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AMERICAN ARMY IN NEED OF THOROUGHBRED BLOOD August Belmont, in Thoughtful Address at Sportsmens Dinner, Points Out Remedy for Embarrassing Situation That Has Developed 4 : i August Belmont, chairman of the Jockey Club and of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association, made many telling points in the address which he delivered at the sportsmens dinner at New York Wednesday night. Mr. Belmont set forth more clearly than the subject has ever before been presented the deplorable lack of material in this country for the replenishment of army mounts and the embarrasing situation in which the United States would be placed in the event of an extraordinary demand for horses for war purposes. He pointed out the desirability of encouraging the breeding of the thoroughbred horse from an e.cenomic standpoint, aside from fill other considerations, and his offer to present stallions valued at 00,-000 or more to the War Department as the nucleus of a national breeding bureau was received with surprise and pleasure. Mr. Belmonts address Jn full is reproduced lor the Iwuelit of Daily Racing Form readers and is as follows: "Gentlemen and Fellow Sportsmen: "I feel great pride and satisfaction in rising to address you. as. I contemplate the .character and size of this gathering. - You have certainly rescinded eagerly to the call, issued by Harry W. Smith, as good a sportsman as the best of us, and with the energy of a. dozen of us. His purpose in organizing this dinner, after conferring with representative sportsmen, is the beginning of an annual banquet for all who are interested in sports, of which the horse is either the vehicle or motive. A misconception, however, crept into the press regarding our object, and may possibly have lodged in the public mind. That there may be no misunderstanding, let me, at the outset, state that our gathering lias not. the remotest connection with any movement looking to legal relief for horse racing, or appeals to our lawmakers for enabling legislation. "Convinced as we are that our cause is a common one, we are gathered, here tonight, as I interpret It. to promote, by means of friendly intercourse, every healthy, clean and invigprating sport where the horse plays a part. "Show- me a real lover of a horse who will not pass that love on when the opportunity presents itself to all other dumb, animals. His is a good school in which to mold a tender heart, a firm but indulgent will, a steady nerve and character that knows and practises fair giving and fair taking, and last but not least a courage that will serve loyally friend or country; iJThat-isfatrivr rtfitnj clrai-nrfer PTrm giving to the horsemen, and you might think there was no fault to find with him or advice to give him. There is. however, sohie orifothfor Mm. Eneh one has been prone to look upon his own special form of pleasure h4aparrfroirpdtTct eo-rc-lated to those of other horse lovers, and today, when machinery and the harnessed forces of nature, added to narrow prejudices, are pressing him hard in many directions, he is unprepared with thoroughly organized influence to defend himself. Each branch is, left to bear its own burden, and I am trusting in the hope tonight that the thought may spread out beyond us that it is a matter of public interest, and not of private only, to protect the horse and his various callings more intelligently and scientifically than is now being done. "The thoroughbred is the essential oil. so to speak, of horsellesh. His fundamental qualities are three in number endurance early maturity and courage. Every useful quality of any breed in the last analysis rests upon one of these three cardinal features. Perfect health, correct formation and, hence, beauty, are indispenslble to endurance. Early maturity is impossible without a vigorous constitutipn and steady nerves. Courage follows as the sum total of his development.. "A thoroughbred cross improves every kind of horse. In fact, a touch of these fundamental qualities benefits every known breed, and to have the essential qualities I . have pointed out, on tap. just as our government now nurtures the many inanimate forms of fundamental ingredients needed for our vast agricultural interests, is our duty as a nation. Every other nation of the first class recognizes this duty and encourages the development of the thoroughbred. Continental governments are vying with the most ardent turfmen in buying stallions for public studs. "The liest and easiest example is the trotter. Forty years ago he was riot -a mature horse before reaching five or six years o age. With intelligent selection in breeding, accompanied by the frequent infusion of thoroughbred blboVl, he is todav a trotter able to compete in races at two "years bid: at three he Is thoroughly grown horse, and at four quite mature and capable of standard performances; For this-one quality alone the thoroughbred IS of economic value. "The famous Kentucky saddler the charger, the hunter, the polo pony, are, indebted to the " thoroughbred for the best that is in them. Cinderella, one of the crack ponies our polo team played in their matches for the Intcrnationaldip last year, is by the English classic stake winner. Bosicrucian. "Many