view raw text
A BIT OF INTERESTING COMMENT. Losers all too frequently blame the jockey and with the emphasis of conviction explain that their particular favorite got a bad ride. That some of the midgets have strong arms as well as supple wrists no one will deny. The immature inflamed brains are also sometimes guilty of errors of judgment, but there is no sport in this world in which an element of natural uncertainty is more likely to cut a figure than horse racing. Weights, courses, disposition, condition and ability, all have to be reckoned with. At times, too, a wink in the betting ring will be visible, but well-nigh half a centurys experience has brought the belief that the largest majority of races are run on the square. One time I was sitting in a poolroom not far from Montreal alongside a gentleman who owned a horse called Rossmar. one of Mr. Seagrams cast-offs that would have had greater success if Halfling hadnt existed. He was at 40 to 1 in the betitng. and his trainer said he had no chance. The owner bet ,000 on another horse, but Rossmar won hands down. The queerest tiling was that it was said the race had been "stacked." that Rossmar had not previously lieen run to form in order to make a killing in this race. An investigation of the books showed that a hundred dollars had not been bet all told. Tlie day of the jockey Is short. Fred Archer. George Fordham. "Johnny" Osborne and "Danny" Maher lasted a long time, but they do not constitute a fraction of one per cent of tlie failures, nor of the one-time flourishes that are cut down like grass. The life of tlie race horse is brief. For every one that survives three years of the turf there are thousands that crumple up. For every one that retires unbeaten there are hundreds that never won a race, although the majority of them have been "tried" well at some time or tlie other. It is its glorious uncertainty that maintains sport. If all gamblers c.uild be philosophical enough to bear that in mind there would be fewer suckers and fewer sharks. There would also be fewer shrieks from the predominant minded. — H. P. Good in Montreal Mail.
