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Here and There on the Turf Track Upsets Form. Crusader is the Best. Scapa Flows Campaign. That Canadian Tax. % * Some of the really good handicappers were all at sea for the Monday Bowie racing and, as some of the winners came from unexpected quarters, there were some who criticized horses for inconsistency. There was some apparent inconsistency, but it must be borne in mind that there was an altogether changed track condition and that was the reason for many of the form reversals. Ever since the opening of the Bowie meeting the going has been deep and for a goodly part of the time there was a sloppy mud on the surface that helped some horses and seriously hindered others. For the Monday racing, the track had dried out until the going was altogether changed | and, while the track was still slow, there was I I change enough to excuse the alleged form of some of the horses. Then, it must be borne I in mind, that the horses that raced Monday are poor class and they cannot be held as strictly to account as can others of better quality. It may so happen that before the end of the 1927 racing season, that brilliant and all as have been both American Hag and Crusader, it will be admitted that Walter M. Jeffords Scapa How is the greatest of the sons of Man o War. George Conway is better qualified to class Crusader and American Hag than any other man and he gives the palm to Crusader, but he admits that there is better than a chance • that Scapa How will prove a better colt than either of tbem. In making his estimate, Conway properly makes aa excuse for American Hag in that he . j had a crooked leg which was a handicap to his attaining his full measure of greatness. . Crusader has never had an ailment and his conformation is perfect. He has already accomplished great things, but it is entirely pos sible lhat had American Hag been the same : perfect individual bodily he might have gone i further up the ladder of fame than Crusader. . Scapa How has a better chance now to climb to big things than did Crusader at the same • . , time last year, for he is further advanced in t ! ! his training, and the plans at this time con-1 j template a try for both the Preakneas Stakes : and the Kentucky Derby. Crusader was not : started in either of these 0,000 races, though i [ races later in the year suggested that he • | j was able to win both. There are many who » f will take exception to an estimate which places i him over Edward R. Bradleys Bubbling Cher, , which won the Kentucky Derby, and it is a 1 1 question that is open to argument, but the most t rabid admirer of Bubbling Over must admit that there was no other cot better fitted to take his measure than the son of Man o War — tar Fancy. Crusader, though he is not far from racing condition, will not be campaigned at the Pim-lico meeting of the Maryland Jockey dub. He was not nominated to the Dixie Handicap and the present plan is to ship him to Belmont Park at the conclusion of the Havre de Grace meeting. Of the eleven two year -ohU that Conway has in his care for the Glen Kiddle Farm Stable at Havre de Grace, five are the progeny of Man o War, and they give promise of bringing still more fame to the son of Fair Play Mahubah. Two others are from the first crop of that good horse, Oceanic, and there are two by High Time, one of them greatly resembling | I I I • . j . : i . • . , t ! ! j : : i [ • | j » f i , 1 1 t Sarazen, the gelding that brought so much fame to the Ultimus stallion. Of the Man o War offspring that are to bear the colors of Samuel D. Riddle, five are fillies, the only colt being a son of Man o War and Highest Appeal, which has appropria:ely been named War Whoop. A daughter of Problem and, accordingly, a half sister to that great filly Friars Carse, is known as Miss Shrapnel; Marine Blue is a happily named daughter of Topaz; Windlass is a daughter of Milky Way, and Canteen is the name chosen for a daughter of Offensive, which is accordingly a half-sister to Smoky Lamp. All of these are chestnuls and each one shows some of the appearances of the wonder horse in conformation. War Whoop, the one colt, is not as large as some of the fillies, but he is of particularly attractive conformation and has shown enough already to suggest that he will be a worthy son of a great horse. Oceanic is sending his first crop to the races this year and the two in this string suggest that he will make his way brilliantly as a stock horse. Both have been indelibly stamped by the son of The Finn. They are of goodly-size and are built along racy lines and, like the others that were brought up from Berlin to Havre de Grace, they are well advanced in racing preparation. The stable has nothing to brag about in the three-year-old division but, with Crusader and Corvette to bear the colors in handicaps and this strong band of two-year-olds, the Glen Riddle Farm colors should again be truly prominent throughout the racing year. An evidence of what excessive taxation did to Canadian racing in the Province of Ontario, is shown in a recent report filed by provincial treasurer Dr. J. D. Monteith. The figures show revenue, surplus to the commission, the amounts paid in purses and the amounts that went to races that were exclu sively for Canadian bred horses. These figures all reflected the progress of the sport, but the figures that really showed the most disastrous effect of the tax came in the volume of wagering, from which every pari-mutuel track obtains its principal revenue. It is there that comparisons were shown for 1924. 1925 and 1926. These comparisons re- veal a tremendous falling off in the wagering which is proof conclusive that the betting pub- lie, from which the various associations obtain the revenue, were driven away because of the tax that so cut into the "pot" that the racing became unpopular with the bettors. Woodbine, where the Ontario Jockey Club holds forth and the most notable of all Canadian race courses, showed a total of ,275,603 wagered in 1924, against ,757,404 in 1926. Several of the other associations showed a like, or proportionately a greater, falling off in the volume of betting, while each one showed a material decrease. All of the Canadian racing attracts a considerable patronage from the United States and there are courses, particularly those at Windsor and Fort Erie, where more than eighty-five per cent of the patronage comes from over the border. This, to a great extent, is the patronage that has been driven away by reason of the high tax on the specu-i lation which, of necessity, is paid by the speculator. Racing everywhere must have wagering of some description to succeed. It is essential to the carrying on of a race meeting that there be wagering. That has always been admitted, and Canada legalized the pari-mutuel system for the reason that it put the wagering under control and. at the same time, brought a con siderable revenue to the government. The figures show that the excessive tax, and noth ing else, has brought about this falling off in the amount of money handled and, accordingly, a falling off in the revenue This amounts to taxing racing out of existence should it con- tinue and. when taxation become confiscation, it is both inqwlitic and illegal, Racing is legalized and taxed whereby the government becomes a partner in the enter prise, then this, partner has proceeded, by its unfair taxation, to all but wreck the enter-t prise in which it shares so bountifully.
