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TRAINING AND KACING ACING Harry Jennings an oldtime oldie and oldfashioned olfaction trainer of note in England and France in speak of too early or rather hurried training of race horses says I shall want them a good deal later on let them train themselves a bit and he invariably started his horses in the beginning of the season rough big and in good health for the first three or four weeks giving them a chance as he expressed it to train themselves a bit and not subjecting them to the strain of a hur hour ¬ ried reid preparation There is much good logic and common sense in the ideas of Mr Jennings and many of our American trainers could profit by it for all followers of the turf in this country know that there are certain stables here which come out in the early spring and sweep the board but by the time the midsummer and fall meetings at which the most valuable stakes are run begin the horses are stale and do no good It is quite true that the early bird catches the worm but the earliest worm is as a rule in an embryonic stage as it were and is by no means as palatable a morsel as the fully developed worm later in the season and the bird would in most instances be repaid for a little waiting and take in the worms more gradu grad ¬ ally The hurried and forcing process is especially injurious to twoyearolds toeholds for they are necessarily put at hard work when but actu act ¬ ally only a few months over a year old and with some trainers the custom is to hammer them as vigorously as they do the old horses and oftentimes work the youngsters with developed horses expecting them to keep taut their end of the string This is contrary to nature and is the reason why good horses in the threeyear three old and upward class every season are hardly a corporals guard in number There should be very few twoyearold toehold stakes before the mid ¬ summer and fall meetings so as to give ample time for a gradual preparation Threeyear Three olds and older horses can of course stand harder work but even this class are often over ¬ done and by the time the fall racing comes around most of them are laid on the shelf and the prominent events become onehorse onshore affairs which are disappointments to the patrons of sport Haste makes waste in training horses as well as in many other things Our idea of getting all possible out of a race horse and at the earliest moment is bad policy It would be much better in the long run to have a horse run fewer races each year especially in his twoyearold toehold season and last more years on the turf There would then be more good han ¬ dicap dicta material and such events as the Brooklyn Suburban and Metropolitan Handicaps instead of having 49 44 and 36 entries respectively would most likely have double those figures which would of course increase the value of the races without necessarily bringing to the post a large and unwieldly unwieldy field of starters When a man has a good horse like Hamburg or Ornament he seems to think there is no limit to the horses endurance and oftentimes a last straw breaks the camels back and one race too many has settled the turf career of a brilliant star starIn staring In England as a rule a horse is not asked to run near so many races as in this countryand countryman this is especially true of the cracks As an illustra illustrate ¬ tion ion Ornament the great American threeyear three old ran seventeen races while the English champion threeyearold Galtee Goatee More started only eight timeb time It is true that Galteo Alto Mores winnings were much mort ort valuable than those of Ornament for the stakes were each worth more money and it may be argued that a horse has to run here oftener than in England in order to make both ends meet which is true but if his racing career was extended through several years instead of one or two by judicious and gradual development the chaflces chalices are he would pick up more of the largest plums have more money to his credit when retired and be in better condition to begin stud duties Progress and hustle are commendable but there is no getting around the fact that many good horses are ruined by too much hurry
