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t" •i * VIEWS, PRACTICES AND EXPERIENCES OF THE JOCKEY CLUBS HANDICAPPER, WALTER S. VOSBURGH , r — .T. . J 1 I i ■ ■ « s I ■ I J J I . J * J ! ; | , : , , , "*At the end of the racing today." said ITandi-capper Waller s. Vosbnrgh of the lockey Club. ; alter a days racing at the Acqnednct track in t .Inly. "1 had handicapped 126,710 horses: that is. : had allotted weights to that many horses in my i twenty six years of experience.* he -.aid with a smile. He explains also that this number does | not constitute all the horses that have been entered i in races or have run in races during his otthi.il i career. He has nothing to do with certain race-. | sacb as those la which ••conditions." as they are , called, prescribe the varying Imposts, or where i there is a laed weighl for all entrants. lie lias | !•. do only With Hie stakes, the classics .,; the turf. , the high-weight and lew-weight handicaps and all the other variations for them devised by the racing ] association officials. "Handicapping, by which we discover what weight to impose on a horse." he continued, "is based on the form and tin- oiuss of a aorse, cam-pared with others against which he is to ran. By , form is meant the physical condition of :i horse judged fr..m his most recent best race. By elasa he paused and smiled again, "well. I do not think have ever heard a satisfactory definition of class. but 1 can illustrate it. "No matter what may be the pedigree, the breed iug or the training of a horse he falls into one of four classes for a reason no one has ever been able to discover. these classes de] end upon the weight one class should earn compared with the other three classes that have ,i winning chance. Considering that all the horses were to ran in a certain race it N judged that the tirst class can carry , from 120 to 130 poands. There are hardly ever . more than four or Bve horses a year in this class. • The middle class borsea would have an Impost of from lhi to 120 pounds, the third from 10O to 110 , . and the fourth from 90 to 300 pounds. "A horse wins his class for himself. He may be the offspring of the best/ race horse and race mare of their day ami yet fall into Ihe fourth class. Or ■ agaia. he may not have parents si. famous and be . one of the lords of the turf. Aristocrat or commoner, he finds his level — his class. "The weights I have mentioned are those which I experience has atlixed for all the horses. Aa a matter of fact. I believe that the best horse in I training can give I lie worst horse as high as sixty • pounds the best of the weights anil beat him at a mile Isonomy. a noted English racer, did it and j ivmi." It is further explained at this point that in handicapping the handlcanper has certain rubs to , observe in the matter of placing the weights, which i are rules of the .lockey Club. One is that in all I races where the pane is more than 6606 the top j . weight shall be 12ii pounds. There are modMcationa . to this, as in a race like the Suburban, where a winner of a race, after announcement of the weights, is penalized an extra five pounds. An example was the gelding Boamer. which was slated I to carry 12.". poands against the 120 pounds of Borrow, the Whitney gelding, running m the colors , ot i.. s. Thompson. Boaaaet won a handicap after t the announcement of the weights, and therefore , autoniaticallv took on an added five pounds, making , his weight 130. He did not start. The minimum weight to be carried in all Steeple chase events is l.IO pounds. Ill highweig.it handicaps the heaviest impost must f be 140 pounds. That rule has caused much complaining " by the ignorant. What the handicapper considers the beat horse must carry thai weight . and sometimes iu the case of third class horses * drawn together in such an event it seems staggering. The handicapper has no alternative. . Many years ago the racing authorities devised what is known as the weight-for-age schedule: that 1 is. they drew up a scale of weights to he carried ! at certain specified tUnea of the racing season by 1 horses of certain ages racing a specified distance. •■I pay very Utile attention to that scale." said [ Mr. Vosbnrgh. "1 think we have outgrown it and 1 , that if is unfair today to the older horses. Horses s are raced harder today than they were when it was s adopted. By the time they are, say live years old. much of their racing power has been taken out of 1 them. Coder the old scale they must concede l weight to younger horses, although their powers "• are waning. It is unfair." It mav be added that -.mic time ago Mr. Vosbnrgh - drew up a new scale of weights which is s now in ihe hands of tin- Jockej Club officials. It t is not improbable that - une day the new scale e may be ordained which will remove the hardships ■ from the older horse. In the meantime Mr. Vos ;- burgh, where the conditions do not prescribe otherwise, makes his own standards, finds his own basis ■ and handicaps the horses from that, as be thinks s they should run. The talk then turned to the peronal side and it 1 waa learned thai the official handicapper is practically a New Yorker born and bred: that is. he was s lorn at White Plains and spent his boyhood days s iu what is now The Bronx. It happened that Inis s boyhood was passed in the shadow of old Jerome e lark. one time racing center of the country, which h explains naturally why his life took its trend. It I would have been Impossible for a red-bhtoded boy to o live in that atmosphere in th.se days and not ab i- sorb something of racing. This was the day of the elder Belmont, the elder r Passat t, Robert Barrett, "Commodore" Kitson, .1. r. B. Haggin, David I . Withers and a host of pioneers .of the turf in the north. Before he knew it the .