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, Aftermath of the Great Match By SALVATOB. Now that the great event has come and : gone, one may say that it has provided even more of a "bone of contention" than before it was run. Its repercussions promise to be endless and to provide material for many heated discussions for a long while to come. The writer journeyed over a thousand miles to witness it and as the train was drawing into Baltimore a gentleman with whom I had been conversing about it and who was lamenting his inability to be present at Pimlico that afternoon, remarked: "There ought to be a series of at least three races between those two horses and not just one. No one race can really decide the superiority between them, in my judgment. There should be a return race, at least. But really, it should be a series, with the necessity of one of the two winning two out of three races before he was declared the champion of the turf. You never heard of the baseball championship being decided by one game, and neither should the turf championship." The reactions of the general body of both the "regulars" and the general public have been rather similar. There is no disposition upon the part of anybody that saw the race to withhold from the winner the laurels that he so splendidly won. But at the same time, there is a widespread belief that the result was not, in itself, decisive save as affecting the day and the track when it occurred. SEABISCUITS GREATNESS. As my published comments upon him will bear proof, I have consistently maintained ,the greatness of Seabiscuit throughout the present season and especially after the torrent of abuse, depreciation, innuendo and sneering that was directed at him and his party after the collapse of the original match race set for May 30. An extensive collection might be made of these malicious, su-percilius, back-biting, under-handed attacks and insinuations, whose authors today must feel anything but proud of the misjudgment and ill-feeling that they allowed themselves to exhibit. Seabiscuit is not merely a great horse he is among the greatest that this century i has seen, in this country or any other. This I is inscribed upon the records so deeply and jso legibly that it can never be rubbed out. It may be justly said that any attempt to deny this arises out of prejudice, animosity or the "nil admirari" spirit which disfigures I humanity in all circles, the turf not ex- cepted. I But allowing for this, the fact remains that his defeat of War Admiral at Pimlico, I i decisive as it was, and apparently leaving no doubt which was the better horse of the two, does not remain so when subjected to analysis. In my opinion, the race was won above everything else upon strength, in which the state of the going was also a large factor. I NOTORIOUSLY SLOW. I The old Pimlico track is notoriously slow in comparison with our better modern ones. It has been resurfaced this season. That has not really improved it, but in some regards, has caused the reverse. The Pimlico meetings, coming as they do in the early spring and late fall, have always been subject to the bad behavior of the weather man. In an effort to offset this, so far as possible, when the course was resurfaced, a large amount of sand, I am told, was worked into its top dressing for the purpose of drying it out as quickly as possible after a rainfall. I noticed it closely on the day of the i , match. Press reports described it as "light-llning fast," but nothing could have been ! more incorrect. Its surface was very dry, it is true, for dust rose in clouds during the , progress of the first race of the afternoon, but it was also very deep, very loose and very "cuppy," giving way beneath the hoofs i of the horses noticeably. I, When the match was made, considerable surprise was manifested that Mr. Riddle would run his colt over the Pimlico track in such an event, for those who had studied War Admirals performances over it were persuaded that he did not like and found j difficulty in negotiating it. Mr. Riddle, i 1 ! however, is above all a sportsman. He was - j anxious for two things. One was a meeting I between his horse and Mr. Howards. The other was to assist Mr. Vanderbilt in his I I very sportsmanlike effort to bring off a L I 1 race between the pair and skotch forever I the discreditable back-capping that has been going the rounds ever since the effort began to bring them together early last spring. STUNNING SURPRISE. The race itself began with a stunning sur-3 prise. It was the belief of about 90 out of I every 100 men familiar with the two horses , that War Admiral would break much more i quickly than Seabiscuit and "go into high" i in two strides, taking the track and showing the way, and making it necessary for his adversary to run around him in the early ; stages of the race, or else run outside him all the way, unless he elected to trail until the back end of the contest. The exact opposite was the fact. Seabiscuit broke with greater facility and at greater speed than the Admiral, and the latter, 8 3 instead of flying away like a bullet from a 5 gun, dwelt, swerved slightly when Kurt-, singer attempted to "burst him" and almost i before it could be realized the other horse 6 i leaped ahead of him, crossed over and took I the rail from his outside post position. 1 All this was clearly discernible through a pair of glasses, which I laid aside as needless when the pair passed the stand the first time, for they could be better observed with the naked eye. In my judgment, War Admiral was then already a beaten colt. Sea-biscuit was running with great power, ease and certainty, his legs and feet well under 7 1 him and his stride full of snap and dash, i War Admiral, on the other hand, was visibly j laboring and putting much effort into what 8 3 he did. His stride was extended and lacked J quickness of pick-up, and one could see the 8 8 dirt and sand fly from beneath his feetas 7 f he strove along. 6 5 After Seabiscuit had gotten the best of the b E start and taken the track, there was no real race until they had rounded the lower turn, werj tsraightj ithg J3acks.tr.etch jand KurtT : singer called on his colt. He then drew alongside his rival and then up on even terms. The official chart gives the impression that Seabiscuit led all the way, but such was not the case. Just as they were passing the half-mile post the nose of the Admiral showed in front and for a moment it looked as if he was going on past and taking the track, but this he was unable to do and they ran head and head into the far turn. When they began rounding it, with the advantage of the rail Seabiscuit got his nose in front again but only that. Both riders began using their whips midway of the turn and were still doing so when the two horses swung into the home stretch, with Seabiscuit not more than a neck ahead. Once they were straight it resolved itself into a question of which could stand the terrific struggle the longer. It proved to be the bay horse and not the brown colt. The Californian began to draw away, Kurtsinger rode with desperation, the Admiral gave all he had with equal desperation, but it was unavailing, for while he tried until he actually reeled under stress of the effort he was making, the leader was easily his master, and right at the end Woolf put up his whip, which he had been using at intervals all through the stretch, and Seabiscuit won by four lengths. WAR ADMIRAL DISTRESSED. Of the two contenders, the Admiral was much the more distressed; and, as I have said, it was a case in which superior strength was decisive. Seabiscuit and War Admiral were both beautifully turned out for the race, but as they paraded to the post the difference in brawn and muscle between them was striking. War Admiral, lithe, slim and still, in the technical sense, "unfurnished," might easily have passed for a two-year-old, so youthful did he appear. In contrast Seabiscuit looked a veritable gladiator, clothed with power and strength and when it came to the climax, it was this precisely which brought him victory. The last time previously that I had seen him run was back in July in the Arlington Handicap, on which occasion, over a track on which he, in his turn, was just about as badly off as War Admiral at Pimlico, he was beaten by just as wide a margin as he noc won by, by a horse of no real class whatever, and after never having at any time been able to get into the contention. His condition was also by no means what it was in the match. He was then entirely too high in flesh. The opinion is being widely expressed that War Admiral would have run a better race at Pimlico had he, like Seabiscuit, had a couple of good stiff races in the month that had elapsed since his last previous start at Belmont Park, October 1, in the Gold Cup, for which Seabiscuit, incidentally, refused to face him. They are two very great horses, this son and grandson of Man o War. Neither is unbeatable, or unbeaten. Which is absolutely master of the other? That is something which, as my friend remarked, no one meeting can be expected to decide.
