Jockey Mahers Suspension, Daily Racing Form, 1899-10-05

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j j j j j JOCKEY in All UKS SUSPENSION. As all who keep tiackef the affairs of the turf know jockey Maher wa3 suspended at Brooklyn last Friday for what saemed to be a suspicious ride on the favorite Peep ODay. This horse has since ran fully as indifferent a race with less weight and another jockey up, but the stewards of the Jockey Club still hold Maher under suspension and are conducting a searching private investigation, concerning which an Eastern writer says : "Ihe mere suspension of Maher is not in itself of so graat importance as the more or less general feeling among racing men that this particular action is only the mere beginning of a somewhat gigantic house-cleaning task which tho stewards of the Jockey Club have set themselves to accomplish. It is averred that the stewards have edtfence against two of tho biggest and most prominent layers of odds in the Metropolitan Turf Association, that one of these is c rtain to go with Maher, and that the other will bo mighty lucky to escape with a whole skin from the determined clntchos of the racing authorities. "Farther, it is said that the Jockey Club has been busy for a fortnight past not only in tracing these but other alleges connections bat eon ihe betting fraternity and some other well-known riders, such as Claweon, for example, and altogether, if one may balieve all the busy talk to be heard floating around, tha turf fabric of the east is about to receive the impact of a gigantic uhell that may knock it to smithereens. It is a remedy, so many of the big men of racing say, that will either kill or cure, and not a few believe that it will have fatal instead of beneficial results. "If Meher is guilty of fraudulent riding, of coarse Maher should be deprived of the opportunity to do any further riding here or abroad. How much further the Jockey Club can go, if there is reason why it Bhould go further, is a matter that must rest largely in the discretion of the Jockey Club.- 8oma men whose names have bjen whispered about as likely to feel the displeasure of tho Jockey Club are men of wealth and strong political backing. Mon there are connected with racing, outside Jockey Club circles, who wield vast political influence in the city and state. "Wherever the present alleged trail of fraud may had to, ana whatever course the Jockey Club may pursue in dealing with it, there is no getting away from tho indubitable bilief that the bulk of tho troubles which now seem to be impending over the turf world, might have been avoided, and should have bsen avoided, and would have been avoided if the right men were at the head of the practical administrate n of racing affairs. Through incompetent racing ste ards the turf for tho past two yoars has boan afflicted with an amount of mismanagement that would have ruined any commercial enterprise in half the time. "The racing stewards, men like Mr. Galway, Mr. Miller, Mr. Kaapp and Mr Hitchcock, no doubt have the interests of racing at heart and I mean well, but when that is said about all is said as to thoir fitness to manage racing. If the stowards were live, energetic men, with sufficient knowledge of Tacing to qualify them j for the pesitions, they would long ago have I nipped in the bad big scandals that now threaten the turf. Evidences of the incapacity cf the stewards multiply on every occasion, j They do not look after the details of racing as thoy should do anywhere unlesa it may ba at Brighton Beach. "If thoy nid, they would not have allowed, for example, horses to go to the post in the condition that Abuse and St. Clair both were a few days ago. If they had knowledge as to what might be going on under thoir immediate observation they would have used measures to prevent many of the bad-looking rides at Sheepabead Bay and Gravesend. On some recent occasions evidence has been plentiful bsfore races were run that certain horses might be expected to develop undesirable changes of form. If tho stewards were observant enough to know this, why were not owners and trainers and jockeys cautioned? When bad rides hive been perpetrated, why has not punishment beeu prompt, swift and sure, instead of allowing a whole lot of disagreeable occurrences to pile up into a mountain that now seems to threaten the entire racing fabric?"


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1890s/drf1899100501/drf1899100501_1_4
Local Identifier: drf1899100501_1_4
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800