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j Here and There on the Turf Fitness in Race Riding. Constant Practice Needed. Book for Empire City. Sale Company Scheme. j At the risk of being considered presumptious by both Eugene Leigh and Everett Haynes, it is suggested that for the benefit of Epinard and his third appearance in this country, it would be well if Haynes accepted some outside mounts at Latonia this week. Leigh has been prohibited from starting Epinard in any but his contract races until the contract has been completed, but thsre is no prohibition against Haynes accepting outside mounts. It is also presumed that Haynes would have no trouble in obtaining mounts. Haynes keeps himself physically fit, but it would csrtainly improve his race riding if he had more of it to do. There is a vast difference between keeping physically fit and keeping race-riding fit. Galloping horses in the morning is not race riding. The jockey can keep himself fit even without riding, but what Haynes needs is race riding. It is what the best jockeys need to keep race-riding fit. There is something more than physical fitness that comes into race riding. It is mental fitness as well as physical fitness. The only mental exertion in galloping horses in the morning is to know and study pace. In the afternoon it is a different proposition. Rac3 riding keeps the wits alert and teaches the jockey to think quickly and accurately, to do the right thing at the right time. The galloping horse in the work hours is out there without competition or, if he has a running mate and the consequent competition, there is no sharp riding tricks attempted to handicap the other horse. There are many tricks of race riding, as all jockeys can testify, that are all strictly within the law, but they are only mastered by race riding. Haynes knows these tricks of race riding, but it is easy to become rusty unless one keeps continually at it. Haynes should do some outside riding at Latonia, just to ke;p himself in the mental as well as the physical condition that the importance of the race of next Saturday demands. Frequently wonder has been expressed when this or that star jockey accepts a mount on some cheap plater that does not appear to have a chance. Contract employers have been censured for permitting their riders to take these outside mounts, and, as a matter of fact, many of the serious accidents, such as that which be- , fell Earl Sande, have come on outside mounts, but the constant riding is necessary. j If the jockey is to keep at his best he must do a deal of race riding. The best jockey j that ever threw a leg over a horse, if he is out of the saddle for a time, is handicapped immediately. Theoretically, he is as fit a3 ever in his life. He knows all there is to know about race riding, but he is out of practics. He never forgets how to sit on a horse and he never forgets how to conserve his energy, but he may think a bit slowly and he knows nothing of the tricks of the particular jockeys that are opposing him, and they all have their peculiar tricks. A dress rehearsal is never like the real V - thing, and a jockey that wants to keep himself at concert pitch all the time, had better be battling in races, even though some of his mounts should be despised platers that arc not worthy. They serve the purpose of furnishing the mental exercise of race riding that is just as esssntial in the matter of keeping fit as is the physical exsreise. The book has been issued for he meeting of the Empire City Racing Association, which begins at the Yonkers track October 16, to continue until October 30. It is the meeting that brings to a close the long New York season, and it will mark the closing of one of the most remarkable racing seasons in American turf history. The stake races have liberally atracted the best horses that have been seen all year, and a notable thing about the book is the fact, that there will be thrco races at a mile for the two-year-olds. The stake race at this distance for the two-year-olds is the Ardsley Handicap, and its popularity is attested by the fact that there are no less than seventy-three cligibles. Leading up to this stake race there are two overnight races at a mile for two-year-olds during the meeting. It is a meeting that should offer an excellent line on the three-year-old qualifications of the young racers. Another evidence of the popularity of the mile races for two-year-olds in the late fall is suggested by the number that have been engaged to meet older horses over this distance in races for all ages. Altogether it is a book of which James Butler and his associates may well feel proud, and it is racing that cannot fail to bring the local season to a brilliant close. Charles F. Hill, with his Thoroughbred Sale Company, has cut something of a figure in the horse sale business for a few years back, but his company promises to have new importance next year. It is a company that is devoted exclusively to the sab of thoroughbred horses and, at present, Mr. Hill is selling stock in his bigger organization that promises to invade that field to a greater extent in 1925. The present scheme is to sell stock in the reorganized company and breeders have been invited to take this stock. It has appealed to several already, for it makes the vendors of the yearlings partners in the revenue from the 1 conduct of the sales. Others, with no breed-J ing interests, have been attracted by the growing importance of the thoroughbred market1 and it is assured that the Thoroughbred Sale Company will grow to a big importance. The plans contemplate the creation of commodious j sale paddocks at Saratoga and the conduct of , the August sales. The tremendous success that has attended the Saratoga sales in August makes that city and that month the best scene j and the best time to make the offerings and, L with the new company vigorously after the j business, there should be a new era of success 1 in the market. ! Charles F. Hill, incidentally, will conduct a j sale of his own in the Pimlico paddock of the Maryland Jockey Club on November 13 during j the coming meeting. This will be a sale of horses in training and already several im-portant entries have been made by horsemen ; who do not contemplate racing through the 1 winter months.
