view raw text
IN AND OUT RUNNING RUNNINGMen Running t Men who go to the races solely to bet who view a noble diversion only through the gamblers eye anathematize variations in what is dubbed the form of horses Yet nothing is clearer than the certainty that if horses always ran to their highest demonstrated maasure measure of capacity there would be very little to bet about in horse racing In a recent number of the San Francisco Breeder and Sportsman the veteran turf writer Joseph Cairn Simpson discusses this phase of racing in the following well con ¬ sidered sidereal terms Inconsistent running inandout inland racing are both the charm and the bane of racing The glorious uncertainty is the great promoter of the sport and if the capacity of racehorses could be absolutely gauged there would be little interest after the first meeting of the Lorses Loses LorsesAs Loses As it is the victor of one or many races may take an inferior position and then the question why does he not come up to his previ prevail ¬ ous onus form is one of the many questions pro ¬ pounded Racing capacity is a complication of qual equal ¬ ities cities Physical energy is one thing mental requirements another The first means that muscles are toned to the time mental qualifica qualification ¬ tions ions have still more bearing that while the physical part of the machinery is all that could be required should the mental not correspond to the physical there will be failure failureNerve failure Nerve power odic bodice force wiirdetermination resolution to overcome relaxing muscles andreel mandrel ing King brain are by far the most potent qualities in the composition of a racehorse However well endowed a horse may be in the qualities which are usually termed game there are times when there will be failure The bravest men have exhibited cowardice occasionally and any one who has paid attention to his change of feelings will recognize that there are times when he j could not exert the force he had heretofore possessed possessedA possessed A horse which has romped away in front won hands down with so much ease that it would seem that many seconds could have been taken off the recorded time is beaten in slower time and by inferior animals animalsLa animals La Fleche one of the great racehorses of her day won the One Thousand Guineas and that so easily that she was favorite for the Derby at the short odds of 11 to 10 Sir Hugo at 40 to 1 beat her and the loss of the race was ascribed t her jockey waiting too long In the St Leger Leer she beat Sir Hugo a couple of lengths it a canter and as she won The Oaks as well as tie One Thousand Guineas her defeat was to say the least unexpected No one thought of charging fraud A fortunate turn of luck for Sir Hugo which entitled him to wear the blue ribbon of the turf for 1892 and another one of the many instances of the glorious uncertainty lent a glamour to racing racingIn racing In these betting dayswhatever has a tendency to winning money that is odds wheiher whither long or short seems to be the standpoint from wljich owlish the judges take their cue A good cue when other circumstances support the evidence which the betting discloses Speculation on anything which brings up diversions of opinion is the poorest kind of a barometer The mercury will rise and fall with the changes of atmospherical atmospherically pressure Absolute whatever the gauge shows that must be accepted as the prevailing weight of the density of the atmosphere The fiat must be received as uncontroverti uncontrovertibly ble able Mercury so high and so low is fol fool ¬ lowed once many times by the prognostica prognostic ¬ tions ions being correct and when they differ it must bo ascribed to something in the atmos Amos ¬ phere sphere some things contradistinct contradistinction to the usual state of racipg racing affairs In our racing here the most trouble has come from the twoyearold toehold performers A few people claim that twoyearolds toeholds are the most consistent of all racehorses Never so futile an argument Just as well to expect that a pupil of kindergartens or primary schools would stand an equal chance with college graduates when the test was scholarship as to think that the babies in racing are the compeers of those which had participated in many campaigns campaignsAs campaigns As stated before the youngsters have occa Boca ¬ sioned sinned more than their share of trouble One wins today and another tomorrow tomorrowLooking tomorrow Looking over the history of these youngsters from the opening of the season January 1 to the time when thirtyfive thirty races had been run never a winner that had not been defeated Buena Ventura won three races Formero Former four and each of them were so far back in the races they were defeated that it would seem that something more than a loss of nerve or muscu mucus ¬ lar lair force was required to account for their defeat An intricate question In all the reflections on the Derby of 1892 not one hinted that La Fleche was purposely beaten Scarcely neces nieces ¬ sary scary to state that notwithstanding the short odds more was to be gained by winning than losing Not one of the youngsters that had not been beaten or was afterwards beaten Buena Ventura won her first two races and then when she had been beaten came again and won three races from January 1st to March 17th and Formero Former captured four When these cracks were beaten it would hardly be just to ascribe their defeat to premeditation Simply this that colts and fillies which had got off or had lost some of their winning form while others had gained under the discipline of their train ¬ ers ersInconsistent Inconsistent running The charm and the bane of rasing erasing People who are fully convers converse ¬ ant with racing trainers especially will recog Greco ¬ nize maize that ubtil until a race has been run nothing can be told of the condition of the horsss Race ¬ goers are prone to build their calculations on what they have seen never thinking of the changes in form which are sure to come