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TWO-YEAR-OLD STAKE CONDITIONS. W. S. Vosburgh Thinks Penalties Excessive and Allowances Even More So. In reading the conditions of the stakes for two-year-olds, it has often occurred to me that the penalties are somewhat excessive, but that the allowances are more so. It can be said in reply that no class of horses can concede so much weight to each other as can two-year-olds a fact that has lieoonie one of the proverbs of racing. It can also be said that the differentiation is necessary in order to produce fields and good contests that unless tin? penalties are high and the allowances liberal, a colt of the class of Domino, Colin, Tremont. or Sensation, would frighten off competition and have a lean sweep of the stakes. Hut, it is only at long intervals that these "phenomens" uppenr, and to provide conditions to iinrvt them is often providing what never happens. Moreover, it is hardly fair that in the most valuable, stakes the standard events a colt should be heavily weighted because he has already won races of value. In handicaps, it is different: there the colts must be weighted on their racing form. Hut few of the great stakes for two-year-olds are handicaps. They are events for which many of the contestants have no public form they have not started previously. Yet, one often finds in the conditions maidens allowed 10 pounds," or 1.1 pounds. In stakes of great value, I have often doubted whether maidens should be granted any allowances. The idea of such stakes is that they shall bring together the best colts and fillies of the year the corps delite. Hold Back the Good Ones. For example, some of the most valuable two-year-old events latterly have been run at Saratoga the Vnited States Hotel, Grand Union, Sanford Memorial, etc Some stables, having tried a colt sufficiently high to know his quality, can withhold him during the early season from all races, not starting until Saratoga, where he appears claimiug1 maiden allowance, and in such a case he is likely to win. The astute Mr. Itowc has for several seasons availed himself of this with Mr. Keenes and latterly with Mr. Whitneys lot. Dominant, for I example, in 1915 started with only 107 pounds, while liulse, which had won several races, had to shoulder 130 pounds. 1 am glad to say that the maiden allowance for the important stakes at Saratoga next season, has been reduced. Between colts of anything approaching equal merit, as in the case of Dominant vs. Dulse, the difference is too great. In the great two-year-old events of England such allowances arc granted only in produce stakes not in the standard events. In the Middle lark Plate seven pounds is the maximum penalty with no allowances. In the Dewhurst Plate there are penalties of four pounds, seven pounds, and a winner of the Middle Park Plate, ten pounds; but no allowances. The July Stakes at Newmarket has no penalties beyond three pounds for fillies, and the same conditions apply for the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster. In the Criterion there is a ten-pound penalty; no allowances. In the British Dominion at Sandown, twelve pounds penalty; four pounds allowed to maidens. Should Be Light in Spring. Penalties for races won in the spring should be light; those for races won after, say, July should be heavy. Frequently the best colts are not started in the spring stakes, but are reserved for the richer events of August and later. Again, a colt that has won one or more of the spring events and incurs a penalty of eight pounds or ten pounds, unless he is above the ordinary, is "anchored" for some time, or until other colts have also acquired penalties which bring them upon even terms with him. Bulse was a case in point, so were Prince of Como, Celandria, Ormondale. Achievement, etc., in 1915; and Tumbler, Yankee Witcli and Koh-i-noor in 1910. Of course, later in the season the penalties should be heavier, to equalize chances. The colts which have won the valuable stakes of the summer have classified themselves and, having had their share of i the spoils, deserve extreme penalties in the autumn. f It is in the autumn, too, that the allowances should be liberal. But liberal allowances in the spring and early summer, particularly maiden allowances, are not in the best interest of racing, when they are made a part of the conditions of the most important stakes. In minor events, or overnight events, it is quite a different matter. In other words, we should retain something of the "racing spirit" in our chief events. They are few, and surely there are enough other races to satisfy the purely speculative people who only care for races on which they can have a bet. Let us have a few races in which speculation is the incidental, not the paramount, consideration. Of course, we must move with the times, which demand conditions which equalize the chances of the horses. But it is A, possible to move too fast all sail and no anchor. Some may say this is sentiment. It is but surely a little sentiment in racing would not be unsanitary. Allow the people of cynical morality and mere opportunism to dictate the policy of racing, and how long would racing exist? W. S. Vosburgh in the Thoroughbred Record.
