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DISCOURAGE GELDING OF STALLIONS BY MAKING THEM INELIGIBLE TO STAKE RACES New York, June 1. — The successes scored in recent years in the chief events of the American turf by geidings has frequently aroused comment among the rank and file of those who recognize racing as inseparable from horse-breeding. When Old Rosebud, Borrow, Stroni-boli. Roamer, Boots and Sam Jackson were making turf history in 191G and 1917, it was a subject of general regret that these splendid s| ecimens of the thoroughbred had not been left entire and the recent victory of Exterminator, an emasculated son of McGee, in the Kentucky Derby, has brought the subject to the fore once more. Frank R. Hitchcock, a steward of the Jockey Club and a keen student of the turf, who has for several years raced in France, where he maintains a breeding establishment at which so good a horse as Sandy Hook was born, said in discussing this phase of racing a few days ago at Belmont Park: "I take it that we are all sincere in the protestation that we are racing for the purpose of improving the horse — not only the thoroughbred horse, but the other families which he controls through his wonderful potency. As long then as we allow geldings to meet our entire horses and mares in the important stakes of the turf, we leave the way open to criticism. "There isnt a single event in this country in which geldings are ineligible, and England has only one — the Epsom Derby. In France the gelding has no place save in steeplechases and hurule races. The events on the flat are contested by stallions and irares only. "Who can estimate the value the horse product of this country would have derived from the sterling qualities of such great performers as Parole, Monitor, Freeland, Drake Carter. Barnum, Raceland, Banquet and other unscxed warriors of twenty years ago, to say nothing of the great geldings of today, if the knife had been spared. "This country," resumed Mr. Hitchcock, "is face to face with a shortage of cavalry horses. We have an abundant supply of light draught horses for transport and artillery, thanks to the cross of Percheron blood. In order to in- crease the supply of cavalry horses the government has tiecided recently to breed their half-bred mares, some 1,400 in number to thoroughbred sires. The Jockey Club has donated to the Department of Agriculture four good thoroughbred stallions, while others are being acquired by purchase. These, with the aid of a systrm of artificial impregnation, may be enough for the present. Should the government decide to continue on its own part and to encourage the breeders of the country to lend 1 their aid in the producing of half-breds for the cavalry on a large scale— and the results of experiments in other countries would justify the policy— it will be necessary to have an 1 abundant supply of good thoroughbred stal lions from which to make a selection. If the : government will then pay a fair price for the , progeny, it will not be many years before the 1 supply of cavalry horses will greatly increase. "In order to provide an abundant supply of stallions suitable for breeding half-breds for • the cavalry, the Jockey Club should discourage the gelding of stallions as far as practicable. Geldings no longer have the three pounds allowance and should be further i enalized by making them ineligible to start in any stake race, except handicaps and selling stakes. Such a rule would tend to discourage the practice and would not call for too radical a change in the rules of racing. It is not necessary to have the best horse of the year to breed to half-breds. A good, sound selling plater of the right type and one whose soundness had been tested on the race course; is good enough for the purpose. If such horses had a ready sale at the end of their rating careers for, say, ,000 to ,000, to be used on cold-blooded mares, owners would be compensated for keeping their horses entire. "The average trainer," said Mr. Hitchcock in conclusion, "finds it much easier to prepare a gelding for his engagements. The stallion has a heavier forehand and it is for this reason that many of our horsemen make the change. Geldings accordingly become commercial appendages and serve no useful purpose after their careers on the turf are terminated."
