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TIME ALLOWANCES. The stumbling block of tha young handi capper and for the old handicappor in many CBB8B is what is known as "Time." This is supposed to show how fast a raco is run, and it doos so jnst so far as tho actual result is concerned, but the time hung up on thg official board for six furloogs, is not correct, inasmuch as tho winner frequently travels con-eiderably further, but novar less than the specified distance. Handicappers take it for granted that it is six furlongs flat, and thus make costly errors. "lime" on this basis is a mistake and a fallacy, a hidebound superstition .handed down to us from the past. We, in America, have overrated time just as much as the European people have underrated it, and our fault is worse than theirs. They made fewer mistakes, even if, occasionally, they did not get quite so close to what a horse could really do. They seldom credited him with doing less on performance than accomplished. We do thiB repeatedly. Many horses are credited with a mile in 1:43 when they have covered a mile, and from three to twelve yards further. In estimating the chances of certain horses in a race, the records are closely looked into, and, say, that it is found that the horse to figure best is shown at 101, while the second best animal figures at 102 per cent. This is very close. Say the last race was at a mile, and these animals ran first and second, half a length between them at corresponding weights, the race being run on an eliptic or two turn track. Both broke well and the winner went out a length in the lead. Near-ing the first turn, the second horse drew up to him, and turned the curve lapped, his head at the leaders saddle girth. Thus they raced up the backstretch. At the last turn there was little difference, except that the half length became a length bb the stretch was reached, both in a hard drive come to the finish. The Becond horse gains slightly, but cannot quite get up, and is beaten half a length, both all out. There is the situation! The average handicapper says: "Urn, mile 1:43, same weights, same jockeys, same conditions a id track, A four pound beating !" This is a mistake! Taking the Sheepshead Bay track eliptic as a sample, the lower .turn covered a gjjd furlong or 220 yards, the upper turn about same distance. The distance of a race is measured about three feet from the inner rail, where a "horse would naturally run. A horse running lapped on a rail horse makes these turns at leas! four feet further out, and if the distance traveled was measured it would be found that the outer horse, at each tun, went from eighteen to twenty-four feet further than the horee on the rail. A mile in 1:43 is a trifle over fifty-one feet to a second 5,280 feet in 103 seconds and if the outBide horse traveled a matter of even thirty-six feet further than the win-ner, his time should be 1:421-3, which would beat the winner twenty-seven feet or roughly -throe lengths and a half. If the Becond race is run under the same circumstances, but with the outside horse on the rail, this will be the inevitable result. At Morris Park and all tracks where the turns are purposely made very wide, this ium is still more decided and effective. This is only one feature of "time" vagaries. A horse may finish well up, yet be fifth or sixth to get away from the post. The handicapper will allow for that all right, but he will not allow for the fact that he, in all probability, runs "round his field" on the turn to the stretch, where three or four horses are trying to get up, and in having to swing very wide, makes the turn nearer the canter of track than anywhere else, and thus travels nearly twenty yards furthor than horses placed at the finish. Next time he is more fortunate, wins, and there arises a howl of "reversal of form." These are the items which give jockeys reputations and also injure them. On October 25, at Morris Park, Honolulu led round the turn one length in front of Trump which was two lengths in front of Bose of May. Tramp swung wide, and in twenty yards Boss of May was within half a length. Making the same turn, May 21, Ten Candles, ridden by Mr. Paget, ran into the lead rounding the turn, ran wide, almost across to the outer rail, the four other horses went past him, and only under a terrific drive did Ten Candles get up and win. A tape placed on the track shows that he lost just fifteen lengths. Yet the chart reads "Ten Candles 4, 1, 3, S, 3, 1" and the time 1:46 for the Withers Mile represents one mile and fifty yards. In still another case, on the straight Eclipse track, Amicitia, ridden by Mounce, waB pocketed, right in the center of track Luciline, Gunfire and Hanover Queen, heads apart, flanked on the right by The Hoyden and on the left by Velloda. It was two furlongs from home, he had no hope of getting through, so ho deliberately pulled back and out, coming on the extreme outside and won by a neck. The official chart says nothing of all this, time 55g. What about Amicitia? Many handicappers throw all straight races out of "their calculations because of the, time bssiB being so widely different, and it is an accepted fact that on a straight course with the wind blowing ten miles an hour at tho back of the horses, from two to four seconds better time will be made than with a wind of the same pressure in front of the horses heads. This haB to be reckoned with. To allow from three to four Beconds for the difference in time on a straight six furlongs and an eliptic six furlongs, however, cannot be indorsed. At the outside, if actual times are taken for fifty races and averaged, there is not more than two seconds shown in the last two yearB. If the races averaged were only thoee with moderate wind, it would be found that between such a race and one timed on the eliptic to a horse running on the rail all the way there would be very little difference. The four seconds off for a wind driven straight record, and the two to four seconds on for an eliptic runner which had to run lapped some part of the distance or turn wide if these are included in the average makes a problem too abtruse for ordinary use. Many good handicappers today are realizing this fact, and whilo taking time for a basis of calculation, they are supplementing it with personal observation and copious personal notes for future reference. They take the ordinary chart, cut it into sections, each of- one race, and paste these in a book, with an inch or more of space between. Here is, written the personal observations, which time and again place the heaviest possible discount on the figures given by the old fashioned consideration of "time" only. This was first done by bookmakers, who after all are the closest handicappers, we have, and when it leaked out it was incorporated in the charts published in various papers. Its great importance is shown in the steadily increasing space awarded in those charts, and any racing man muBt readily see that, well as this may be done for wages, it will never be done so well as when done personally, as a vitally important business factor. This clearly explains why we so often hear of a horse "breaking the watch" in. his work and running nowhere in the race he was expectMj win. He is taken out to a clear track, hiMM ble mate goes out to rate him along to orders. There is no delay, no fractionsnessat the start; They just lope along and as they pass a given point both boys, mind, trying to get a fairly even break away they go. Each boy knows tho rate at which he is ordered to travel, both try to oboy because the trainer is right there with them, trie race is run under ideal circumstances, just as arranged, and there is, possibly, a broken record in sight. Based on "time" of course ! In trie actual race there is any amount of fretful behavior at tho post, when a start is made some crazy 1C0 to 1 shot may go rushing out at a two-furlongand-die clip, there may be some bumping, pocketing or what not, and the crack performer "past posts" is beaten. He did not run up to his work, simply because conditions were totally different. King Hanover was a case in point this fall. In hiB work at Bheepahead he waB acknowledged to have done some of the fastest work of the. year. It was done under the beat circumstances. It made him a strong favorite in the Matron Stakes of $"0,000, but with what result. Down the Eclipse hill, with a rise to the finish, he was never better than third at tho first quarter, and ridden by Burns, dropped back, fourth, fifth, to finish sixth, six lengths and a neck behind the winner in 1:11, the best two-yoar old record over the course being 1:09 with six pounds extra up. Whiskey King beat him four lengths. In the Nursery Handicap Qvor the same course a few days later, ridden by Turner, King Hanover and Whiskey King were off neck and nock, and at the finish King Hanovor was going away, well in hand, never pushed. There he ran fairly up to his work. Spirit of the Times.
