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VALVE OF LONG-DISTANCE RACING. C. E. Brossman, Trainer of Imp, Points Out Why Public Prefers Races for Stayers to Sprints. "The committee appointed by the Kentucky State Racing Commission to work out the longer-distance racing question was a move in the right direction, and racing secretaries will do well to follow its recommendations." writes C. E. Brossman, famous as the trainer of Imp. "Formerly conditions were different, especially so in Kentucky, where all the speculation was done with the bookmakers. They, of course, were anxious to have races on the program when each horse would receive liberal backing, and racing luck plays a more important part in a short race than it does in one over a distance of ground, so that a jostle, a cut-off or a bad start oft times defeats the best horse. If any interference happens to a horse in a short race it does not have time to recover its stride until some one of the other horses has the race won and not un-froquently by some one upon which there is little money bet. The bookmakers paid the purses, therefore their wishes desired confirmation. With the •mutuel system of betting in vogue the situation is entirely different. The association receives the jH-rcentage to which it is entitled from all the money that goes into the box, no matter which horse wins, and almost any speculator will bet more money on a race over a reasonable distance of ground than upon a sprint. "There is no doubt but that it takes a more accomplished trainer, one thoroughly capable and who fully understands his business, to prepare and keep successfully racing throughout the season, a horse for the mile and over races, than it does one for the shorter races, where about all they do is to jog the horse around a bit, work it a couple of times at its best speed through the stretch, start it and take a chance that its breeder or vitality will make it last. The age is speculative and racing is a most fascinating medium, and a great number of people are found everywhere who are as willing to pay us liberally for it as for operatic, dramatic or athletic entertainment, because it presents the additional excitement and thrills always produced as the result of rapid speculation and uncertainty. The glamor of rich prises seems to endow those particular races with more eclat than other races of less value contended for by the same horses, therefore the secretaries of the different race meetings are continually outbidding each other as to the amount of added money each association can give for its spectacular events. "The result of all this is that prizes are as rich as the associations can afford, and the managers of the different meetings are compelled to seek various sources of revenue, all of which come directly or indirectly from the public. In order to have the race tracks return a liberal dividend on the investment, satisfy the public and at the same time prepare a program that will call together the best horses on the track and have everybody enthusiastic and pleased, is a task that requires a man of peculiar ability, tact and not a little diplomacy. It is no easy posit ion to fill and it requires a man with a large vision, wide experience and considerable ingenuity. The public the source of all revenue, must be satisfied and have absolute confidence in the racing officials. The horsemen furnish the entertainment and they secure enough money out of the business to pay expenses, hotel bills, feed bills, shipping expenses, help, etc., and all like to mark up a profit at the end of the year. So the racing associations ought to give away to the horsemen, in added money to the races, enough cash to pay their legitimate expenses, for it must always be remembered that the horsemen furnish the show, and they will be sure to go to those places where they think they have an opportunity to make the most money. "As in any other entertainment enterprise, the celebrities will draw the crowd and the people, shrewd, hard, cold business men, sight seers out for a holiday, people of fashion, leisure and money will flock in multitudes to watch a contest over a distance of ground between an equally balanced field of famous horses, where it is expected that there will l e a battle royal. The great classics of this country, such as the big handicaps and the renowned Derbies, have always attracted the multitudes and, as they are usually one and a quarter miles to one and a half miles, it would appear that the public delights in those contests more than at any other distance. Another fact that must not be overlooked is that the instant a horse is returned a winner of one of these great races its inherent value as a breeding animal immediately greatly increases, automatically. Breeders usually prefer the names of horses in a pedigree that have won some of these desirable events, and the names of classic winners in a tabulated pedigree enhance the value of a yearling when it comes to the auction block, in the same ratio as those names appear in the pedigree. That distance racing, when the horse is fit, does not impair the procreative powers or sap the vitality of the constitution of a breeding animal has been amply demonstrated through a long number of years. "The trainers themselves are responsible for many of the objections against longer racing, and it is simply because a number of them do not know what kind of a preparation is required to properly fit a horse for a long route and bring him out of the race with no ill effects that some of them object and hesitate to enter. Bramble, by imported Bonnie Scotland, out of Ivy Leaf, by imported Auntralian II., dam Bayflowor. by Lexington, accomplished wonders as a "cup" horse in 1879. He won the Baltimore, Westchester, Monmouth and Saratoga Cups, all in one year, something no other horse ever accomplished, yet lie was the sire of the Kentucky Derby winner, Ben Brush, which in turn sired the great race horses Broomstick and Delhi. Broomstick sired Meridian, the Kentucky Derby winner in 1911, Kegret in 1915, and Thunderer, one of the favorites for the great race today. Let us by all means have more long races for the good effect it will have upon the turf, the public and the future breeding interests of the country."
