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FORMAL PROTEST AGAINST A NEW RULE. Bowie, Md., November 21. Joseph A. Murphy, manager of the racing department of the Business Mens Racing Association of New Orleans, La., has filed with the Jockey Club, the Kentucky State Racing Commission and the Canadian Racing Associations, a protest against the rule barring from races under their jurisdieton two-year-olds that race before April 1. His letter of protest reads as follows: The Business Mens Racing Association of New Orleans, La., herein files a protest against the rule barring two-year-olds from tracks under your jurisdiction, during the year 1917, that are raced before April 1, and respectfully asks that the rule be amended by the substitution of any one of the subjoined features. First That the rule be suspended for the year 1917. Second That the prohibition bo limited to races run before April 1, only on tracks within the geographic lines of jurisdiction claimed by the Jockey Club, the Kentucky State Racing Commission or the Canadian Bacing Associations. Third That the prohibition be limited only to stakes for such horses as may run- in races before April 1. In support of our protest I wisli to submit the following reasons: First The Business Mens Racing Association is not within the geographic lines of jurisdiction claimed by any of the above associations and it believes, as it races under its own rules, that its position is sufficiently established in racing to entitle it to the courtesy of representation in legislation directly affecting its interests. Second That the rule is without merit. Close analysis of track and climatic conditions will show that horses trained at New Orleans are as fit to run three and three and a half furlongs in January and February, as those trained in Maryland anil Kentucky are to run a half mile in April. That there is no more logical reason for barring horses that run three-eighths in January, than for barring yearlings that are tried out, under whin and spur, a quarter of a mile in October. Third That owing to adverse legislation and other causes, the breeders of the country have been sorely tried for the past few years and that it is unwise to curtail theearning capacity of the horses they breed. The crossing of high-class stock does not necessarily produce a stake winner and it costs as much to raise a selling plater as a champion. The effect of your rule will be to make what appear to bo culls of a sale practically worthless. Fourth .That the alleged injury to horses racing early is purely theoretical, with no concrete facts to bear it out, while the records will show that many champions have been developed in winter racing. Old Rosebud, the holder of the record in the Kentucky Derby, was a winter product. Westy Hogan and Harry Kelly were developed in New Orleans. I might name others. In conclusion, I beg to submit that an amendment, simply barring from stakes during the year, horses that race before April 1, will be satisfactory to us and seems to meet all requirements. Speaking of the protest, Mr. Murphy, who is presiding at Bowie, said: "We shall give a two-year-old race every day except Wednesdays, when we will have no race of less than a mile. We are doing this at the request of a number of breeders and horsemen. If the rule we are protesting against, as at present drawn has merit, which personally I question, its sole aim must be to induce owners to lay away for late racing what might seem to be stake prospects. The amendment asked for would be no sacrifice of principle on the part of the three associations. Abraham Lincoln once said that God must have loved the common people because he made so many of them, so in the same proportion he must love the common thoroughbred, to create as many as he does. Still, these horses have their place in the equine world just as the middle classes have in the human race."