of you within my hearing tonight who are with painstaking eagerness searching through the bunches the horse, agents are bringing north, for the very best ponies money can buy. realize how vastly the Texas pony has improved in recent years. It is always the thoroughbred crossed on their famous quarter horse that is the crack of the bunch. "And von of the hunting field and riders at our thirty or forty annual hunt and steeplechase meetings, what are yon always looking for in the horse you buy, if it is not the marks and the characteristics of the thoroughbred?. "The thoroughbred enthusiast wants no other horse: he knows lie can use him for anything if be be patient with him and treat him as a gentleman, for he is no placid slave, but a truly grand co-worker. "The plain horse enthusiast, too. will point with pride to the fact if the royal blood does or only seems to run in his favorites veins, and claim all the qualities that it produces and many more, if the listener is the right sort. "My associates and myself in racing and breeding are, so to speak, the analytical chemists for you all. We are producing this extract of perfect horseflesh, and it is perhaps of interest to you to know and fully appreciate the tools we have to have. "First we have to have the foundation stock and replenish it from time to time. Our forefathers of Colonial dajs .apt it from the same source to which we now have to go for it to England, the wise and resourceful producer of the thoroughbred who secured her stock from the cradle of the horse, Arabia, but she no longer replenishes with the Arab. Her developed Arab of todav Is.. so vastly superior in size, conformation and stamina to the original that to dip back inlo the blood of tlie Arabian horse has proved a failure. "Second, and the most important tool we need Is the eliminating test the race courses. It is through these we ultimately select our breeding stock. You cannot produce early maturity without the eliminating test of the two-year-olds and three-year-old stake race. It is there and only there that you find out by the wefghts the horse carries and- tlie distances he ruus, if he is sufficiently developed and mature. The great classic races of England, the Derby and Oaks, for three-year-old colts and fillies, respectively, are run on the earliest possible dates in the soring for which a three-vear-old horse or more can be prepared to carry the prescribed weights and run the prescribed distances, which, after years of study and intelligent practice are deemed to be the maximum a fullv developed horse should be tested by. Do had to be big and fully grown or he could not shoulder the weight. He had to be sound or he could not stand the preparation. "The show ring is useless as a method of selection and will ultimately go far astray with its theoretical requirements, as to a conformation based upon what is deemed the best for something tho horse used to-do. With all honor and respect due tlie bench show, we all know what havoc it has played with breeds of sporting dogs th.it have ceased to be used for the original purpose they had been developed for by the sportsman. "And so in a lesser degree, yet alwavs important, the entire system of stake arid cup races on the turf is framed to prove and test out the three great qualities I have held up to you as cardinal and valuable. "The race course is a vast and expensive piece of machinery. Its value from the standpoint of the breeder is inestimable. As a sport and as a crucible It is highly. Interesting and Instructive and absorbing as a study. And what I have said of the- thoroughbred is .applicable in every particular to the trotter. --- --- --- "The moralist and his cant, the misguided and misinformed member of the community who, In his ignorance, harps upon the falso,vthpory that the race course is, but an institution - for gambling, is an enemy to the interests of our farmers, our ranchmen, our military establishments and all citizens who use and breed the horse for pleasure. I deny with all the vehemence I can command that the race course is but a gambling institution. Our turfmen and breeders are not gamblers, and many of them do not bet at all. "The great nations of Europe and their governments foster the racing and breeding of thoroughbreds for tho value they know they possess. That racing furnishes a recreation for the public is subordinate. There are attendant evils and sportsmen and lovers of the horse should be encouraged in their efforts to correct and eliminate them. Destroying racing as a public institution is not haping the community. Upholdiug it and doing it justice by passing intelligent criticism upon racings faults is right, and we should frown upon the bigot whose gloomy pessimism would turn Gods tiowers of the fields to a monotonous gray. "Since 1005 the registration of thoroughbreds in the Stud Book has shown a decline from 4,000 foals a year to 2,300 in 1010, and tlie prospect is that less than 2,000 will be registered this year. Stallions, broodmares and young thoroughbreds have been exported in hundreds and hundreds to England, Germany, Hungary, France, Australia and Argentina, never to return. "The army is beginning to complain that it cannot readily find horses required for the