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H ADVANTAGES OF STATE CONTROL OF RACING ADMIRABLY SET FORTH IN A COAST PAPER T I to [, ..1 t i l ] J I J J , i There was a time ill the history of the GoldeB State ni" California In the early nineties, to be more exact when the breeding of the trotter ranked nest agriculture and mining la the three leading industries of the eoinniouuealth. Those were the days the district fair, the large breediag farms, ami open betting. Maladminstratioa caused the down tall of the for r. and the aliusc of the betting privilege contrii.ute.i to the decay of horse racing, both in harness and under saddle, ami the consequent undoing" of the liig breeding farms. Not only in California did this state of affairs come to pass, hui in all the great horse centers of the east conditions were i|iiile similar. The real producers of the horse Industry, the breeders, "stood" far the Ixiokio until the bookie put the business on the run. whereupon a long-suffering pontic stopped in and in one drastic move pin a ipiieius on both booking and breeding. Aiming ai the objectionable portion of the business, the reformers of the various state legislative bodies pot-shotted the Sock- betting, rax ii; and breeding. Of the three .lasses of men cotn- iBislng the groups back of the three breaches, those of the professional liettlng brigade, whose malodorous operatii.ns were directly responsible for the whole agitation against the sport as a whole, ware hurt the least, while those engaged in the breeding end of it — most Innocent of all were the hardest sufferers. It is a poor bookie- who .inn d Hop from the betting ring at the track side to a Kraft protected basement ■ ■ top story gambling Joint in short order, there to puisne the uneven tenor of his work of picking the pockets of those some hundreds of suckers thai are born daily: the "casual horse man" who raced a few horses for the spoil .1 ii was. while deprived of Ids pleasure, not hard bit In pocket, for as a rule he had an income from ether interests: to the breeder, however, tl.e man ho had extensive investments in lands an. I horse-M. .sh and wlio made breeding his profession, the blow was of the regulation knock-out variety. The results are t»» painfully impressed upon I be mind ..f every horseman on this eoaat to make it ne.es sary to review them here, but there is a way ..lit. Impress these few words equally indelil.lv upon your memory as are the eondttoas just alluded to there is a way out. That way lies throagb tin- enact incut if legislation providing far pari niiituel betting iiinler the supervision ami control of state racing commissions, no more striking example of which can lie found than in the slate of Kentucky, the 1 situation then being well reviewed in the following . « ulribtitioi! t. the Horseman from the pell of Henry M. fanes: Famers I-imcidorf Farm is 1" miss into history is a breeding Institution, This is but natural in i the United Stales, as there have liecn few sons of -real breeders who have kept up or completed the . work of their fathers. It is for this reason that the foreign breeders have accomplished far greater results in founding -eat families than has been done ■ here. lint it is n. d of the passing that Interest should center, lint of the condltons existing when i the yeariiags were sold in New York recently, compared with the forced sales made in South America i ind other foreign markets a few years sine,., when i adverse legislation all. hut annihilated the breed. . In this country there was i arkel: in fail, the • attempted sales were oii.lv pitiful. Many well t.red yearlings were sold for i..Mi to IS, bought by traders, not by horsemen. ml now in a few short t vear-. although depression in business has been i written and spoken of until it has bee mie a nightmare, - a sale the epial of anv held in boon days is held. Thirty five pearl legs sell for 1.72.".. an aver 1 i . ■ i i i . • t i - — — n- age of ,277. one brings 2,000, aaother ,000, another ,000. Then from A. It. Hancocks" stud eleven head being 6,176, averaging SI. 470. These colts were unlried. only halter broken, and sold on * Individuality and breeding, ami are bought for racing prospects only. ""If the history of racing Hie thoroughbred, cover ing the same period is looked into, the change is iipialiy phenomenal. The plant at Lexington, prob ably the oldest ill the United States, having Iwen founded in 1821, had been bankrupt for goate years, and ..lily 80 to *2 Hl purses were ofTered when a inciting eoald be given. Bvea such meetfaags would scarcely pay oat. The stabling and grounds were in such a roadl ton that but few trainers eared to risk their horses there. What is it today". One of the liest equipped racing plants in be found anywhere: track made level, inside sand track for winter ami v.et weather, stables full, and building new ones even year. Panes $."iil t" 1915.sh00; handicaps. .SI.ikmi to ,500: added niuiev slakes real stakes, not gnaranteed purses with live per cent deducted from money winners with ,000 to ,500 added money. "H is just as impossible to realize the transfornia tion in this meeting as it is to realize that yearlings are bringing prices that tiny did. There must lie some wonderful cause I ha I raised this business from the mire that adverse legislation and the conscienceless gambler had plunged it into. It can be easily explained. A few breeders of thoroughbreds in Ken tacky, realizing that all was goat unless quick action was taken, put their sbooklers to the wheel ami began the edu.ati I legislators. They showed them that one branch of the horse business. thai business that has brought more new money into Kentucky and made the value of her lands greater than any other industry: that business that had made her lain.. us in all parts of the world where the bone is known and appreciated, was on the brink of destruction and unless at once put npoa a legitimate business basis, and protected by the laws of the state, if must bankrupt the majority of breeders and the state lose her prestige. Tin- result was a law establishing the Baring Commission, which has absolute jurisdiction. It says to racing associations that they shall tint give purses of less than a certain sum and that they shall give certain class laces every day. II will not permit fraud. and only fatal week ordered an owner and his base off the tracks of Kentucky for complicity in Bt- templed fraud. They have power, backed up by the slate, with no appeal to some tribunal that fears the effect of tlie decision upon some member and glosses it over. The only motto is For the greatest good of the horse and racing. It is neither theory nor experiment. It is a reality: has been tried and delivered the goods. "It would be well for the American Association of Trotting Horse Breeders to prowl by the calamity that befell the sister interest. Begin at once to organise its members in each stale ami let them educate their legislators to the great necessity of protection to this interest. Been x farther— carry it int.. the halls of Congress and show the repre setit.itivcs that racing must be protected or this country will be an Importer of horses for its actual needs. Already owners of thoroughbreds have iiad to import yearlings, and others will do so this fall It may be possible that the near future will see trotting c Its Imported from those countries that we have supplied if there is not a determined effort t.i put racing upon a strictly legal basis, so I hat il can demand the protection of state laws such as is given to any other legitimate industry." — San Irancisco Bleeder and Sportsman.
