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: ! MAJOR DAINGERFIELDS VIEWS ON ANTI-RACING LEGISLATION AT ALBANY Maj. Foxhall A. Daingerfield, member of the Kentucky State Racing Commission, under whose management James R. Kecnes Castleton Stud lias turned out scores of famous racers, contributes to the Thoroughbred Record a vigorous letter commenting upon the directors liability law and other enactments of the New York Legislature at Albany from IflOS to 1S110.. It is herewith reproduced for the edification of Daily Racing Form readers: "That men possessed of the necessary means to purchase the best of earths thoroughbred horses will not so invest it unless conditions are such as to justify the belief or hope that they may recoup their investment in money or unembarrassed sport, needs no proof. "That no one worthy of breeding so noble and valuable an animal as the thoroughbred horse, should aim lower than the very best possibly attainable, is equally true. "That the sport and the work of the world has been brightened and lightened by the horse more than by any outdoor adjunct or agency, few men, with red blood in their veins, will deny. "Thai the thoroughbred English thoroughbred of the component blood of Arab. Barb and Turk, has been more potent than all other infusions combined in the establishment of the saddle horse, trotter, coach horse and all utility classes, few will be found to deny. "That without this horse of highest type the park horse and hunter would have been impossible or highly improbable. "That without the thoroughbred with his uniform inheritance of the square walk, trot and canter or gallop the uniformity of gait necessary in ail horses in a troop of cavalry or a battery ot artillery would be unattainable and their exhibition in man-ouvres a farce. This was demonstrated in the recent international trials, where the nations which have purchased at the larget known prices the greatest racers of the world and conducted and fostered the racing of their progeny, stood first. The exhibit of our own country by comparison with such countries, being deplorable. "The- Legislature of New York by enactments adverse to racing and the breeding interests, passed 190S-1010, has balked all efforts at the improvement of these conditions. Under the guise of legislation against gambling, in which all of the gigantic and some minor enterprises, of purely speculative character embracing none of the fresh air and glorious exhiliratlon of the race course, but all of the temptations attributed to it, .were omitted from the list of places and occupations legislated against, this appears. Does this deceive anyone as to their intent to destroy racing? Does anyone believe the blow was meant for gambling aud not for the destruction of the specific sport of racing. Do not the reformers compound for sins they are Inclined to, by damning those they have no mind to? "The gambling instinct is in the man, not in the horse. Where a man has the Instinct It will find its outlet in any one of ten thousand ways. Many men breed and race horses for a lifetime and never make a bet. Many intending to bet become interested in the horses and forget it, while few or none go to a poolroom to place a bet and forget to do so. Where the inclination to bet exists time, place nor circumstance balks it. A physician tells his patient he cant live six hours and the patient responds, make the odds right aud Ill bet you I live twenty-four. "When told that the great evangelist,- Spurgeon, was expected to visit America, a well known gentleman of sporting instincts replied, If he comes, Ill preach Bishop Richard Wilnier against him for 0,000 a side, play or pay. You cant tell the condition that will or will not make a man bet. "Regulation, not extirpation, is what is needed in the racing conditions. Racing commisisons In some of the states have regulated betting to a degree that renders its evil tendencies almost negligible less than most athletic sports or camp meetings. "The cry We are more interested in breeding better men than in breding better horses," as an excuse for an enactment so drastic and unprecedented in civilized legislation as the directors liability amendment to Section 07!! of tile Penal Code, seems disingenuous and puerile. "Better breed better men by giving them better fathers. How do you know, for the matter of that, whether your man was a letter man by his abstinence from what he could not do? "Such laws destroy both the power and the fulcrum for the building of character. It is the resistance of evil against strong temptation that builds and proves character. "If it were necessary for us of Kentucky to offer an apology for entering a protest against the retaining on the statute books of New York a law which has driven from Kentucky nine-tenths of her thoroughbreds since 190S, and reduced by a like per cent, the value of those remaining, that apology would be found in the .fact that the major part of the Blue Grass region of Kentucky is owned in fee simple, or held under long leases by citizens of New York. "The use of our lands for stock raising has hitherto been most profitable, and its use has annually added to its- fertility and value. Cut off from this industry wo must resort to the culture of hemp and tobacco crops which in three years will deplete more than fifty years of grazing and feeding upon it has enriched. "The legislation against racing in New York .has already obliterated, directly and indirectly, hundreds of millions of values in these United States. Will she continue to do this despite to the nation for the sake of producing a few insipid nonentities who never did wrong because thoy couldnt? "Personal liberty is essentially the course on which your youth must lie tried out as the turf is that upon which your colt must prove his prowess. Without these tests we will know nothing of the merit of either. "The attendance at race courses has, in my limited observation, compared favorably with equal aggregations of humanity assembled for any purpose politics, religion or sport. "While horse racing and fox hunting, indulged in by the cavaliers, were at an early date in this country condemned by the Puritans probably as waste of time which might have been spent to the glory of God in the liuniing of witches. George Washington was not deterred from becoming one of the most enthusiastic and best riders to hounds, and the largest winning owner on tho turf in America in one or more years, ami since the time of the Immortal George many decent people have liecn patrons of racing, in spite of the defective memory of some of the advocates of tho Draconian bills on the New York statute books. "The race between Grey Eagle and Wagner was witnessed by Clay, Crittenden and Porter. I hope none of them had a bet down." Tho Farmers and Merchants Mutual Assistance League of New York has issued tho following bulletin: "It seems as if in tills the twentieth century all sports should be equally protected under the law. In New York State It Is impossible to hold race meetings at the metropolitan tracks. It is an anomaly for tho state to appoint a State Racing Com. mission to allot dates for races and then have a law enacted which sends, a director to prison if two friends make a verbal bet on his track and you may be sure the reformists would be there to do it! "A great deal has been said about driving the Tich owners to Europe, but there are five tinies as many left who are not rich and who love the sport. Many young men have come into racing since the cost of yearlings has receded from the prohibitive prices of former years. It is safe to predict that if the directors liability law is repealed there will be a still greater number of owners in racing, although the large stables may go to Europe. "Most of these men have the keenest knowledgo of horse flesh. Many train, their own horses nnd love the sport entirely aside from any betting proposition. "A large number of owners have been offered large sums for their horses by rlcti men in Europe and have refused to sell because, although tho ex-cnse of shipping from Kentucky to Canada and tho Interval of a week between the meetings are ruinous, they hope that some relief will come and that they will be enabled another year to race at Belmont, Saratoga, Sheepshead, etc. Our friends in Canada would come here to visit and, whereas in the past the rich stakes were usually won by the big stables the small owners now would have just as good a chance and the sport would be on a better footing than over before. "The truest lovers of racing are still left in this country, besides the loyal New York sportsmen, tho Kentuckians. Virginians, Baltimoreans, many from Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Canada. All of them have come year after year to New York to enjoy the spring and autumn meetings and to Saratoga in August. "The financial loss to the State of New York is very great. People from the west and south used to tome to New York to go to the races and theaters and do their shopping. Now they go to Europe."