cavalry. Think of it In this vast countrv with its magnificent ranches and breeding "farms. Five hundred horses each year for remounts are difficult to buy and cost more than our army ofliccrs think they should. "The average horses have not breeding enough lack the quality and endurance and armv men are now turning to thoroughbred horse breeders for help. What would happen if. in case of war notwithstanding agrowing international desire for peace tho cavalry had to lie quadrupled, and instead of a good cavalry horse lasting ten years, as they do in time of peace, the remounts of tho cavalry were lasting but sixty days which on good military authority I. am told is tho average? Where would they come from? Importing 30.000 or 40.000 horses in ships would be a spectacle to be proud of. If by the grace of the enemy Ave might be permitted to witness it. "W.e, in racing and breeding, have a common interest with you and you with us. It is upon you polo players, huntsmen and: amateur riders, as well as racing men, that the future of the thoroughbred horse in this country depends. "It is for us all to give army men who are struggling with this problem a helping hand. The War Department is doing much for them, and in Virginia and at Fort Riley is fostering the thoroughbred by breeding, but unfortunately in a very limited way. "Tho War Department Is also encouraging officers lo ride in amateur races and steeplechases and in playing polo at the different army posts. "I told Gen. Fred D. Grant at the United Hunts meeting on Long Island last November that I would present the army with six good stallions, and 1 am going to offer this year and next to whoever the Secretary of War indicates to nic to be the proper recipient llenrv of Navarre, Octagon, two Bock Sand colts and two from other sires. Added to this I shall offer eight free services to my stallions In Lexington, Ky.. lo such mares belonging to the army as the Chief of Staff may see lit to issue a written order for. One of fhoso services will bo my stallion Bock Sand. I hope the army will be able to obtain more good thoroughbred stallions and place them .throughout the west, as our jockey Clubs breeding bureau has distributed them in this state, and by securing first call on the mares bred to their stallions they will be able to Inaugurate a practical way of securing the type of horse so much needed, and which the army has so much difficulty In securing. "Tlie Boer war was the cause of a tremendous depletion In our stock of horses suitable for cavalry and artillery. Hundreds and thousands of horses were exported to South Africa. Even ,at that time the horses as a class were not what they should have boon. An intelligent fostering and encouragement of the right type, and a distribution, with the assistance of the government, of .thoroughbred blood through the western ranches, would have meant many more millions of dollars of income to the country for what we sold at that time, and now that even those horses are gone there is no substantial encouragement given to the breeder to supply the void created. "The unthinking will say that horseflesh commands a higher price t..day than it ever did. It Continued ou second page. AMERICAN ARMY IN NEED OF THOROUGHBRED BLOOD. Continued from first page. Is true the growth of the country aud the extension1 of our agricultural interests keeps the dray horse more scattered and more at home. The surplus for market has decreased, but the horse that the army seeks and that some day may and should be exported for remounts is not well understood. ."Referring again to the army, wo should not only have enough of correctly bred horses for remounts to supply our own needs, biit encourage a large export trade for ready buyers existing in Europe. With, all their efforts the continental armies arc still not fully supplied, and in case of war must draw from other countries, such as Australia and Argentina, and the United States ought to.be included. If we breed intelligently we would, in case of need, be able to keep the surplus stock for our own use. "In all that I have said I am neither sounding the voice of the alarmist or pessimist. "It took years to build and develop what we had and that was none too large and important to meet the needs of New York State and the rest of the country, and it will take years to rebuild in the face of the difficulties and discouragements vyuioh I hope the public and public men will recognize to have been a mistake from a sound and patriotic standpoint." New York, February 17. August Belmonts offer to give several valuable stallions to the United States government as the foundation of a national breeding bureau is receiving enthusiastic indorsement at the hands of prominent horsemen aud it is predicted that several other owners will follow Mr. Belmonts -lead if his offer is accepted. According to .lockcy Club oiiicials the enterprise would involve an expenditure of about 00,000 a year by the government during the first live years. Thomas AY. Lawspn announces that he will add his "Cit,0QQ" trotting stallion. Dare Devil 2:00, to the governments breeding bureau if it materializes. Mr. Lawsons famous Thunder Cloud was bought by the war department several years ago and is -now at a western army post.
