view raw text
. , FAVORS A NATIONAL BODY Judge Murphy Gives His Views on Methods to Curb Rough Riding. Joseph A. Murphy, who will act as director of racing at the Detroit meeting, which opens May 23, passed through the city yesterday on his way to the Motor City. He reported that the Arlington Downs meeting had been a success from every viewpoint and that the Waggoner track had definitely taken its place as one of the major race tracks of the country. He said that the rule giving the stewards at Arlington Downs the authority to pass on the extent of disqualification had served to explode the theory that such a rule would increase rough riding and that there was less rough riding at Arlington Downs than at almost any meeting over which he has presided in recent years. "Ninety-eight per cent of rough riding," he said, "is the jockey. The other two per cent is from horses getting out of control. The very idea of our big stakes, attracting thousands of the better class of people, being turned into a Donnybrook Fair by rough tactics is preposterous. What is badly needed is a national control body with some teeth in it. If we had such an organization, headed by a man hard-boiled and immune from influence, with power to revoke the license — for the current year at least — of any rider who had been punished twice in the year, irrespective of the jurisdiction in which the punishment was inflicted and without respect to whom he was, who was his contract employer or what was his political influence, we would have no more rough riding. We have several national organizations, but all of them seem to prefer to act as advisory boards, with many useful but impotent suggestions. As I have said above, what we need is a national body with some teeth in it." •
