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! WEIGHTS AND DISTANCES FOR TWO-YEAR-OLDS - By SALVATOB ............. t. -..4 So far as I am aware it has not yet been officially announced, and perhaps may not be until the event is next opened for nominations in December, but I have it on excellent authority that the Belmont Park Futurity is tc be restored to its old distance of six furlongs. Since 1924 it has been run over the Wide-ner course at the magnificent plant of the Westchester Racing Association, which was really built expressly for it, and during this period it has been, officially, a race of "about seven furlongs." It had previously been run, beginning with 1915, when it first came to Belmont, over the old chute there, which led onto the main track, and was of precisely six furlongs. The contemplated change, if made and there is, I am told, no doubt that it will be made will be the fourth change of distance which ha. prevailed since the inauguration of "the worlds richest race." It was first opened for the produce of mares bred in 1885 whose foals of 1886 were to race in 1888, by the old Coney Island Jockey Club at Sheepsheac1 Bay, of happy memory. It was then, as it is again to be made, a dash of six furlongs. With that restlessness which seems at times men changefulness devoid of purpose, only the first four Futurities were run under that condition. With 1892 a new course, like todays Widener, and called the Futurity course, wa3 built for it at Sheepshead, over which it was run for the following decade, which extends up to and including 1901. This course was not of exactly six furlongs, or 1,320 yards, but of 1,263 .yards, 1 foot, officially designated as "about six furlongs." These hybrid fragmentary distances have never been popular in the U. S. A., except occasionally with some official or association, which, for special reasons, sees fit to inaugurate them. Therefore, after the ten-year term from 1892 to 1901, inclusive, the "about six furlongs" was eliminated and the Futurity restored to its original exact six furlongs. That was in 1902 and thereafter it so remained, during migrations from Sheepshead to Saratoga, where It was run in 1910, 1913, and 1914 there were no renewals for 1911 and 1912 when the Hughes anti-racing crusade had prostrated the sport and thence to Belmont Park, until, as aforesaid, it went onto the Widener course and was lengthened for the first time to "about seven furlongs." Supposititiously, the change back to six furlongs will not affect the running of the race until in 1936, as the Futurity to be closed for a few months hence will be for foals of 1934. Along about 1920 there was an agitation set on foot for longer races of importance for two-year-olds than were then extant. As I recall it the first fruits of this movement was the establishment of the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, at Churchill Downs, a mile race, whose first running, in 1920, was won by Tryster, he beating Grey Lag, Behave Yourself and others and running the mile in 1:38 with 122 pounds up. The performance was hailed as a great one and as establishing a new record for the age and distance. In 1923 the event was won by Wise Counsellor, he establishing another new mark by running in 1:37 to beat Mad Play, Chilhowee, etc., also under 122 pounds. This remained high-water mark for the race until in 1930 Twenty Grand defeated Equipoise by a few inches in 1:36, flat one of the most thrilling exhibitions of sustained speed by a juvenile ever seen and still a record of its kind. Following the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes came the Pimlico Futurity, first run a year later and at the distance of one mile as well. While speedily becoming a very rich race it never produced such contests as its Blue Grass prototype, though in 1928 High Strung carried 122 pounds in -1:39. Then it was decided, in accordance with another sponsorial urge, to make .the race a mile; and a sixteenth, which it has been during the last four runnings and in 1931 Top Flight gave a memorable exhibition of gameness and endurance by running that distance in 1:44 track record 1:44 to snatch the victory from Tick On and Burgoo King. On the turf as Off it, everything moves in cycles. The longer-race-for-two-year-olds cycle appears to have run its course and now the Futurity, after having for the past eight years conformed to it, is, if my information is correct, to return to its original shorter distance. It remains to be seen whether the other two events above named will follow its example and reduce their courses. As the game of "Follow the Leader" is as fashionable in turf circles as elsewhere, it will not be strange if that occurs. Personally, I cannot say that such things mean much. In the days gone by the racing of two-year-olds at a mile was not at all infrequent. Indeed, it was sometimes done much earlier in the season than nowadays the Pimlico Futurity and Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes are, as is well known, late fall events. I can recall even when the California two-year-old Rinfax beat a field of aged horses at a mile and a quarter in time not far off the then "best of record." And such races seemed to take no more toll out ot the juveniles