Reason For Abandoning Racing., Daily Racing Form, 1917-05-03

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REASON FOR ABANDONING RACING. Since the outbreak of war. horse racing on a limited scale has been continued in Knglaud, the supporters of the turf maintaining that it was necessary for the preservation of the all-important horse breeding industry, of which they declare racing to l e an indisputable branch. Kennedy Jones, director of food and economy and founder of the London Daily Mail, who was a well-known race horse owner before the war, recently gave The Associated Press the following statement i:i answer to the foregoing claim: "Most jKople agree that the horse breeding industry, in which we are pre-eminent, must bo maintained. But to insure this it is only necessary to allow oats for broodmares, for horses at breeding farms and for yearlings. These classes are not alTected by racing, which is only essential in ti year such as this for the twenty or thirty first-class three-year-olds, so that their degree of value as prospective stallions and mares may lie decided. "This would be achieved if the five classic races only or substitutes for the five classic races were run at Newmarket. Thus the 4,000 horses now in training would be cut down at once to about thirty or forty horses and the saving in oats would be, if not large, at all events, of real value in the present circumstances. Broodmares, stallions and yearlings and the thirty or forty horses which might be entered for these five races, ought to be strictly rationed and the other horses should either be turned out to grass or killed. "In view of the fact that our stock of oats at the present rate of consumption may be completely exhausted by the middle of June, it would appear to me, even in the interest of horse breeding, that the course I suggest is urgently advisable. "May I add thnt I have not raced a horse this year and that I do not intend to do so."


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1917050301/drf1917050301_7_2
Local Identifier: drf1917050301_7_2
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800