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CONDEMNS PIMLICO PLANS MR. BELMONT GIVES MARYLAND TURF OFFICIALS SOMETHING TO THING ABOUT. Stake Races of High Value Necessary to Stimulate Generous Rivalry in tha Improvement of the Breed of Horses. By C. J. Fits Gerald. New York, November IS. The recent announcement by the Maryland Jockey Club that its future policy would be antagonistic to the early closing stake system, which prevails in every country where the breeding and racing of thoroughbreds is an institution, and their assumption that they are serving the best interests of the sport by their policy, has not met with the approval of those in high places in racing in the United States. August Belmont, the chairman of the Jockey Club, which licenses the meetings at Pimlico and other courses in Maryland, had the following to say in connection with the reactionary pamphlet which was recently distributed by the Maryland Jockey Club: "If the Pimlico management is right," said the head of the governing body of the turf in this country, "then England, France, Germany, Russia, Spain, Italy, Austria, The Argentine and the United States are wrong and the development of the turf for the last 150 years has been along false lines. The splendid elimination tests, such as the Derby, St. Leger, Grand Prix and our own Futurity, which were made so great that no breeder or owner could afford to neglect them and which created a prestige and an earning power, at the same time made the development of the thoroughbred to his present state of perfection possible. You cant raise the quality of the thoroughbred to a high pitch without making the object of selection thoroughly worth while. "The earning capacity of a horse is therefore fundamentally important, not because it is a mercenary feature, but for the reason that it convey3 conspicuous merit. Earning capacity establishes a standard of value for sire as well as dam. It affects their produce, and makes possible the maintenance of breeding studs at a rate of expense which commonplace values would not warrant. "The Pimlico management plumes itself on what it will do for the poor owner. The poor owner is better served by the stake system, because future closing events remote from competition in over night CQntests"the belter class of horses, whereas with nothing but these races on the program they would encounter the strongest kind of opposition at all times. All foreign countries have races for every class of horse, stakes as well as over night events. This gives all owners a chance and in my opinion such a system is right, while that of Pimlico is emphatically wrong. "So far as any material benefit which might come to the owner of moderate means through the possession of a good horse is concerned," resumed Mr. Belmont, "if the poor owner has a horse of great earning capacity the market value of such an animal is -greatly enhanced by the stake system. It would be idle to claim that the same state of affairs would prevail under the over night method where no extraordinary earning capacity could exist because of the fact that such an animals future would be largely in the hands of the handi-cupper. No owner or breeder would feel justified in making the same outlay under such conditions a he would with his candidates eligible for great stake engagements where the horses previous earnings would determine the weight he should carry. "No horse can establish a great reputation by winning moderate races. The public outside of those who see in racing nothing but a vehicle for betting has its attention focused on great winners. Its interest in the turf comes through the tests between the winners of the classics horses which have established their renown by achievements which lift them out of the ordinary and make them worthy of reproduction. Every man familiar with racing in this country knows that when a horse is beaten not twenty per cent of the public take into consideration the conditions under which the contest was decided. They know little of the weights carried one horse has won and the others have lost. Thus a good horse is frequently lost sight of. "Under this so-called over-night system," resumed Mr. Belmont, "the good horse would be under a constantly increasing difficulty because of the additional burden he would have to bear for winning. I know of nothing that will make a horse turn vogue or cur more quickly than repeated gruellings where there is only a remote chance of victory. The stake system insures an adequate return for a horse of superlative merit without unduly taxing his capabilities. The horse that might have been great under conditions that have prevailed would otherwise pass into oblivion and his qualities be lost to posterity. "Pimlico had an opportunity to build up a strong stake system and its leaders promised the turf authorities, which they are now so ready to criticise, some time ago that they would do so. Now. however, that racing has a chance to return to what it ought to be they not only fail to avail themselves of the chance to be helpful but pursue a course which is detrimental to the best interests of racing. They have become a mere money-making organization and their claim that their method is better for the future of the sport is specious hypocrisy."
