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CHANGES IN RULES LIKELY IMPORTANT MATTERS NOW UNDER CONSIDERATION BY JOCKEY CLUB STEWARDS. Expectation Is That Selling Race Provisions, Particularly, Will Bo Altered Before the Opening of Another Racing Season. By Ed. Cole. New York, November 13. That there will be changes in the rules of racing in the east next year is. practically assured. The selling race rule now in vogue has been found wanting and also unpopular, excepting among the few. The profits of the rule have gone iu a contrary direction to what was anticipated, and as Mr. Schuyler Parsons said when the rule was adopted, "If this rule docs not work well, we will try something else." Many propositions have been offered to the members of the Jockey Club, and opinions differ in that body for the time being as to just what will be best for the future. Capt. E. B. Cassatt has worked, and is working studiously, on reform measures, and while the outcome of the conference may not be known until early spring, it is practically assured there will be some changes of importance. President Phil Dwyer of the Queens County Jockey Club was active only during the Aqueduct meeting, and he has hardly ventured an opinion on the subject, being satisfied to abide by the rule laid down by the governing powers and commenting little on the subject. "All rules should be as equitable as possible," is what he maintains, "and should be framed to encourage racing and build it up so that it will be acceptable to all." Mr. Dwyer is a man of unqualified knowledge on racing matters, and when lie talks he aims directly at the bulls-eye. "The present selling race rule," said he. "has not brought about the desired effect and will no doubt be revised during the winter, if not changed in its entirety. It has encouraged horse traders to manipulate and thus deprive many worthy men of purses they have won squarely and fairly. What will be done I dont know, but the stewards of the Jockey Club are in a position to change the rules to bring about the best results. It is a hard matter to please everybody, but a change in the selling race rule is much desired by those most concerned." Horsemen in this section would like universal rules throughout this country and Canada. At the present time they run into changes in regulations whenever they move from one section to another. In Canada one practice prevails and in Kentucky another, while here in the east they stumble into another set of rules. This, they claim, should not be. "Of course, we race along all right," say practically all of them, "but when we move from one track to another we have to keep inquiring what is what, and half of us never think of new and strange rules which have to be memorized. Of course, the main rules are uniform, but the different ideas that exist among the managers of the various associations are at times confusing. If all rules were the same it would be decidedly more satisfactory." This was the reply of practically every horseman interviewed on the subject. Some said they did not care what the rules were, that they could abide by and hold their own under any and all conditions. This is true, but there arc some of the minor owners who are not so able to assimilate new conditions as others, and it is they who suffer by technicalities. It is safe to say there will be many changes, and it is not at all improbable that the leading racing associations of this country and Canada will negotiate and confer for the improvement of the sport. The death of Danny Maher has been deplored all along the line. Among horsemen and followers of the turf Maher was universally conceded to be a credit to this country. Not only was ho a shining light here, but his popularity abroad was unquestioned. This was brought about by his ability and honesty. Like Fred Taral, his work was never questioned excepting the one instance, when he was left at the post on Banastar in 1899 in the Suburban Handicap. While his employer, the late W. H. Clark, was led to believe, or did believe, it was a dishonest transaction, there are thousands who believe otherwise, that it was an accident and not design. Aside from this one instance, there was not a blot on the career of Danny Maher. "Newspaper criticism and knocking." said Maher to the writer a few years ago while visiting here, "caused me to leave this country. It was probably as well that I did. for I entered an atmosphere of sportsmen whom I would never have known had fate decreed otherwise. So everything seemed to happen for the best." Maher was much of a gentleman at all times, quiet and unassuming, with little to say and few comments to make, 110 matter what happened. Even when under the ban laid down by his employer, Mr. Clark, Maher would hardly venture comment except to those who might set him right in the mind of Mr. Clark. All he would say was: "Mr. Clark believes me guilty of wrongdoing. I am sorry lie thinks so. I cant help it. I only know that I am innocent." Maher was about fourteen years of age when he rode his first winner, which, if memory serves rightly, was Kinnikinnic at the old Benning track. If it was not his first winner, it was one of his early victories, and his efforts upon that occasion were responsible for the prediction that he would some day be a good rider. He did not weigh more than eighty pounds at the time, and after that victory, lie was in great demand and many times rode four and five winners a day. At Brighton Beach lie won the first five races in one day and, because h; was beaten by a small margin in the sixth, he vented his feelings on the horse he rode. This brought about a fine or suspension by the stewards. His bad display of temper at times was one of his failings in his early riding days, but he outgrew it in later years. "If the jockeys of today would only look over the career of riders like Maher and Taral and endeavor to emulate them," said such an experienced horseman as Tom Healey, "we should have great racing. But jockeys as capable as they were are few and far between."
