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WEIGHT -FOR -AGE RACES DECLINE OF THAT HIGHEST FORM . OF RACING DEPLORED BY A FOREMOST TURF AUTHORITY Ky W. S. Vosburgh. It is a subject of frequent lament among racing men that we no longer have races at weight-forage. With the exception of the Saratoga Cup, it is a long while since we have had a really important weight-for-age race "for three-year-olds and upward." Nor have we had any for three-year-olds after the close of the Kelmont Park spring meeting. The historic Kelmont Stakes, which is. and always has been, the real prototype of the Epsom Derly, is still maintained at even weights; but while it continues to be won by one of the best colts of the year, the starters usually can be counted on the fingers of ones hand. Of course, "different times different manners." Weight-for-age events are things of the past. This is a commercial age and the spirit permeates the sport as well as other matters. Racing clubs believe that to attract public patronage they must make their programs attractive. While they are willing to offer races at weight-for-age, they cannot afford to liberally endow them only to find one "crack" horse starting against one or two third raters a one-horse race, too insipid to. awaken any interest on the part of the public. They are compelled, therefore, to offer handicaps, or races with penalties and allowances races in which the chances of the horses are so equalized as to. at least, promise something like a contest. Weight-for-age races have been abandoned because they were not supported nor will they be revived while trainers are allowed to dodge each others horses except when the value of the race is too great a temptation to resist. TJie racing clubs, in desnair, have gradually concentrated their efforts on races for two-year-olds because they produce the best fields, and "baby racing" is monopolizing all the interest after the great spring handicaps have been decided and the horses in the all-aged class have classified .themselves.- .Wejire. aware1 that races for two-year-olds are a necessity? and we believe colts are better for having been raced as two-year-olds. Rut two-year-old racing is an unsafe standard for breeding, and if breeding is liot to be considered, racing will have to find some other excuse for its existence. Already the greater value of the stakes for two-year-olds is having its effect. To win the Futurity is now the turfmans one ambition. The result of the sales of yearlings point to this. Only such yearlings as are by sires noted for the precocity of their-colts are wanted, and they bring the best prices. Breeders, especially those who breed for public sale, are compelled to breed for early maturity and quick action at the starting post. If their ef forts are successful, we shall in future have few horses that will train on after their two-year-old season and we have few enough already. The decline of weight-for-age races is due largely to the trainers, who practically control racing at present. The majority of the owners of our important stables wen? not "bred to racing" they entered the field later in life. They distrust themselves, and considering the trainer knows best, leave the trainer to decide when the horses shall or shall not start. With the trainer, racing is wholly a matter of business. If he has the best horse he is willing to start for any kind of race. But the other trainers refuse to take a sporting chance. They cannot see any profit "chasing the crack with no hope for anything better than second money. Ncr do thev care to nice over a distance, foe. as they truly "say, it dulls a horses speed for other races. FEW WILLING TO TAKE A CHANCE. You cannot blame the trainer. From his viewpoint he is quite right, but it means a difficulty to give weight-for-age races. It goes further than that. Even with such races as we have, it is difficult to bring together, a considerable number of the best horses, unless the race is of great monetary value then they will take a chance. Kut take an ordinary race; when the entries appear there is a consultation, the chances of each horse is care-fullv considered; then begins elimination, until finallv it is narrowed down to two horses, either one of which they agree can win. Then one of these is "scratched," leaving the other against which the odds will be longest to start, and they all back him. In short, they have reduced the race to u betting proposition. Kut they have ruined it as a contest. This is the condition prevailing on the New York race courses. At Saratoga it is not so marked, for there the presence of the western horses rather upsets these combinations. The western men are rather more willing to take a chance and start, which leave their eastern brethren the alternative of either starting or allowing the western horses to win. It was to prevent this wholesale scratching and spoiling urograms, that led the adoption to the "scratch rule" now in force. When I first attended races, a horse starting for a race could be notified to the clerk of the course, his number exhibited, and his jockey weighed, up to ten minutes before the race. At the suggestion of the late Mr. Pierre Lorillard, the rule was amended making it obligatory for a horse to be announced as a starter thirty minutes before the race. This is the present rule of racing No. 117A. . The western, also the Maryland, racing clubs found this rule so abused by "scratches" that they adopted the present "scratch rule" Hy which a horse must be named several hours beforu. the race or pay ten per cent of the stakes, and in some cases "he was not allowed to "scratch" even if willing to nay the fine. A few years since "scratching" became so frequent at Belmont Park that the card was reduced to nothing. As one of the stewards, I proposed the adoption of the "scratch rule," and it was done. For races closing during the meeting it made 12 oclock noon the hour for scratching, or pay 10 per cent of the stakes. That gave less time for combinations, but the trainers asked that it be made 10 oclock. To accommodate them it was done and combinations became as frequent as before. Kut it was with reluctance that such a "rule was adopted. Its principle is bad, as it interferes witli a mans right to do as he likes with his horse. It was only adopted when it became apparent that the horsemen could only be regulated by drastic measures. When the owners of race- horses