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COMMENTS ONAMERICAN TURF Oaklawn Manager Believes Horses Outclassed by Predecessors. Veteran Officials Convinced Racing Provides Recreation No Other Sport Can Offer Approves Gate. HOT SPRINGS, Ark., April 10. Joseph E. Martin, one of the oldest and most respected racing men in America and who for more than fifty years has had his name associated with the turf, took time out several days ago to make a few observations about the sport, its past, and its prospects for the future. Racing, Martin said, is good recreation and provides a form of diversion and entertainment no other sport can offer, and its prospects for the future are unlimited. In his time he has seen it grow from infancy into one of the leading industries in the country, and he sagely forecasts that the sport will continue to expand on the crest of the new tolerance and broader viewpoint that the younger generation is fostering. The genial general manager of Oaklawn Park, which recently closed an eminently successful season of thirty-seven days, points out that virtually every new racing venture in the last several years has enjoyed immediate prosperity and that older tracks are riding the wave of new prosperity. New racing plants in New England and those in winter resorts are as popular, and the Hot Springs track here this year had the best meeting it ever enjoyed, either before or since the legalization of mutuel wagering in Arkansas. While Martin realizes racing is financially more successful now than it ever was, he isnt sure that the racing itself is any better than in the old days. The sport now has many innovations designed to improve racing conditions, such as the starting stalls and gates, but Martin believes horses and racing had more class in its earlier history. The starting gate is heartily approved by Martin, who hopes that racing associations do not revert to the old system of dispatching fields. The old system, he says, caused tiresome delays at the barrier and further offered no protection to horses from fractious animals. As for the totalizator or other ticket dispensing and odds calculating machines, the Oaklawn executive says he does not object to them, but they are not necessary to the success of a meeting where the managements integrity is unquestioned. Martin said, too, that off the course betting had been responsible for much of the new success of racing. It not only stimulates interest in the thoroughbred sport, but maintains it throughout the year for those unable to follow the horses from track to track. The tracks themselves benefit further, he pointed out, through the year-around advertising they receive through the sports columns of newspapers and racing publications. Reflecting on the sport in days gone by, Martin feels that racing has retrogressed in some ways. He does not think horses which perform today have the class racers years ago possessed because trainers do not have the patience of those of old. Years ago horses were required to run over longer distances and, as" Martin showed, it required more skill from both trainer and rider to prepare and pilot a thoroughbred. He said he doubted that there are as many trainers today as formerly who could capably fit a horse for a mile and a half race at a definitely given time and have the racer up to the effort. Too much attention, he believes, is given now to short contests, where the system seems to be simply to saddle a horse and send him to the post. Martins most affectionately remembered thoroughbred is one little known today. He was Long Taw, and was trained by Green Morris. Martin doesnt remember just how .long ago the race was staged, but he does recall that it was at the old Cote Brilliante race track at St. Louis that Long Taw performed the feat which has remained indelibly in his memory as one of the most courageous efforts he ever saw from a thoroughbred. It was a mile and a half heat race and some mare whose name escapes Martins recollection had stolen a lead of nearly thirty lengths on Long Taw and she still had that margin as she swung into the stretch. She was so far in front that nobody paid any more attention to Long Taw. But this strong-hearted racer hadnt given up. His rider set him down and in one of the most spectacular charges ever recorded in racing, Long Taw finished with long, sweeping strides and, performing an almost impossible task, earned a dead heat, a tribute not only to the courage of the horse, but one to the trainer who prepared him and the skill of the rider as well. Martin has held a managerial position on tracks for fifty-two years. He first entered the sport in 1878 or 1879 at the Cote Brilliante course and in 1884 became general manager of the St. Louis Fair Association, where he became associated with the Louis A. Cella family and with whom he has been associated ever since. During his time he has served in official capacities at the old Douglas Park track in Louisville, Latonia, the old Crescent City track in New Orleans and the Fort Erie track in Canada. He recently completed his duties for the season as general manager at Oaklawn Park and, much of its success is attributed to his tireless efforts. He is greatly esteemed as one of the most capable men in his field. i
