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Joseph A. Murphy in Favor of Plan Of Appointing Assistant Trainers Designated Persons Would 1 Take Personal Charge of Horses Noon of Day Entered The Horsemens Benevolent and Protective Association, through Joseph A. Murphy, its chief adviser, has importuned the Illinois Horse Racing Board to devise some method of giving better protection to licensed trainers in cases of horses on which a "positive report has been made by the track chemists. In a letter to Clement Nance, secretary of the board, Judge Murphy has presented the horsemens case as follows: "At the annual meeting of the Horsemens Benevolent and Protective Association, held the past winter in Miami, a definite policy of close co-operation with all racing associations, horse racing boards and commissions was adopted. It is in this spirit that I am asking you to take up with your board a matter of vital interest to owners and trainers, whom I have the privilege to represent. "Within the past few days in New York, on the report of the track laboratory that a positive had been found in a saliva test, a prominent stable has been brought into unfavorable publicity and a trainer of previously unblemished reputation has been suspended. The ruling was supplemented by the statement of The Jockey Club stewards, that there was no doubt of the innocence of the trainer or the stable owner. "Any rule which punishes a man for an offense and then brings a statement from the court which convicted him that he is innocent, is in direct contravention of thei fundamental principles of the English Common Law which is the foundation of our jurisprudence and the equally impor- j tant principles of American fair play and| yet under the rules, The Jockey Club stewards had no other course to pursue. Trainer Technically Responsible "The same thing can happen in your jurisdiction and under your rules. Technically, the trainer is responsible for the horses under his care. That is what he is licensed for. However, all of us know that when the bugle sounds for the first race 90 per cent of the trainers can be found in their grandstand or clubhouse boxes, on the lawn or in the paddock and the horses are left to a constantly shifting custodian- I ship, made even more unstable by the draft and war conditions. This leaves a trainer, in some instances, at the mercy of some venal groom or of someone using this means to avenge a wrong, real or fancied. "I think I can offer a plan which will, | in part, at least, ameliorate this condition. The board could notify each licensed i trainer that it would expect him to appoint an assistant trainer who would be licensed I by the board as such. The duty of this j assistant would be to take personal charge of any horse or horses that might be entered at noon the day of the race. The board could furnish this assistant with blanks to fill out showing the temperaturee ■ of the horse when it left the stable, the manner in which it was shod, any change j in the equipment and a signed statement I that the horse was normal and in racing I condition when it left the stable. This blank i could be handed to the paddock judge when the horse reached the paddock and made a part of the stewards records. If a trainer , preferred to do the work himself, he would pledge himself to carry out the work to be I done by an assistant. The license fee could be nominal and a trainer could name his foreman or some groom in whom he had confidence. This would definitely fix the responsibility. It would also detect any , temperature in a horse." Judge Murphy has written to Monte Weil, chairman of the local branch of the Horsemens Benevolent Association, asking him to appoint a committee from his directors to confer with the Racing Board on the plan.
