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RACING IN THE ARGENTINE. H. H. Hunn recently returned to New York from a trip to Buenos Ayres, where be bad gono to see if it would pay to take American racers there. His statement of bis discoveries is interesting. He says: "They date the ages of their horses from the first of August instead of the first of January, as in this country and in England. All of their breeding stock has been imported from England, and whether it is the climate or the system of handling, the horses are generally more on the rakish, leggy order than is common either here or in England. "At Palermo, which is to the city of Buenos Ayers what Morris Park is, to our metropolis, there is an extensive and well-equipped racing property, the main track being one and three-quarter miles in length and one hundred and fifty feet wide at its narrowest part. The soil is of a clay formation, smooth and elastic, and with but a semblance of loose soil on top. The grandstand at Palermo is capable of accommodating twenty thousand people, and from thirty to fifty thousand is the average attendance, the great days being Sundays. "The betting, which is on an immense scale every one bets, is on the Paris mutual system, the racing association, which is under the government of the Republic, getting ten per cent, of the gross amount handled. "The system of training is long, slow gallops twice a day, boys riding exercise bareback. "The jockeys, who are mostly Indian half-breeds, ride with very long stirrup leathers, sitting up cowboy fathion, but I rarely saw the riders feet in the stirrup irons when a race was finishing, the general custom being to throw the stirrup irons across the horses withers just as the word to go was givtn. "The jockeys are the worst, I think, to be seen anywhere on the top of the globs, Diaz, a hunchback nigger, being tha crack of the lot, and our worst operators could give him points. They all ride with curb bits, something like a Pelham bit, but with no snalHo ring or rein. The scale of weights carried will average ten pounds higher than with us. "The starting was the only thing in connection with the actual racing which struck me as being fairly well done. The horses are taught to line up and stand like a troop of cavalry, ! and go on the word of command, but the poor beasts are probably so leg-weary that they are glad to stand still, as the custom is to keep the competitors for a race galloping up and down the stretch, also parade at other gaits, for about twenty minutes before going to the post. This is done so that the gambling public can come to their own conclusions as to which of the horses to bet on. "After the race is over the horses are taken to the paddock, where they get a hosepipe bath, which is their cooling out and rubbing down and everything else in the shape of grooming. "Mr. Hunn says that with the temperature 100 in the shade, he never saw a horse sweat freely while he was there. "The recognized grand master of the trainers is Frazier, who came from Australia. Frazier tried hard to introduce Australian methods, but had to give it up. The crack sire at present is the English bred horse Orbit. "The purses and added money is on a more liberal scale than with ub, ranging from ,000 to ,500 in American money. No purse is less than ,000. Notwithstanding the crude system of training and the execrable riding, Mr. Hunn timed miles in 1:121. "In regard to the chanceB for an outsider to go there with a stable and race successfully," said Mr. Hunn, "it could ba done, as with a fair boy their jockeys would not be in it. With such a helter-skelter lot of halfbreeds, however, I would have some doubts as to an outside jockey getting a fair show after he had beaten them a few times; otherwise, with a few useful horses, a lot of money could be made. A feature worth mentioning is that their racing rules bar geldings, no sexless animals being allowed to race."
