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AUGUST BELMONTS RACING IDEAS. No Alarmist Over the So-called Moral Aspect of Betting In the course of a recent interview with August Belmont about racing, Julian Hawthorne quotes him as follows: "I have suggested that the government establish out west farms for the breeding of thoroughbreds; for the thoroughbred is not only the horse which mos quicklv matures, and is consequently valuable to the farmer to whom it makes some difference whether his stock is at its best in four years or in five but the thoroughbred is also the most enduring animal. He outlasts the unbred horse. There is great commercial value in these facts, but the government has not as yet taken such action as would show that it appreciates them." "Are racers, then, long-lived?" I inquired. "Not perhaps as racers which are continually on the track," Mr. Belmont replied: "any animal will wear out if constantly pushed to its limit: but in quality they are more enduring, and If handled with proper care they will show it. The same is true of trotting horses as of racers; they are better animals in every respect, and better repay raising. And we in this country would never have produced the trotter, had not the English previously produced the racer. If we were to cease raising thoroughbreds for racing, we should suffer greatly in the "deterioration of the breed, and the only way to raise thoroughbreds is to race them." "But what is your opinion about betting on horse racing V" Mr. Belmont smiled; he has a smile that is by no means broad, but contains meanings, more or less of a humorous and satirical sort. "There has alwavs been betting and always will be," he said. "So far as the race track is concerned, it seems better that wagers should be laid in the open than -otherwise; if a man is apt to forget himself in liquor, it seems best to keep him in the open street; he will be less apt to forget himself there than in private. A man has his opinion upon a race, and he is disposed to back it with Ills mouey. But in my view only a small percentage of people who attend races do bet to any visible extent. 1 should say that not more than ten per cent bet, and the remainder of the persons who attend have some right to be considered. It is said that I never bet; I will not say that; I have made bets; lmt I do not care about it; that instinct has been left out of my head for some reason; 1 do not place my abstinence on any oilier ground. Besides, my position as a racing manager makes it expedient that I should not be a bettor; cases are liable to be called before me. and if I were a bettor It might iulluence my decision; it is as necessary that a man should not lean too far backward as that he should not incline in the other direction; the thing for him is to be upright. But upon the whole my idea is that we cannot control or root out qualities in our nature which have always been there, and which, on most accounts, it would be a -reat misfortune to be without. This would be a verv tiresome world if the quality in us which may show itself in making bets upon occasion, were left out of us entirely." Mr. Belmont had many matters to attend to, and seemed to think that he .had outlined his attitude on tills theme sutliciently. I got the impression that he does not take an alarmist view of the moral aspects of horse racing; that he thinks Its evils are exaggerated, and that, such as they are. tliev are outweighed by manifest advantages arising from the sport.