decide to control their stables, this difficulty will be overcome to a considerable extent. The example of Mr. C. II. Mackay is one worth following. His trainer objected to starting Kanaster for the Metropolitan Handicap. Mr. Mackay insisted the horse should start, which he did, and won. The same season the trainer objected to starting Trigger for the Gazelle Stakes. Mr. Mackay ordered him to start her and Trigger won the race. In 1884 the trainer for the Dwyer Kros. objected to starting Miss Woodford for the Great Long Island Stakes. The Dwyers- Insisted she should start, which she did, and won. The trainer resigned; but the world rolled on just the same. But it is not always the trainer who is to blame for wrecking races. A few seasons since an owner, whom ive will call Mr. A., had fully intended starting one or two horses in an important race, and they would certainly have been strong public favorites. Shortly before the race another owner, whom we will call Mr. K., came to Mr. A. with "Are you going to start your horses V" "I expect to, certainly," replied Mr. A. "Well," resumed Mr. K., "my horse is certain to win never better in his life. Hell be at good odds. Yours will be favorites. Im certain to beat you. and you will do better to scratch yours and back mine." This was done. Mr. K.s horse won at good odds, : and while Mr. A. denied himself the glory of winning the race, he profited in the betting and saved his horse from defeat. Kut Mr. K. did better. He made sure of the race, won the stakes and the bets, and by a stroke of policy that would have done credit to Talleyrand he put Mr. A. under an obligation to return the compliment by giving him information in respect of the chances of Mr. A.s horses in future races. There is too evident a tendency to reduce the result of races to a certainty a process of elimination by which the issue-is narrowedyrnnd. "picking, the winner" rendered easier. It has the effect of diminishing the fields, preventing the meeting of horses of equal clnss, and unless the race is of great monetary value, often renders it a one-sided affair. Already there is a rule prohibiting jockeys from betting, and it might be extended to include all persons in attendance upon horses. Kut it is doubtful if it would correct the evil, for such persons would find plenty of men who would bet for them there is enough of that already. It is hardly to b: expected that we shall see any considerable number of races at weight for age. Kut that there should be more than there are no real racing man will deny. It is the highest form of racing. It eaters to the best horses in training. It Is one of the tests by which horses are selected for breeding, because the winner is supposed to have defeated the best horse of his season purely on his merits or without advantage in weight. He is the best horse. A handicap hows how much he is the best. Handicaps are scientific races; they arc the additional tests and the means of classification. But in common fairness a horse should be allowed a chance to demonstrate his superiority at even weights before being subjected to the greater test. At present a horse which has proved himself superior to his contemporaries has, after the July of his three-year-old form, no future except in handicaps. And in these he must necessarily be at a disadvantage. By winning handicaps he may add greatly to his renown, as Isonomy, Carbine and Minting did abroad, and as Roamer, Salvator, Ballot, Olambala, etc., did here. Kut an owner who is fortunate enough to possess a high-class horse should have some return for it without being compelled to alvays tke the worst of it. The general public prefer handicaps to races at even weights. We need the support of the public but so we do of the men who keep race horses. SPORTING SPIRIT APPEARS LACKING. If the sporting spirit prevailed, horses would more often be started on a sporting chance. In England colts are often started for the Derby on this principle. Here a man is in some quarters looked upon as a freak if he does that. When for the Kelmont Stakes of 1917 Mr. Coe started his colt Wonderful, a newspaper actually abused Mr. Coe "for starting a horse that had no chance, thus inviting the public to burn its money." Kut men of racing spirit honored Mr. Coes action. He craved the honor of sporting his racing jacket in a race which its age and traditions had rendered famous a race which such "cracks" as Hanover, Duke of Shelbj-, Delhi, Colin, Harry Kassett, Henry of Navarre, Spendthrift and Friar Rock had won and for which Aristides. Bramble, Baden Baden. The Bard, Grin-stead and Hamburg had essayed in vain. It has often been remarked that too few people in this country have caught the true spirit of racing. They seem to have an idea that It is only a medium for betting, to which all other considerations must give way. They have no idea of its conditions or its traditions. They cannot recall a great sweepstakes by its title. With many of them it is "the race Roamer won," or "the race Cudgel won." There is an absence of the healthy, hearty out -door spirit. They take it too seriously. Often a race is marked by a feeling as ir somebody was being tried for his life. They confuse judicial functions with police. During racing hours some act as if demented. They cannot listen to what one says to another, so eager is each to talk; and their talk is of the rapid-fire order, showing a nervous tension painful to witness. It was in Daily Racing Form of February 10, 1918 just a" year ago that I introduced the question "Should Geldings Be Eligible?" for the great standard stakes. It was a subject which I had long considered, but. had little expectations of its being entertained. In that I have been agreeably mistaken, for Latonia has since adopted it for its Derby and the Westchester Association has adopted it for the Withers and Belmont Stakes. It was a measure in the interest of breeding, and this letter is written with the same intent. Racing lias become a great lwpular amusement, and as such compels departures from the strictly sporting side of questions. Kut while making such concessions we should not overlook the maintenance nnd improvement of our breed of horses; and assuredly this end is served by excluding geldings from the races which are our tests for stallions, and maintaining at least a few races at even weights, with "a fair field and no favor," and "may the best horse win."
