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"0, MOST LAME AND IMPOTENT CONCLUSION!" — Shakespeare — Othello. By SALVATOR. A ] The making of match races is very much like that of flap-jacks. Both operations, to be successful, should be affairs hot off the griddle. The collapse of the War Admiral-Sea-biscuit match, set for Memorial Day — Monday, May 30 — inevitably evokes that reflection. The advisability, nay, the inevitability, of such a race became apparent about three months ago, when one of the pair won the 0,000 Widener Challenge Cup at Hialeah, and the other lost, in the most heroic manner, the 00,000 Santa Anita Handicap. Still earlier, it had obtruded last fall in Maryland. The readers of DAILY RACING FORM are familiar with the incidents that finally brought it to an issue about six weeks I ago, after Chairman Swope of the New York Racing Commission took the initiative. His first proposal, as will be remembered, was for a match race to be run next September, at the Belmont Park fall meeting. ! ! The major part of the suggestion was na-I i tionally acclaimed. But it was at once sug-I I gested that the date set was far too distant, I I and neither horse, by the back end of Sep-I I tember, might be in condition for a cham-j J pionship test. The validity of this assump-! tion was recognized by the Westchester Racing Association when it decided to move in the matter, and then May 30 was selected as the desirable date, that being one of our chief national holidays, when a great public outpouring would be both natural and assured. DATE TOO FAR DISTANT. But the fact of the matter is that even that date was too distant, as has now been made plain. Both horses were ripe for a race as soon as Seabiscuit could be got East. Each was known to be in top form. This their performances of the first week in March had attested. The logical thing, considering the extreme perishability of racing fitness and thoroughbred horseflesh generally, was to effect the match at the earliest possible date. Instead a long postponement was taken. With the ultimate result of the collapse of a contest that had, in advance, created more public interest and excitement than any other turf event for the past fifteen years and that promised, if all I i went well, to do more to stimulate the gen- j l eral popularity of racing than anything else that could be conceived at the present time. I If one looks back over the great match races of the Metropolitan turf whose memories stand forth like beacon-lights in turf history, it will be discovered that they were run almost immediately after their desirability became manifest. The duels between Miss Woodford and Freeland, and Miss , Woodford and Troubadour, in the eighties; j i that between Salvator and Tenny in 1890; that between Domino and Dobbins in 1893, j I and between Domino and Henry of Navarre, in 1894; the Ethelbert-Jean Bereaud match of 1900 — all were races that came to a head and were decided within a very brief interval. Similarly with the Zev-In Memoriam match at Latonia in 1923; and the two , matches between Myrtlewood and Clang, j run in 1925 at Hawthorne and Coney Island now River Downs. The only exception to be noted is the one between Zev and Papyrus at Belmont Park in 1923. That, however, belongs in a different category. Papyrus was brought over from England to race any colt that might be sent against him and Zev was only one of several that were groomed for the test. As is well remembered, at one time shortly preceding the date of the race, Zev looked to be disabled and was not officially named as the starter until just before the contest, there being a very strong probability that the late Admiral Cary Graysons My Own would be the American "cup defender" instead of him. DISAPPOINTMENTS OF PAST. Turf history tells us that matches which have been made and dated far ahead have been for the most part disappointments. Probably the most famous one in English turf annals was that between Voltiguer and The Flying Dutchman run in 1851. It was the result of the defeat of The Dutchman by Voltigeur the previous Fall. In the match the tables were turned, but while it was a grand contest, the partisans of the loser contended that he was no such horse as he had been the fall before, and there was considerable besides partisanship to color that assumption. They declared that if the match had been run the fall before with their champion in his then-form, he would have triumphed. Racing experience all points the moral of "Strike while the iron is hot!" There seems reason to believe that had the event which has now been abandoned, because of the going amiss of one of the rivals, been staged as soon as possible after his arrival in the East, everything would have gone off well. It is known that he left California "in the pink" and it has been only recently that he began to disclose symptoms of having gone back. DECIDEDLY FOR BEST. While the declaring-off of the match is something in the light of a calamity insofar as racing as a sport is concerned, the manner in which this has been done leaves nothing to be desired. Had a similar course been pursued with regard to Sir Barton on occasion of his match with Man o War in 1920, it would have been much better than to have persisted in starting him when he was far from himself with the consequence that the match, as a race, was little short of farcical. A repetition of this would have had a very bad effect indeed and it has very wisely been avoided. It is probable that Seabiscuit might have been taken to the post on May 30, and have gotten through what might, by courtesy, be called a contest, as it would have been so only in name; but the after-clap of such an affair would have been most unfortunate in every sense. The going amiss of the son of Hard Tack just at the moment when he was on the verge of the supreme effort of his career is something that is a cause for general regret. Let us hope that he will be able to return to competition later on in condition to properly defend his claim to the championship of the American turf.
