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IN THE HANDS OF THE HANDICAPPERS By SALVATORE Back during the winter of our discontent when everything was in a mess especially in the metropolitan terrain and it was very uncertain whether there would be any rac ¬ ing there at all in 1934 none of the various racing associations having opened any of their usual stakes and declining to do so until they knew what the future was to hold it seemed highly necessary to stimulate in ¬ terest in some way wayAccordingly Accordingly one day it was announced s seemingly with authority that it had been c decided in the event there was racing over j tracks in the jurisdiction of The Jockey Club the coming summer that weight limit had j been agreed upon in the allaged handicaps j It was announced that this limit had been f fixed at 126 pounds poundsThe The reason assigned being that there was a desire to bring larger fields to the post j in such fixtures as the Suburban Brooklyn Metropolitan Toboggan and similar stakes which in recent seasons have shown alarm ¬ ing declines in both entries and starters whereby much of their once blazing glory j had departed departedThe The idea was that with a lower scale of imposts more owners and trainers would be encouraged to enter and start their steeds thereby restoring to these oncesoglorious contests their old prestige and interest At least such was the information vouchsafed vouchsafedWhen When this was given out in the Daily Rac ¬ i ing Form I allowed myself some comments i upon the proposed departure which was in i many ways one of the most notable ever J attempted in the conduct of racing in this country since handicaps took possession of 1 the stage and sent weightforage events glimmering we today have so few of them J left for aged horses that it is possible to count those of any importance upon half the i fingers of one hand handMy My digression then was that the pro ¬ cedure if placed in practice was unlikely 1 to bring the results that alone could justify i its institution That lightening the scale would and could only result in still easier victories in these events by really good 1 horses of which thank God we have a few still with us strang as that may seem seemFurthermore Furthermore I observed that if the object was to fatten the allaged handicaps there was only one way in which to do so that is assure bringing to the post large fields of highclass horses capable of renewing their vanished glories gloriesThis This I intimated was to softpedal two yearold racing which has swollen to simply monstrous and ruinous proportions and in particular to decrease twoyearold weights which have become by a gradual process of revision upwards in their turn ruinous and monstrous monstrousThe The condition boiled down I stated to this that as along as twoyearold racing was so abused as it now is and twoyear old weights were so excessive it was idle to expect to bolster up the allaged handicap division by decreasing weights in the events given them This was simply putting the cart before the horse saving at the spigot and spilling at the bunghole bungholeEvidently Evidently if the decrease described the fixing of a topweight of 126 pounds in these events was really contemplated it was later on decided not to enforce it For our fast friend Equipoise has received 133 pounds according to announcement for his initial eassy of 1934 on one of the Metropoli ¬ tan courses coursesAnd And how in faith could it be otherwise Who wants to race an Equipoise with but 126 pounds on his back at his favorite dis ¬ tances when he has shown his ability to turn them off as he comes to them with any ¬ thing up to 135 pounds aboard That is so long as he is thought fit to go to the post postHowever However it was not without sympathy that I noted the resigned expression of trainer T J Healey used by him recently in talking of his horse horseEquipoise Equipoise said he is in the hands of the handicappers handicappersOne One cannot but think of the eminent statesman who when election time comes around is announced as being in the hands of his friends As we all know very fre ¬ quently after election is over we learn that he was stabbed in the house of his friends or words to that effect We are asked to observe the rents that the envious Cascas Cassiuses and Brutuses have made in his anatomy as he lies prostrate upon the poll ¬ ing booth with none so poor as to do him reverence reverenceYes Yes Equipoise is in the hands of the handicappers as his trainer says with an undertone of plaintiveness that the sympa ¬ thetic ear cannot fail to catch And the handicappers if he keeps right on winning will certainly do their best to crack down on him Incidentally I hope nobody will call Ekky to the attention of our honorable secretary of agriculture at Washington D C The spectacle of a horse that has already won well on toward 350000 and is still out after more would certainly outrage him to a violent degree He would not hesitate to turn the brain trust loose at him and after they had finished well might Signer Healey cry lustily for the handicappers to do their worst and he would put up with it and be glad 11 For after all what is a handicapper going to do Like others similarly situated he desires to hold his job Also to publicly demonstrate his fitness for doing so And the only way he can do it is to hand out weights that will at least raise the hope in the breasts of the owners and trainers of other steeds that they have a Chinamans chance EquipoiseNevertheless if no more to beat an Equipoise Nevertheless it is hard very hard for an owner or trainer to really love a handicap ¬ per perJust Just as hard as it is for the captain of a baseball team to really love an umpire Now and anon they may think they do but it is 1 to 10 that not later than dayaftertomorrow they will be thirsting for his gore To his face they may be polite and even effusive but if they could what they would do to him would be a pity and a shame to use classic language languageThere There are the form players too tooMost Most of them are in a state of mind about this that the other handicapper is wrong ninetenths of the time All of them are a great deal better handicappers themselves as they will not hesitate to admit if put on the spot And when they fail to cash their ticket which most unaccountably is quite often the case it is always because of the handicapping which if you want to know was rotten if not positively putrid So it will be seen many things besides Equipoise are in the hands of the handi ¬ cappers They are in fact about the most important and influential persons now active in racing taken by and large There ¬ fore in parting I would counsel you dont kill the handicapper unless you must Be agreeable to him if possible Meet him with a smile even if it hurts and refer to him amiably especially in public It will pay in the long run Not because handi ¬ cappers are susceptible to insidious flat ¬ tery but because they are like the rest of us merely human and doing their best And for the most part doing it well
