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i i i i FEATURES OF THE MARRONE CASE. C C Evidence Tending to Show Over-Hasty Action by the Stewards. y Washington. D. C, November 24. In the pursuit of my duty as representative of New Yorks great paper, the Herald, It was my good fortune to be present late last night at one of the most striking fi examinations of a racer ever participated in. loseph Marrone, who for more than twenty years las raced on the metropolitan turf, was charged by the stewards of the Washington Jockey Club with either knowing of or being a party to artificially stimulating the well-known former Corrlgan gelding, St. Joseph, which for two years ,past had been raced by M. J. Daly. The gelding was bought r it the Empire City meeting by .Marrone, who forth- a with won two races with him. Since then he has e had the usual vicissitudes of a cheap and unreliable a selling plater. lie had run once before at the s current Kenning meeting, ridden by Notter, the s best jockey at the track, and was backed to beat J so useful a racer as Oraculum. He ran fairly well for a half mile, and then died away. 11 Yesterday with Frank Bergen, son of the late A famous jockey, "Marty" Hergen, up. St. Joseph t ran in the first race, was at 30 to 1 in the betting, a went to the post at 25 to 1, and after showing speed for nearly a half mile he died out of the con- 1 tentlon. He had been so unruly iu the paddock s that the representatives of the Jockey Club sus- i pected the presence of an artificial stimulant, and t after the race the gelding was ordered into the s hands of Dr. Lagrange, the regular Jockey Clubs 1 veterinarian, who is ou duty at every track in the i eastern circuit. In presence of Marrone the gelding was sub i mitted to tess usually employed to prove the pres- 1 ence of the "dope," and upon the veterinarians report, necessarily a hurried one, the stewards i ordered Marrones badge taken up. Naturally the I man was greatly perturbed, but he did not lose 1 his head. fie offered to pay the stewards all the expenses of a complete, lengthy, and carefully 1 made examination of St. Joseph to be made at 1 once, and thus prove to their satisfaction that the hasty inspection was not a thorough test. He solemnly asserted his innocence, claimed that the racer had shown temper because he was kept in a stall in the rear of the paddock instead of facing the crowd, and declared that the unruly manifes- tations were only the result of a nervous, high-strung horse knowing he was about to be raced would show, especially after a blanket had been strapped around his body and he was galloped through the stretch in a preliminary. The stewards would not take advantage of Mar- j rones sincere offer, however, and under ordinary , circumstances the matter might be left to take Its course. But Marrone is not an ordinary man. He has a violent temper, which he with difficulty controlled, and he determined to protect his good , name in his own way. Summoning to his aid two of the best veterln-. aries in Washington, Doctors Robinson and Lock-, wood, the former dean of the Veterinary College here, which has more than 100 students to whom , he lectures frequently, and both men evidently past masters in their profession, none rating higher, Marrone sought out several newspaper men with the object of having them as witnesses to the examination of St. Joseph. Only one was available at that hour 9 oclock and your correspondent Is that man. The trip to the stables near the track was made in an automobile hired for the occasion by Marrone, and the night was the most cheerless that I ever encountered. From 9 oclock till nearly eleven, or fully two hours, the two vcterinaries put the racer through all sorts of physical examinations. His heart-beats were timed, his eyes were examined with the llame , of a candle, all other lights having been put out . for this purpose, and then nearly two hours after we first saw the horse the freshly deposited fecal exhibits were closely examined. Dr. Robinson evinced great interest in this, for a large part of It was the membrane of the lining of the bowels, while the deposits themselves were caked like giant i capsules. They were covered with mucous, and . the veterinarian declared that this, with other evi-- donee of the state of the bowels, convinced him that St. Joseph had narrowly escaped an attack of 1 pneumonia, probably due to his shipment from New ;! York the week preceding. It was irrefutable evidence, both veterinarians 3 declared, of the racers physical unfitness. They asserted that the intestines, to the extent . of at least thirty feet, were filled with these mucous-covered hard balls, and that it was no wonder St. Joseph did not here run up to his best form. The bowels contents were conveyed away safely to be shown to Dr. Lagrange, the two vet-5 crinaries having agreed to see him before they . would give to Mr. .Marrone the certificate which to ordinary minds would fully account for the horses erratic behavior. It was a revelation to 0 The whole transaction thus far goes to show upon what a slender reed the good name of any horseman may rest. When horses do not perform ,. consistently, betting men, who by the very fact r tfiat they have bet should not attempt to dictate 0 to the officials, demand the punishment of some t one either owner, trainer or jockey. I have no s doubt that officials in every part of the country jj have at some time or other done injustice to some r unfortunate, simply because his horse or horses had not run better than his physical ailment would e permit. Do you not recall the fact that after the ,2 death of Mr. Cassatts Lurus, a giant tumor was Continued on second page. FEATURES OF THE MARRONE CASE. Continued from first page. found in his body? Lurus was noted at times for his propensity 1o swerve and run anyway . but straight on. There have been hundreds of instances of horses of less fame falling to run true, and no one could account for it. To satisfy public clamor, the stewards arbitrarily order the entries of this, that, or the other man refused because of the in-an-out running of their horses. As a matter of fact, some people do not know what in-an-out running really is. During the recent Jamaica meeting Faust ran three races almost exactly true to form when the difference in weight and pace-making Is considered. On October 21 he was about two lengths behind Gretna Green at a difference of seven pounds. He was just outside the money. October 23, after Gretna Green had carried on a good deal of the running, he was beaten a head by Faust at a difference of eleven pounds. If Gretna Green had been ridden a waiting race he would have won. October 20, Gretna Green, 109 pounds, finished a length in front of Faust, 103 pounds, but Master Robert won after a phenomenal race. Now, here were three races run as true as horseflesh . can be made to do, and yet some of the turf writers assailed Faust as a rank in-an-outer. It is the same class of critics that is clamoring for the appointment of a board of professional stewards to replace well-balanced men who have faith in the honesty of the average man, who, out of the experience of long lives as owners know the ills of horseilesh and are always willing to give the benefit of the doubt. As a matter of fact, there are the gentlemen constantly acting as stewards who are professionals in my belief, viz., W. S. Vosburgh and II. J. Morris. Both these are well-balanced men for the position, yet the howl goes up for professional stewards. The great deterrent to the establishment of a Board of Stewards is, track owners say, the ever-present fear that professionals are over-zealous and under the proddings of the turf writers would be prone to do great injustice to an owner, just as may be done in the case of Marrone and other instances. Until there may appear on the scene men of sufficient experience, combined with strength of character sufficient to resist public clamor when misdirected, there will be no full board of professional stewards appointed to take up the onerous duties of trying to prevent or punish fraud which exists only in the fevered minds of unstrung race-goers. J. J. Burke.
