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SID BERRYS PHILOSOPHY. Sid Berry, the veteran horseman, has sold out and is going to quit the game. Berry began his racing career about thirty years ago and has been a prominent figure "in Xew Orleans racing for the past lifteen years. When the old Fair Grounds was opened under the management of Charles Bush, Berry brought his stable from Lexington, Ky., to the Fair. Grounds. He had foarteen head at that time, auiong them Princess Fonso, Sir Planet, Kex-setta, Koseyota and the like. The first meeting tinder the management of Mr. Bush was conducted with less than 150 head of horses, says the Xew Orleans Picayune. Berry continued to run at the Fair Grounds each season until 1900, when he retired to his home at Mobile. Last year the old spirit became so strong that he returned to his old love and since his return has had Incubator, George C. Graddy and Corinne, all three of these having carried off purses for him, and when asked why he was about to retire under such circumstances, he said: "My dear boy, the future docs not look good to me, and as Corinne is barred from City Park on account of having raced at the Louisiana Driving Park, I do not care to invest in any more horses just for the racing here this winter. They will race the 100 days, but after that whats to become of them? Xo, the game aint like It used to be. "Is It not a fact," asked the reporter, "that these one-half-mile tracks and small meetings have caused public sentiment against racing V "Well, to a certain extent, but not altogether. Since my arrival here three weeks ago I Jiave learned that the manager and several horsemen at the Louisiana Driving Park were ruled off bv the City Park Jockey Club, but is it not a fact that there are now some half a dozen or more horsemen in good standing at the big tracks that have been ruled off for doing things equally as bad? "I am not in favor of half-mile tracks, but I think the cause is more to blame than the evil. If you will go back to the beginning you will find that the Western Jockey Club is the cause of these half-mile tracks and Jim Crow meetings. The jockey club adopted the rule that all trainers should pay 3 per year for a license. Everybody was invited" to become a trainer. It was no more trouble to get a trainers license for 15 than to buy a glass of beer, with a nickel. The consequence was that hundreds began to think they were trainers, and as soon as they would get their license they would look up a horse, and get busy. So long as the game was going at St. Louis and Chicago it was all right, as. the managers wanted plenty of material to gamble -with, but when the deluge came and they could not use these, they were given the marble heart. Xow, if this same jockey club had the right to manufacture these men and take their .money for years, they had a right to let them down as easy as possible. I have no sympathy with this poor owner talk the turf is no place for paupers. . A man who is not a natnral-horn horseman and cannot dig when the circumstances demand it, should be in some other business.
