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INNOVATION FROM FRANCE JOHN SANFORD ADVOCATES ADOPTION OF THE FRENCH SELLING RACE RULE. Scheme Will Bo Tried Out at Belmont Park Today — Horr.e Claimed Ineligible to Start Feature of System. The selling or claiming race, at one mile, for three year-etda and over, to i„. run at Brhmat Park today as the sixth race. may initiate 11 venieiil of revolutionary character in the field of selling races in the I nit.-d States. It will be the first selling race run on this side of tne Atlantic under In- Pie at h s lling race ache , which the Jockey club has often beea urged to adopt and. the fact that the experiment is to be made .-it List, is owing to the persistent effort of John Sanford of Amsterdam, a member of the New ork State Racing Commission, steward of the Jockey Club aad the leading breeder of thorough broils in the Kmpire slate. Mr. Sanford. in cemmeii with most Americans »** kave rued in Frame, ami long held the conviction that the Preach rule governing selling races i. :i m.H ko! improvemi nt over the Knglisli rule, which has always had the call in this coun-trv. A year ago last winter he urged the Jockey lub to adopt it in its entirety the French idea ;iud he offered iii regular form an amendment to the rules of racing to effect that end. Rut the Jockey Club, with its bahitaal conservation, deferred action until la--i whiter, when it was decided to give the French idea a trial some time this year. Any bane entered overni-.-ht in this race of next Thursday, unless scratched at tin- regular time, may be claimed by any person, save his owner, for his entered price, plus the value of the race to the winner, ami as much more as the claimer elects lo oiler. Any horse as claimed will be ineligible to start. Intended starters must Im- in the paddock for inspection forty five minutes before the time fixed for the starting of the race, they may be dafaaed from that time up to thirty minutes before starting time, when the right to claim expires. Any overnight eatry failing t appear in the paddock as provided and not regularly re]H rted to the paddock judge, will be ineligible to start. Some Objects of the Rule. The object of this rule Is to prevent persons desiring to make sure bets on horses in selling races from taking unfair and unsportsmanlike advantage of the exi-tiag unsat isfactoi-.v selling race regulations, which have occasioned no end of unsavory scandal in the last fifteen or twenty years, ruder a general application of the French system, all owners must at all tfaaes put proper valuations on their selling platers if they desire to keep them and groups of sack horses properly weighted would insure racing of the keenest, sort. Claiming is not to be restricted merely to persons making entries in these races. Nor is the outsider, who may desire to possess himself of a plater, confined in his choice to the winner, which, under the existing system, is offered at auction after the finish. All bids are to be hi aded to the secretary. or clerk of the course, sealed, and this fiim-tiouary is the only person who may know of unsuccessful bids. The feature of the French scheme which commends it most strongly to the believer In fair play, is the clause denying the claimed horse the right to slut. This restriction restrains the greed of the potential claimer as well as it curbs the selfishness of the pel son. having the protection of omparatively unlimited capital, who seeks a Safe, but unfair medium of speculation. A phase that has an irresistible appeal to the lover of first-class racing, is that it will tend to keep the weights up and thereby give jockeys of age and experience the opportunity to pursue their calling many years longer than they may have had in the past. It has had that effect in France. The race tracks generally seem to favor the change And if. after the idea has had a fair trial at Belmont Park, ami at other New York tracks, horsemen take to it. its adoption as the governing selling race principle will follow in the natural course of events. Mr. Sanford. who in the last four or five years has taken a more active part in actual racing than he used to in the past, is making a personal canvass for the promotion of his reform that is winning it many adherents.
