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PARI-MUTUELS GAIN IN POPULARITY Irish Turfmen Advocate Introduction of "Iron Men" in Ireland A Lesson from This Country. BY FBAXCIS NELSON. TOUONTO, Out., November 12. The meeting of the Irish Horse Breeders Association passed a resolution on the subject of the necessity of increased race values that is taken as indicating their advocacy of the introduction of the pari-mutuel into a country where the only method of turf speculation is the bookmaking system. The wording of the resolution was as follows: "That the Irish Horse Breeders Association earnestly petition the stewards of the Turf Club to appoint a committee to examine and report en the methods pursued in France and Australia which enable these countries so to increase the value of their races and decrease the forfeits and other expenses of racing as to render it possible for the smallest breeder to test his horses on the race course." The Irish investigators could perhaps find in America more valuable information on their point than in either France or Australia. In the former country, especially, it is a long time since book-making lias been recognized, and thus the comparison in conditions is not of such recent date as to offer incontestable conclusions. On the other hand, it is possible, because of the recent introduction of the machine in certain parts of the United States, to arrive at a direct comparison of results as far as increase of purse money is concerned. It is tmssible to go farther than that, and compare the two cases almost side by side. Two weeks ago there was racing at the great metropolitan City of New York, the richest and most populous city of the western hemisphere, under the oral system, and also in Maryland, a much smaller and much less important racing community, in the latter state the mutuel system is operated, and purses are far in excess of anything at New York or Saratoga. In Kentucky owners race under the mutuel method for purses much more valuable than New York can offer, or than Kentucky offered when the bookmakiug system was in force there. If there is any one result from the change that is beyond question if. is the tremendous increase in the returns to owners and breeders. In Canada and the United States owners are a whole generation ahead of British owners in the matter of less expense to themselves and greater revenue from the public. A Canadian owner can make an entry in a ,300 race like the Kings Plate "or the Toronto Cup for a five-dollar bill. In Ireland It would cost him D0, and he thinks ho is lucky because that is a reduction of two per cent, when it was formerly three per cent. We can learn many things from the British turf, but the opportunity "to learn is not entirely one-sided.
