view raw text
BIG SLUMP IN WINNING FAVORITES. Bad Going in the East and Poor Horses in the West the Primary Reasons. The complaint of betting people both east and west that this is a bad year for! favorites is fully sustained by the figures, but nine out of every ten who have given expression to their thoughts on this subject are wide of the mark as to the reason. The figures show that the percentage of winning favorites is about five points below normal, and a careful analysis of the racing shows that this is due to two causes bad tracks and poor horses. The first-named cause applies more especially to the east and the latter to the west, Latonia in particular. The best horses in this section have been sifted out and shipped east. To- and including June 27, 3,3.",0 races were run this year, and only 1,377 favorites won. This Is. a shade under thirty-nine per cent of winning first choices, while about forty-four ptfr cent is normal. The greatest slump has been at Latonia, where only twenty-five per cent of the favorites have won. Latonia has had some bad weather, but the trouble there is due more than anything else to poor horses, just as it was at Oakland for the last three months of the long meeting. During January, February and .March there were only three days on which the track vas fast at Oakland, yet thirty-eight per cent of the favorites won. Around the first or April the best of the horses began to leave for the tracks In the east and only the cheaper variety were left to make the racing, and the result was that with mud on only three days in April, May and June only thirty-three per cent of favorites won. From the opening of the season at Aqueduct, April 15, to June 27 at Sheepshead Bay, 395 races were run iu the east and 155 first choices won, a shade over thirty-nine per cent. The only track that was up to normal was Jamaica, with forty-nine per cent. This course encountered some bad weather, but not so much of it as the others and again it is said to have better drainage and to dry out more rapidly than some of the larger plants about New York. But there is no getting away from the fact that bad going in the east and poor horses in the west are the primary causes for the slump. Here are the figures to and including the racing of June 27: ax Os ?3 ? Sjj : c2 So 2E Si 11 2o , Tracks. ; n 5 2.3 c o 2 S " to o r" ; . a 0 r- Oakland S04 321 i77 390 .30 Ascot Park 4C.C IPS OS 170 .42 Fair Grounds 23S 102 51 S5 .43 City Park 335 147 72 110 .44 Oaklawn 2SS 114 03 111 .40 New Louisiana 42 20 S 14 .48 Kenning 10S 47 19 42 .44 Aqueduct 00 25 1 1 24 .42 Pimlico S7 33 21 33 .3S Jamaica OS 3:. 12 23 .4!! Lexington 42 11 It 20 .20 Churchill Downs ...IS.". 00 35 SS .33 Belmont Park 54 21 12 21 .39 Toronto S5 37 IS 30 .44 Gravesend 3S 12 4 22 .32 Belmont Park 55 21 11 23 .3S Hamilton OS 31 7 27 .50 Montreal 09 27 IS 24 .39 Gravesend 70 30 10 30 .39 Latonia 90 24 35 37 - .25 Buffalo 00 22 10 2S .33 AVindsor OS 25 15 2S .37 Sheepshead Bay .... 44 13 9 " 22 .30 Totals 3,530 1,377 739 1,414 .39 ,
