregnant with interest In its issue of December 18 in discussing the jockeys of the year Outpost pays a very neat compliment to Tod Todd Sloan the American boy who has been riding with such great success across the pond and among other things says The principal fault in the riding of the jock ¬ eys eyes of the present day is that they seem to have no knowledge of pace and that is whore the American jockey Sloan can give all ours such a lot of weight In America where he learnt to ride all fast gallops and trials as well as races are ridden against the clock and it seems to me only natural to suppose that by this means anyone must in time learn to judge better what pace he is going than by riding gal ¬ lops without any check as to time at all The only way in which to make certain of win ¬ ning Ming a race supposing ones horse is gO9d enough is to ride him so that he does the dis dais ¬ tance stance in the fastest time he is able to For this his jockey has to know exactly what pace he is going all the way and as long as he does this and rides him accordingly he can afford to more or less neglect the rest of the field but this can only be learnt to perfection by constant riding against time There is where Sloan is so good He nearly always gets off in front and there ho stays if he has to pull back he does so but still keeps his horse going at the speed which he knows will got him to the win ¬ ning Ming post in the shortest time possible It is obvious that this stylo style of riding requires a very accurate judgment of pace on the part of its exponents which is what Sloan possesses in such a remarkable degree and of which our jockeys are so lamentably deficient When our trainers give up their narrowminded narrowing old fashioned prejudices and copy the Americans by clocking all their fast work they will form much more reliable opinions as to the fitness and form of their horses make fewer mistakes than they do now about their trials and educate a very superior race of jockeys to those who are riding now nowThese notches These are strong and interesting words un ¬ usually so when it is remembered how slow the average Englishman is to abandon his own in ¬ stitutions situations for foreign innovations But our semiEnglish seeming cousins in Australia whose thor ¬ oughbreds outbreed are as good as the world may boast awoke to the real import and value of the time test long ago and it figures as largely in their racing and training as it does in ours And the words of Country Life are evidence of the fact that there is at least an inkling of the same opini9n beginning to be felt in the tight little isle itself
