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RACING TESTS IN 1876 AND 1916. Sweeping Changes During Forty Years in the Distances Run by American Thoroughbreds. How racing has been revolutionized in the last forty years is shown by the records of 1876 enm-1 ared with those of 1910. In the Centennial year 470 races were run in the United States, and of these Ml were heat races. Four were at four mile neats. four at three mile heats, eighteen at two mile heats and seventy-two at mile heats. Only one race reported was of a distance less than a half mile, and only nineteen were run at that distance, most of these being at fairs. There were ten dashes at five-eighths, forty-five at three -quarters and sixty-live at one mile. Forty-three were at a mile and a quarter, fifty at a mile and a half, twenty-eight at a mile and thr-e-oaarteia, forty-four at two miles, seventeen at two miles and a half, seven at three miles and three at tour mibs. Statisti.s show, there was not a running race at any recognized meeting last year under the jurisdiction of the Jockey Club in which the horses had to repeat, evn at the shortest distances. Four mile races, o ice deemed to be the true test of an tmeriean thoroughbred, were unknown, and sub-■tantJaHy the same thing was true of races at three miits and at two miles, while the number of cashes at distances greater than a mile and a half was negligible. At some of the purely commercial meetings the program day after day showed no race at a distance so great as a mile. Even at Saratoga there was only i no contest at a greater distance than a mill and a quarter in a month of racing, and at Belmont Park the Municipal Handicap and the It. aUaathm were the only exceptions on the program of the autumn meeting. — New York Herald.
