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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan DunstanCarter Carter Cap Sends Us to Records Camera Increased Dead Heats Dream of Racing Secretaryies Unique Dead Heats of Long Ago AgoNEW NEW YORK N Y June 13 Saturdays Carter Handicap not only stands as a monument to that of the oft heard expression Weight brings them all all together but also as a testimonial to the skill of the veteran John B Campbell He assigned the fiveyear old Brownie 115 the four year old Bossuet 127 and the fiveyear old Wait a Bit 118 pounds For the first time in a stake event in this country three horses came down with their noses so closely aligned at the finish that the photograph appeared as if they had posed for it Day after day Campbell assigns weights which make for thrilling finishes on the New York tracks but never before has even he so expertly weighted them that the picture at the finish gave the officials no alternative but to declare it a triple daed heat This race also forcibly brings to mind the changes which have taken place for the benefit of the public in the past 10 years In the old days stewards hesitated to call a race a dead heat even though those officials of another day were just as honest as the presentday group One of our favorites was the late judge E C Smith a man who never agreed with the statement The hand is quicker than the eye and so is the race horse horseVeterans Veterans will recall the contro ¬ versy that followed the Futurity of 1928 when High Strung was finally declared the winner over Roguish Eye or when Singing Wood in 1933 won the same race by a whisker from Sir Thomas Well do we re ¬ member after the latter race judge Smith saying with a slight shrug of the shoulders we must call them as we see them The finish of a horse race is so instantaneous that the human eye could easily err There is no doubt in our mind that errors were made but we are quick to add that they were honest errors The introduction of the camera pro ¬ duced results that are startling in 1933 only one dead heat was reg ¬ istered on the American turf In 1943 there were no less than 314 dead heats in American racing and this naturally was brought about by the camera revealing to the stewards that there could be no choice in all fairness to the public but to declare these races as dead heats heatsWhile While it is true that very few dead heats were declared in bygone days there are records of some which border on the un ¬ believable We have searched the records to find that at Newmarket on October 22 1885 the racing handicapper there came closer to bringing every horse to the finish line in perfect alignment than anyone before or since Apparently the event was unimportant but that does not alter the fact that in a fivehorse field four starters Gamester The Unexpected Overreach and Lady Golightly finished so close to ¬ gether that the only decision could be a dead heat There is hardly a doubt in our mind that a camera would have shown the finish differently although we must add that not only a fourhorse dead heat is possible but that there may come a day when a secretary will bring a whole field to the finish so close that a dead heat will be the only possible verdict If that should ever happen it will be a feather in the cap of the man who assigned the weights weightsUnless Unless the record eludes us we have never had a fourhorse dead heat in this country nor have we had such unique finishes as the Eng ¬ lish records show There was the race at Lewes England the Astley Stakes in which Wandering Nun Mazurka and Scobell finished in a dead heat for first place and a head behind them Thera and Cumberland also deadheated though England has been the scene of these rare happenings the Australian records come up with some that are even more astonishing In fact on quite a few occasions they border on the unbelievable OnAugust 12 1896 at New South Wales three horses Yellow Plush Tom and Syndicate engaged in a threehorse dead heat In those days they ran a disputed race off immediately so the three lined up once again and at the finish Tom and Yellow Plush had engaged in a second dead heat the same day There was some dispute as to how the purse should be split both own ¬ ers were stubborn and the horses were lined up for the third time On this occasion Tom was the winner by Of all these records the most astonish ¬ ing to us was in a race run on October 17 1903 at Moore Field New South Wales At the finish line Loch Lochie High Flier and Barindi were so closely bunched that a dead heat was the only possible decision So they were sent back to run it off and believe it or not the three of them ran a dead heat for the second time Apparently there was nothing to do on this occasion but to split the purse three ways No such happening could ever occur in this country for like the Carter Handicap the purse would be split and any dispute as to which was the better horse would have to be left for some later race to determine