of that day than do the, as a rule, much shorter ones of today. But, of course, there was a reason. This reason -was the one which, "according to my lights, is responsible for much of the terrific toll taken from" our "juniors" nowadays, snuffing out their lights; as it were, in their cradle days, and playing havoc with the Derby material of the next season and the all-aged divisions of subsequent ones. This is nothing more nor less than the terrific and. outrageous weights which rre now the vogue for "two-year-olds on the American turf. -It is these weights, together with, the equally terrific and outrageous number of races for which they are so often asked that wreaks the havoc. If the reader is interested and has the American Racing Manual at hand, by turning to its encyclopedic tables of American Stake Winners under the heading of "History of Important Stakes" pp. 132-360 and referring to the tabulations of the oldest established two-year-old fixtures, he will be able to trace in an interesting way the evolution of the two-year-old weight scale. Take the ancient and honorable Juvenile; for instance. It was first run at old Jerome Park way back in 1874 sixty years" next spring. The weights in it for the first ten years were 110 pounds for colts and 107 for fillies and geldings and the sensations of that period carried no more to win or place in it. . In 1884 they were shoved up to 115 and 112 pounds for the respective sexes. A few years later they were boosted on up to a top of 118 pounds. Then they went on up to 122 and now starters are often required to carry 125 pounds, though the race is run in May and is the earliest of the season of such importance for the age. How strange a condition, one cannot but remark, when at the same meeting the historic three-year-old Withers classic is run and in it the contestants carry but 118 pounds, while in the still more classic Belmont, also for three-year-olds, they carry but 126. As I began this article with the Futurity, let us glance at that On its first running, in 1888, it was won by the sensational gelding, Proctor Knott. Although he had previously won a number of valuable stakes, he was called upon to carry but 112 pounds. Salvator, second, making his second start and yet a non-winner, carried but 108 . pounds. Galen, third, also a winner of several stakes previously, being an entire colt, had up ll: pounds. However, as the race was the richest in America, it seems to have been the idea of J. G. K. Lawrence, its "father," that the colt that won it ought to be well "sweated for the brass if he was to carry off all that money. The weights began to be piled on so that, when the fourth renewal came, in 1891, His Highness was burdened with no less than 130 pounds, a weight that would have evoked screams of protest ten years back and that no promoter would have dared impose. Since then the Futurity has become a full-fledged penalty-and-allowance event, with a vengeance. This state of affairs is no doubt due to the desire of the management to get a big field to the post, increase the value to the utmost and encourage all sorts and conditions of eligibles to "make a stab" at the biggest racing plum in the world. So fillies that hav- not been too good beforehand can get in as light as 114 pounds. But if you have a really good colt and have allowed him to win much of anything in advance of the event, he will be well taken care of with something from 122. to 130 pounds. The winner of the Futurity is supposed to be th best two-year-old of the year. But the winner of the Futurity is so seldom the best three-year-old of the next year that we have ceased to expect it. As a matter of fact, it hasnt happened "since Man o War" to once more apply the gauge by which things have been measured ever since Man o War. I have heard all sorts of ingenious, shifty and "expert" arguments in favor of piling high weights on two-year-olds, also read them in print. They are unconvincing becausethere are the records, which tell a sorry tale, for the most part. It has always been a maxim with trainers of experience that weight will break a horse down oftener than distance. It is also well known that when weight approaches the maximum of a horses capacity, as small an amount as a pound will affect the result of a race. When two horses are closely matched the least advantage either way may be decisive. When I was a mere boy I well recall that it used to be said of two great rivals of that period, Uncas and Monitor, that either was liable to beat the other with but a pound the best of the weights. It has also often been declared that a pound or two more will break down a horse if the race be a severe one, and I believe this contention a correct one. If these things be true and racing experience has confirmed them it is difficult to present convincing evidence in favor of the 1 inordinate and destructive weights that two-year-olds are now penalized with. The pleas in justification have always appealed to me as sophisms and "alibis" specious arguments, so-called, based upon anything but safe grounds. And they will never be anything else until those who uphold them can point to a different state of affairs and a different showing on the records than those which now prevail.
