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GEORGE ODOMS PHILOSOPHY OF RACING. While a group of trainers at Gravesend were fllai aaalng the advisability of Paving more racing over considerable distances. George Odom is credited with having said: "If I can win a purse ot 00 by winning ■ race at six furhnaga it is not likely I would lit a horse to run twice thai dis tame lor the same in,, my. Any g 1 campaigner can inn two si furiooga races a week. Liu when it eomes to running a mile and a half, one race a week is enough. •In the old days when horses ran four mile heats, they were not asked to race often. 1ml in these days an owner anal win often to take a good place iii the list of winning owners. Down in Washington I won a mile and three-quarters race with a horse which never had been rated as anything but a sprinter. It was that horse Oraculum. and I entered him in the race more to till it than with any hope of winning, lor Perseverance was in it and everybody thought he could not lose: but just the same I beat him mole than fifty lengths. "Look at the horses which now hold the longdistance records. Thry are a common lot Which have been trained to run long distances just because Ihey were not fast enough to win at sprinting distances. If really big parses wen- hung up for long races, and if there wire enough of them to make it worth while to train good horses for them, the public would be convinced of the value of the thoroughbreds of today quickly. ••What 1 would like lo see would be a grading of passes according to the distances to be run. and that under stake weight*. Let the mere sprinters run for small purses, and give the big purses for races id" a mile and a quarter and over. That would bring out the really goiKl horses and show the public that the thorough bred of today has gained greatly in stamina as will as speed." Moms general line of comment was sound enough, hat lie was in error as to the dass of the holders of most of our long -distance record*. Boanter holds Hie mile anil an eighth record. Whisk ISroom II. the mile and a quarter record. Ballot the mile and five-sixteenths. Irish Lad the mile and three-eighths, Goodrich the mile and a half. ntS Herbert the mile and live-eighths. Major Daiagerfleid the mile and three-quarters, Everett the two adieu, Bthelbert the two miles and a quarter. Mamie Algol the three miles and Sotemia the foni- miles, anyone of which he would have delighted to train and tine racers one and all.
