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VARYING ENGLISH AND CANADIAN WAYS The attractive and interesting book program of tlie Ontario Jockey Clubs May meeting is full of liberal rewards for owners and breeders of horses anil one cannot help contrasting the olicy carried put in Canada with the way in which this matter is treated in the old country We have much and the world has much to learn from the British turf but we have drawn ahead in our methods of en couragiug and supporting the owner In England he pays in practically everything that is paid out but only a trifling portion here For a fivedollar bill he can get into a race at Woodbine Iu which six thousand dollars will be distributed among tint successful three and the same liberal spirit ia maintained all through the book Tlie comparison with English conditions is suggested by the ap ¬ pearance of the 0 J C book at a time when I read that the attendance at the Birmingham meet ¬ ing was among the largest ever recorded there anil so numerous were the entries that the program for today cost the executive practically nothing The Button Plate had a value of 10G and the forty entries at 5 each actually gave a sur ¬ plus This however is allotted under the rules to the second and third horses The Tain worth sidling handicap worth 100 had twentyseven li f tries at 3 each and consequently cost the club less than a fifth of its advertised value At Woxlbine in one day the Ontario Jockey Club gives its owners more money than is provided by the club during the entire duration of many pre ¬ tentious English meetings This is n state of affairs that is accepted as a matter of course iu England and grumbling about conditions is much more common here It may be said that ours is a necessary policy in a young country without men of means and inclination for the turf If so that necessity has been met It may also lx said that the suspension f racing in England would havo a less serious effect than a similar course of prn cedure in Canada where so many of our owners are far frem rich mon and could not maintain their stables in a period of Idleness Toronto Globe
