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AX EASTERN OPINION". 8. B. Weems of tho New York Morning Telegraph took in western racing last winter, spring and up to midsummer. In the course of tbat time he witnessed racing at New Orleans, Memphis, Louisville, Latonia and Chicago. In a recent article he gives his impressions as to the Btatus of the sport in the west in the following terms : "Bacing in the west is looking up and is bound to continue to improve just as it has improved in the east until they get back to the old basis of a dczen years ago out there, when they I had thirty or forty books on at Latonia and the betting at that track was of as big volume as at any other point in the country. But the development of the sport in the west must in the nature of things be much slower than here. And it will necessarily have to be on different lines. In the east the sport is confined to a limited area New York state so that all the authorities had to do at the outset was to secure legislation in one commonwealth endowing them with powers to manage the sport. "Out west some different mode of procedure will have to be adopted if aDy single body of men are to have control of the allotment of dat03, turf discipline, etc., because legislation would bs needed in each of five or six different states. On the face of things it is evident that the western people will have to get together cn Borne othor basis than that of ironclad legislation. They will have to meet on a give and take plan, as a business proposition, much as the Jockey Club is now doing, in contradistinction to the autocratic methods of the old board of control. That the west will ultimately do this there is every reason to believe, and in the meantime out west is not a bad place to race for the owners of moderate class animals that have no possible chance to earn feed bills here. "The disposition is manifest in the big cities of the west to patronize high-claBs racing, and tbat is the best guarantee in the world that sooner or later the west will again have its important and attractive turf fixtures, its good horses and its good racing. Memphis is already solving the problem in a way that is setting tho other cities of the west to thinking. At Memphis tbe society people have taken hold of racing. They have a neat, comfortable little club house at the track, and a Country Club as k sort of adjunct to the Jockey Clnb. The society people can go to the races and enjoy the comforts and conveniences of the club house, or tbey can be more democratic and patronize the grandBtand, as many of them do. "The Country Club has a very large member-, ship and is more than self-sustaining. Its advantage to tbe Jockey Club is that it helps to draw the society element. Not much effort is needed in that direction at Memphis, however, for the Jockey Club there is one of the institutions of the town. The first thing you learn when you get to the Bluff City is that Memphis is the greatest inland cotton market in the world, and tbat it has the best racing in America. I dont know much about the cotton end of the proposition, but so far as the racing goes I reckon tbe Memphians are about right. "What has been done at Memphis in this respect might bo accomplished at New Orleans, St. Loui, Louisvillo, Cincinnati and Chicago. Eventually it will be accomplished, warring factions to the contrary notwithstanding. "As it is, racing out west is not so bad. Of course they have not got the high-class horses nor the uniform big crowds and brisk batting that prevails here. But they have a fairly good sprinkling of class in their few remaining classic events, such as the Oaks and Derbys, etc., since the discarding of syndicate book-making Iand this year tho game is, on the whole, as good as could be expected under the circumstances. Of course the purses are small, which is to be regretted, for liberal purees are essential to good, clean racing. "But at that, any owner of a few horses that show form here, but are not quite good enough to win expenses, would have a chance out there, especially if he were fixed financially bo that he could bide his time and do a little betting on his own horEes. There is considerable rot in all that one hears about in and out running in tbe west. It is my observation that horses run juBt about as true to form there aB they do anywhere else. "As to betting, western racing ought to be a paradise for tbe intelligent piker. The odds there are far more liberal on favorites than here, because the play is in email amounts and is much more diversified than here. At the big metropolitan tracks the bulk of the money generally goes on not more than two horses in a race. Out west there is very little big betting plunging and tho money is fairly well divided up on nearly all the starters. It is very rare, that a horse ont west goes to the post at shorter odds than 7 to 10. Undor conditions here, where the favorite would be at 1 to 2 or 1 to 3, the small bettor can ofttimes get as much as 7 to 5 or 2 to 1 against bis money. "That makes the game a profitable one to the small player if he is diligent and intelligent in his botting methods. It is also to the advantage of the small owner who may want to bet not more than a hundred dollars or two, as he will get a price against his money, whereas here all the price would be gobbled up by the plungers, the cormorants of the ring. Therefore it can be eeen that western sport has ita desirable as well as its undesirable features. With the opening of fall stakes at Latonia it looks as though the meeting there may be a successful one, and with such favorable conditions Latonia ought to afford a good stopping place to stables en ioute from this section to New Orleans for the Eeason of winter racing."
