view raw text
COMPARATIVE SPEED OF OFTURF TURF AND DIRT COURSES By SALVATOB Recently in Daily Racing Form I wrote of the racing inaugurated over the new turf course at Arlington Park of the great addi ¬ tion it was as a spectacular asset to the sport there and the fascination of such contests to those who love racing for its own sake In this connection I dug into ancient history for a few facts about old time American turf courses how they were at length supplanted by dirt or skinned ovals and then became obsolete altogether except for the revivals first inaugurated at SheepshTead Bay in the 1880s and latterly those at Hamilton Ont at Hialeah Park Miami Fla and lastly at Arlington the most recent addition to the little group groupIn In that article I had no space to more than mention the fact that when dirt courses were first introduced on the American rac ¬ ing terrain by trying horses over them it was found that they could run faster than they did over the turf and that this was what led to the abandonment of racing over the greensward It is difficult to account for what may be termed national habits or practices Why the American public from about the year 1800 or thereabouts should have become so insistent upon fast time and record breaking whereas in England whence the sport had been derived little or no interest was taken in that feature is one of those things which like the identity of he man who gave Billy Patterson that his ¬ toric paste in the slats can never be found out All we know is that it was and is so Anybody who cares to turn the pages of our ancient turf records will find there am ¬ ple testimony to show that when the de ¬ mand for fast time together with accurate and precise timing first became an issue in our turf affairs it encountered much opposition oppositionThe The newborn U S A was then still very emphatically English in most of its ways and means habits of thought and action saving only those things which were truly indigenous Our whole culture was Anglo Saxon its force and its traditions were most powerful and breaks away from it were not easily or quickly made In the case of racing this was particularly true It was an outandout importation lifted bodily from the mother country and trans ¬ planted to this one Therefore it was taken for granted that the approved English meth ¬ ods of turf procedure were the correct thing and must necessarily govern Our horses had all been bred up from English ancestors imported expressly for the pur ¬ pose and that they should race in the Eng ¬ lish fashion seemed to many the only way In consequence when time and its record began to assume importance in our racing scheme there were loud and longcontinued outcries from those who knowing that it cut7 no figure at Newmarket T r Epsom de ¬ nounced the newfangled ideas about it and called for their being immediately read out of court Many of the protestors were also among the foremost turfmen then active as breeders and owners and at this distance it seems decidedly strange that they really got nowhere with their hubbub for that was the case caseOur Our first periodical devoted to the turf was the American Turf Register of John S Skinner of which Vol I No 1 ap ¬ peared at Baltimore Md in the fall of 1829 but long before that time had won its battle and was played up prominently wherever horses raced North or South However the diehards as is traditional with their clan like the Old Guard at Waterloo pro ¬ claimed that they might perish but would never surrender so they continued to write to the editor and expose the utter folly of attaching any importance whatever to the time made in races racesBut But they never got anywhere as every ¬ body knows The gods who have the turf under their special protection had already decided that the old gentleman with the scythe who was one of them anyhow was the winner winnerToday Today over 100 years later there are still a few persons interested in our turf affairs I am speaking of native Americans who from time to time cpntinueto write to the editor to tell him and the world that the time test is a fallacy But between you and me they are as an eminent master of words once put it just bombinating in vacuity Simply that and nothing more moreAs As a matter of fact the time test now enters as an important factor into racing the world over Even into the EngUsh scheme For in that citadel of tradition it has scaled the breastworks and instead of being treated as an impudent and offensive scoundrel is in many quarters looked upon as something that it is foolish to ignore And many people who not so many years ago would have hooted at the idea are today heard to remark While you may not live to see it the time is coming when all races in England will be officially timed and the time made a part of the official sum maries mariesAs As I see it one reason for the typical American circular course of absolutely cor ¬ rect measurements at all distances and with its skinned surface has been due to two things first the desire for fast time and secondly for racing of a standardized pat ¬ tern The first is praiseworthy the second much less so soOne One thing that puzzles many men inter ¬ ested in fast time and time of all kinds is the fact that when one turns to the records one finds that many of the records accredited to English horses over English turf courses excel those made by American horses over American skinned courses And they say sayIf If it is a fact that here in America horses run faster over dirt courses than over turf courses which the comparative records show and the English horses run much faster in some instances over their turf courses than ours do over our skinned ones there can be only one explanation It is this The English horse must be faster than the American AmericanLike Like many superficial explanations how ¬ ever this one dont sit deep in the water waterOne One reason why the time made over English courses by English horses is so fast apparently is because timing there is not official and even by English turf men thenv selves is regarded as open to doubt about its correctness correctnessAnother Another is the fact that many English courses are of doubtful measurements that the horses running over them go precisely the distances alleged is often open to question questionStill Still another is the fact that whereas straight courses are virtually unknown in America save for races over short distances Belmbnt Park has the only one regularly in commission and it is but seven furlongs England has numerous ones of a mile and more Beyond that while in almost all American races beyond a mile the horses race around two curves having altogether four turns in England there are many courses of beyond a mile which call upon the horses to make only one and that a very easy bend These things factor heavily in the time made by the horses horsesStill Still another is the fact that England has many downhill courses That is down hill all the way And over them some of the most notable recordbreaking times have been made We have in this country nothing of that kind As regards the much faster time in which American horses run over our own dirt courses than they do over our turf courses these things must be borne in mind mindFirst First and foremost all the principal events for the best arid fastest horses are run exclusively over the dirt dirtFor For over 100 years there has not been con tested in this country a single event so far as I am aware which was of the major class and called out the best horses in training that was run over a turf course Our races over turf are all minor events almost with ¬ out exception overnight purses arid are participated in by few of any real stake horses horsesIn In the second place as turf racing is in vogue today over but two turf courses in the United States and but one in Canada over the flat of course and for generations was discontinued altogether our horses have been bred and trained to race only over dirt and become so exclusively habituated to it that they cannot be expected to run as fast over turf To run his fastest over turf a horse must not only run continuously over it he must be trained over turf as well And that in America is impossible impossibleIn In the last analysis it is possible if not probable that the dirt course really holds the edge is faster purely in and of itself than is the grass Still the Australian wonder Gloaming ran a halfmile in 45 flat over the grass at Wellington N Z which as an exhibition of pure speed has never been equaled or excelled over any skinned race track
