view raw text
Here and There on the Turf Publicity in Sport. Excessive Praise. Superhorse Is Rare. A Few Examples. Publicity is a vastly important factor in all sports of the present day. To .publicity can be attributed the powerful attraction which baseball, football, racing and other sports have for the public. There is no doubt, however, that publicity exercises another influence upon every sport I than this one of attracting the public. The press agent is ever anxious to take advantage of the publics tendency toward hero worship. If there is no Titan to be praised it is the business of the press agent to "titanize" a Lilipu-tian for this purpose. In other words, publicity in these days often has a tendency to destroy perspective in sports and to make the always difficult task of comparing the stars of today with those of yesterday even more puzzling. In the old days even such giants of the turf as Boston and Lexington enjoyed no such public attention as a minor star of the pressnt day. A horse which wins a 0,000 race nowadays is acclaimed from one end of the country to the other. His pedigree is dissected and analyzed. Experts and near-cxp;rts diagnose and explain his action, his physique and his real or imaginary qualities which distinguish him from others of his kind. This horse may be only a good second rater or he may be even less. Yet the public at 1 large is given to think he is the wonder of the world, that no horse has ever before possessed such overwhelming claims to fame and that no horse in the future is likely to equal him. It is not possible for every newspaper in th2 country to have on its staff a real expert in 1 every line of sport. In the first place there arc not enough experts and in the second place there would not be enough work for them if they were available. . Neither is it possible for every press agsnt to be an expert. Besides, it might not change the situation particularly if every publicity man was endowed with that sixth sense which would enable him to distinguish equine genius from mere talent. The publicity mans primary object is to have his writings enjoy the attend ticn of the editor. Suppose he should write something like this about a leading Derby candidate: "Among the entries for the big race is Blank, a colt of exceptionally bad breeding and conformation, which by some freak of fortune has succeeded in winning a large number of races 5 from other horses which ought to be, but arc 5 not, vastly superior to him. This horse will undoubtedly bs the favorite for the big race, but what a sad commentary on the decadence of the turf in these days it is to see such an 1 animal in this position." The editor would look over a part of the paragraph, which might be perfectly true and 1 real expert opinion, and into the waste basket t I 1 1 it would go. This same Blank would have attained a position as a public idol, no doubt, and such candid criticism would not be popular. On the other hand,, suppose he should write something like this about the same colt: "The remarkable advance of breeding in this country is wonderfully exemplified by the success of Blank, the remarkable colt which will no doubt deservedly occupy the position of favorite for the Derby. Blanks blood lines a few years ago would have been considered unfashionable, but the remarkable juvenile career of this colt has raised his family overnight into the front rank of thoroughbred stock horses. Although there has never been such a number of high-class three-year-olds in the country in any one jear as at present, there is no doubt that Blank will beat them all." That would fit in with what had been written previously about this horse, and it would find its way into the columns of many newspapers. But this condition is not a particularly good thing for the sport. Racing does not depend on the annual appearance of a superhorse for its popularity. As a matter of fact, the superhorse, when he does appear, often injures the racing for that particular year. Trainers of less remarkable horses would not care to run their charges against this wonder horse, and he would have little competition in any of his races. . And certainly there is no useful purpose to be derived by inflating the reputation of a useful but moderate animal by excessive praise, only to have him explode the bubble by his own unaided efforts on the race course. After all, even publicity cannot make a reputation for a horse unless the horse himself is capable of helping the, work along in actual racing. Man o War, publicity and all, was un-. doubtedlj almost as great a horse as he was credited with being. But the "second Man o Wars" which have been written about since he left the race course have sll failed to demonstrate their right to the too generous praise j accorded them. The ovcrcnthusiastic critics who hailed Mor-vich as a superhorse did not have long to wait for their idol to crumble. Zev, in spite of all the pleasant things that have been written about him, is not a superhorse. He is. a good colt, with the advantage of superb training and expert riding. He won several races last year which he probably would have lost if he had not been in such fine condition and so well ridden. So far as publicity is concerned, it is much better to err in the direction of conservatism than to exaggerate the qualities of a horse. A first-class horse is well able to make his own reputation and a second-class one will find his own level, if he keeps on racing long enough. No publicity in the world will make a world-beater out a second rater, and faint praise can never detract from the real reputation of a wonder horse.
