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ELECTRICITY AND RACING RACINGFrom Racing From the birth of racing the whip and spur have been deemed legitimate appliances for stimulating racehorses to put forth their utmost powers in the hot an3 decisive seconds of a race Their use isattended distended by the inflic inflict ¬ tion ion of pain their owners would deem exces excels ¬ sively snivel cruel and barbarous if applied to their own persons Yet so strong is the force of cus cubs ¬ tom that racing rules sanction and in many cases racing officials enforce the use of such weapons while the average race goer would deem their absence from the hands or heels of a jockey a very suspicious circumstance patent evidence in fact that a horse was not meant to win winTurf windsurf Turf officials are traditionally conservative tenacious in adherence to precedents and slow about adopting what they deem radical changes in racing methods and appliances No great objection can as a rule be urged against this conservatism But when it led to the out ¬ lawry awry of the use of electricity for the same pur pour ¬ pose for which the whip and spur are used it may well bo doubted whether it was not carried to the extent of making a mistake of real con ¬ sequence The electric saddle socalled scaled is in no ways harmful to a horse It causes no pain to the noble brute It does not lacerate and tear his delicate skin as do the whip and andspur sandspur spur But from what is known of its effects when used on a sluggish loafing or sulky horse there is but little reason to doubt that it is far more effect ¬ ual dual in the way of inducing a horse to exert his full measure of speed than the instruments now lawful under racing rules and usage usageIt usage It would be a matter of uo difficulty whatever for the Jockey Club and Turf Congress to re ¬ voke evoke their action concerning this appliance It was put under ban without any actual consideration and it would probably puzzle any one of the turf lawmakers to give any sensible or adequate reason for the action Its known and public use would be humane and of value besides being in line with the modern spirit of progress Outlawed as it is its effectiveness will lead to its surreptitious use by unscrupu unscrupulous ¬ lous locus owners despite the penalties attending dis dais ¬ covery covey Legitimatized Legitimatize and taken under the protection of racing rules its use properly de ¬ fined and always made known to the public it would almost certainly be adopted by all racing owners as an adjunct of the highest value and utility C C RILEY
