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A NEW STARTING DEVICE. Concerning a starting machine or "gate" novel in design that was tested at St. Louis Fair Grounds last Sunday the Republic of Monday sa s : "J. F. Carrs new and elaborate starting gate was given a thorough test at the Fair Grounds yesterday morning in the presence of 500 spectators. The new gate contains sixteen stalls and each stall has a separate barrier, all of which are released simultaneously by an electric device. Nine horses were used in Sundays trial. "Mr. Carr operated the machine him?elf, and secured a lot of bad actors to work with. He had Peter Duryea, Belle Simpson, Linden Ella, Bush-nell and Lococliee in the bunch of nine. The first start was a perfect one. The entire nino horses broke away from the machine in perfect alignment, and all hands cheered enthusiastically. "The second time the field was sent away Bush-nell, a bad actor, smashed the barrier in front of his cage and was pulled up by his rider. The other eight horses went away abreast to a perfect send-off. The hortes used in Sundays trial were ridden by inexperienced stable boys. "President Tilles, Secretary Hachmeister, Starter Dade and L. A Cella were on hand to see the machineoporated, and all of them were, pieased with the trial. "Secretary Hachmeister has decided to give the machine a public trial next Tuesday, when it will be used to ttart a field of three-year-olds and upward at one mile and twenty yards. This race is for horses that have started threo times in 1932, and have not won two races since December 21, 1901. "It is expected that a large field of horses will enter for this race and the management has taken Mr. Carr at his word, and will let sixteen horses go to the post. One decided advantage of the new machine is that it offers every protection against bad actors injuring any other horse in the field. The stalls in which the horses are confined aro padded, and it :s almost impossible for the animals to injure themselves while locked in them. "The model used in yesterdays trial is not perfect by any means. Mr. Carr is only using it to illustrate the practicability of the idea. As soon as he demonstrates this fact thorouehly, he intends to build another machine that will be much lighter and easier to handle. " Mr. Carrs gate is at once simple and elaborate. In general outline it looks like one of thoso light iron foot bridges they throw across streams in parks. From the high stringers overhead are dropped the steel divisions, which make stalls for each horso. The horse is put in the narrow stall and the individual barrier hitched in front of him. When the starter gets them all ready ho presses the button just as he does now. This releases each barrier instantly and they are off. The stalls then fold up against the body of the machine and the entire affair is swung to the rail and off the track. It is drawn from one starting point to another by four horses. The machine worked splendidly yesterday. Only one objection was urged to it. The 1 cause of that objection should be vory easily removed. . It was that tho affair was too heavy to be 1 moved with ease, espscially on a muddy track. Mr. 1 . 1 Carr says that the weight can be reduced from 5,000. its pesent weight, to 1,500 pounds. "There is scarce a doubt that when the machine is used on the breeding farms and on the race tracks to school tho two-year-olds to its peculiarities it will be a perfect method of starting. Its stalls, crossbeams, stringers, etc., may worry green horses at first, though it did not do so yesterday. It prevents all false breaks, turning, twisting, kick- ing, crowding, crossing, etc., at the start, will save 1 horses, and in every way should prove a boon just as soon as it is made lighter, and the horses are schooled to it. "Mr. Carr has probably done more than any one man to prove that the form of racehorses is a real and tangibe. thing, not myth that owners, trainers and jockeys would have innocent bystanders believe. By his purchase and use of the mares Brulare and Linden Ella, he has shown that horses, even when they eD joy a reputation for inconsistency and lack of form, will run as true as a die day after day, when they are in condition, and will only reverse form when they, grow stale and sick, and that poor form will be of some duration, not a thin? of from one race at short odds to another race and long odds. "His starting machine seems destined to succeed. But in order that it bo given a fair trial, in order that horses be run on their merits, in order that bookmakers, owners, trainers, jockeys and the public bo given an even break, Mr. Carr should supplement his invention with what might be known as The Judges Stable. This would bo a big stable of say seventy stalls, each twelve stalls watched by a capable, trustworthy man. The rules should provide that every horse entered iu a race should be placed in this stable at least two hours before noon of the day he raced. Thus the horse would be in the hands of the judges long enough for their men to see that he would be properly fed and cared for and not given any speed accelerant. With such a stable to supplement Mr. Carrs gate racing would become a rathor certain and stable medium of financial speculation. "The use and disuse of what is known as dope and hop has become a national disgrace to the Amorican turf. Medicinal preparations to accaler ate sped, to maEe sulky horses run, to make sore and stiff and unwilling horses forget their bodily ills, have been used to a greater extent than ever this season by the trainers of the great millionaire owners of the east as well as by the poor one-horse owners of the west. It is tho uso and disuse of the stimulants that is responsible for reversals of form. When a horse accustomed to the stimulant is given it he runs well. When he is not given it, he does not run well. "Judges confess themselves unable to cope with the evil, because they cannot detect offenders using stimulants. The dope is given in the extreme privacy of the private stable, just prioi to bringing the horso to the saddling paddock. By taking tho horses from the private stables to the judges stable before noon, by seeing them properly cared for afcd watching tham while in the stable, the use" of dope iwould be largely prevented, the turf ele-, vated anand everyone served."
