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HERE IT IS— PERFECT STARTING DEVICE. Australian Has Solved Problem Which Turns Officials and Spectators Prematurely Gray. E. W. Ferguson of the Montreal Herald has dug up from Australia the news of a starting device for the thoroughbred sport which "will make every Ktart perfect, without the possibility of jostling or interference; remove the opportunity for a dishonest loekey to take back his mount, apparently by iceident. in the swirl of the ordinary jumbled start: make it impossible for a refractory animal to break up a start by swerving as the barrier streaks up, or of some weak-wristed jockey allowing his mount to cut across and jam other contenders back." This looks like a pretty large order, but it is claimed that the first time it was tried the horses got away in ten seconds to a magnificent start, with no crowding or bumping. The device is a group of individual starting stalls, lined out across the track at the starting point, one for each horse. These stalls are about four feet high at the back and slope down at the front, so that there is no fear tf the jockeys having their feet caught as they jump out. At the back of each stall is a chain, which is hooked up as soon as the horse has walked in. The horse cant back out and he cant crowd ever at the sides, throwing the other starter into confusion. Theres only one place left for him to go, and thats out the front door. The principle on which the inventor based his scheme is that horses are very responsive to the sense of touch. Inder the existing system, when they roll about and touch each other a kicking match is ofter begun immediately, sometimes with disastrous effects. His experience of horses teaches him that if they arc confined in a stall, the moment they leach the wooded side they will straighten up and will not be frightened. Starting stalls would certainly ameliorate the nervous and strenuous lot of the starter us at present ltglllated.
