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PERPLEXITIES OF RACING. The activity of Judges Murphy and Price and the board of stewards at the current Fair Grounds meeting and their earnest efforts to check anything like sharp practice on the part of horsemen or jockeys has met with the kindliest comment on all hands. Of course, many-are inclined to bo critical, and claim that the measures taken are not severe enough, and that they do not get at the root of sucli evil as does exist. While this is true, to a certain extent, it should be remembered that the most difficult thing in the world to prove is fraud in a horse race. A person may be morally certain that this, that or the other horse is not ridden to win or is stimulated by some prescribed drug, but a horse is morally uncertain, and the accused person can always produce a string of natural causes which could easily account for what looks bad. There are such an infinite number of things which can affect the result of a horse race that no man can feel certain as to tha causes which bring about the defeat of one horse or the success of another. A bad ride can be detected, but the culpability of the jockey is open U doubt. He may be a good boy and ride an exceptionally bad race with the most honest intention in the world. For instance, he may be instructed to watch a particular horse, and tc lay back until that horse starts for the front and to go up with him. That particular horse may meet with all sorts of trouble. He nay get off bad and be interfered with, and the other boy, waiting for him to come up, all unaware of what is happening behind him. may wait to long and get beaten. A case in point was in the Club Members Handicap, recently run at the Fair Grounds. No one doubts that Tommy Burns and Charlie Vandusen. riding, respectively, Sam Phillips and Pink Coat, the two choices, were extremely-anxious to win. Both are capable riders, yet both rode very bad races and were beaten in consequence. Burns, thinking he had only Pink Coat to beat, held back for the sole purpose of keeping Pink Coat in the worst going and he waited too long. When he set his horse down to go after Pinochle and Found, he found himself so far behind that he could not begin to make up the gap. Under all these circumstances, the difficulty of a judicial posi-t ion can be appreciated. That prompt action has been taken in every case in which the officials felt convinced something was wrong can not be questioned and the effect has naturally-been good. — St. Louis Sporting News.