• le had acquired a knowledge of pedigree ami d ; t : i | i i | , i | , ] , , . • , . ■ . I I • j , i I j . . I , t , , f " . * . 1 ! 1 [ 1 , s s 1 l "• - is s It t e ■ ;- ■ s it 1 s s s e h It I to o i- r .1. r. .• d "strains." He began to know horses in training and their form. Being of an exact mind, he classified this knowledge. This has resulted, with the aid of a memory which is spoken of as marvellous. in his being able to repeat the liar of every winner of the English Derby from 1V2." down to t lie present with sack details as weighl ami ill cases incidents of the race. it is said he can do the ■UM for the Suburban. Brooklyn Handicap. Futurity and other American classics. This is not done merely as :l feat of memory, but because he knows the strains that produce. 1 those winners, the history of the homes, their capabilities and ulti-ruateli the fate of the bygone champions. He was still in his teeaa when be became an authority on race horses, and it was before he was twenty that he became an editor of the old Spirit of The Times. in its day an authority also. He went to work for that publication in issi ami was working -.ill. varying his labors by contributions to oilier publications on ihe scientific phase of racing, when the late John A. Morris founded Morris Bark. Mr. Morris wanted an expert handicapper to allot the weights for the horses which should run at his park, and he retained Mr. Vosbnrgh. Monmouth Bark was still in its glory along the Jersey coast and David D. Withers, the controlling factor there. engaged him for similar work when it was | er-ceived how- successful he was. The other asso ria-tions followed, and since then, whether it was new Belmont lark. revived Saratoga or what not. Mr. Vosburgh has been the handicapper. "The difficulty of the work." repeated Mr. Vos-burgfa. -Yes. there are diaseulties, and twenty six years have not Bmoothed them. Sometimes it keeps me at work until 2 or :: oclock iu the morning. and the records I must consult would fill two trunks. Tt would be rather easy. I suppose, if the same horse raced together all the time under the same conditions. We would have direct evidence to aid us. I am aorry to say that seldom occurs. Let us take, for instance, that A. B. C, D, E. etc., are entered in a given race. It is for four-year olds and upward, with the distance one mile. The records Show that A has never run a mile in a race. B has not raced since his two-year-old season. C lias raced only in England. I comes from the west and one has never met the other before. "It is necessary for the handicapper to take a long, odious, circuitous route. He must handi-t can hy class shown and by lines. as they are . called, endeavoring to get the capabilities of each i horse with reference to the others l.y studying their ■ races with still other horses, which have raced I with still other horses, some of which may ■ have raced with the other entrants in the race. That takes hours." Mr. Voshurgh was asked whether he ever sym-. pathiaed with some of the horses upon which he . has Imposed very heavy weights. "The handi-,- capper must not allow hitnseif to sympathize." ■ he replied. "Personal feelings should not enter . into bis calculations." He instanced Hamapo. upon which finally he put t l-" o pounds; Reliable, which carried immense weight: : Koseben. the sprinter, which carried more than , 140 pounds in low-Weight handicaps. He recalled I a horse. Ferrier. upon which he placed 100 pounds s at Brookline. Mass. Weight had to go on with every victory. It may be added that Eerrier won j that event. "Was he ever fooled by a horse:" Ves. Mr. . Vosburgh admitted frankly that he had been fooled Needless to say. horsemen who have tried to run ! a horse to lose many times in order to have him win ultimately with generous odds against him. have not succeeded as well as they hoped to do. There was one horse he remembered which started at ninety three pounds. Reliable, in IMS, and which l kept on winning until finally he was carrying 12U pounds. There have been other horses which went in at light weights oniv to lose, and yet weight went up on them. Those powerful glasses are not useless. "There are same little games which of course I cannot prevent." he explained. "In a race, for instance, where the top weight must be 120 pounds a trainer has a horse which he wants to win. He knows that he cannot win with the heaviest weight. lie goes to a friend with a better horse, which. however, may not be in form, and has that horse entered. The top weight must g . on that horse, The other horse gets in witli lighter weight. On the appointed day the top horse is withdrawn; the other wins." "How do the horses of today compare -with the horses of the pasty "I am not old enough yet to believe that the old days were the best." was the smiling answer. "Ihe "horses today are just as good, averaging throughout and the racing .just as good as it ever was. The public interest in racing is reviving. I judge that by the number of horses offered for handicapping. I handicapped 10,000 horses in ion:;, the high tide of racing, and only .".00 in Bill, when it was lowest. Last year the aamber was ," .ooo and this year that figure will Ik- increased. The increased or revived public interest is seen in the Increased purses. If it continues as it is going now there will be still more next year." •The best horses you have ever put weight on 7" Mr. Vosburgh ahook his head at first, then he studied a bit. •The best horses— well, the best I have ever seen race were Salvator. Henry of Navarre and Syaoaby."
