view raw text
4 ♦ ♦ Van den Bergh First Canadian Graduate of Officials School Ontario Turf Commissioner t Studied Track Procedures And Policies Under Cassidy NEW YORK, N. Y., May 31.— Robert Van den Bergh, steward for the Ontario Racing Commission and horseman of international experience, recently completed a course in Marshall Cassidys school for racing officials. This school, which has as its classrooms the actively operating New York tracks, has now been in existence long enough to have sent graduates to many racing associations throughout the country, but Van den Bergh is the first alien to take advantage of Cassidys remarkably varied and practical lessons. In case the reader is unaware of the "Cassidy Plan," the school allows its pupils to participate in all the phases of race track operation. Van den Bergh, for example, began by studying the routine in the New York offices of the Metropolitan Racing Association. Here, he was introduced to the elaborate system of files, indexes and cross-indexes covering all the available information on owners, trainers and riders participating in the sport in this area. The Canadian official told us that he was amazed not onlyTjy the wealth of data available to the New. York officials but by the truly ingenious method by which it was classified and arranged. The next step in the Canadian officials course was to have dealt with the assigning 1 and recording of racing colors. On the! morning, however, that Van den Bergh began his study of this system at the rooms of The Jockey Club he received a telephone call from Cassidy at the race track. A foul had been committed during the running of the previous afternoons races and Cassidy desired that Van den Bergh have an opportunity to see the film of the race and to hear the examination of the riders involved after the showing of the film. Van den Bergh told us that in the picture he could plainly see the jockey, Bobby Strange, on the leading horse, duck his head and quickly look under his arm and then come over on the rail, forcing the horse immediately behind him to take up, just as that horse was making for the hole that Strange -adroitly closed. t Shown in Slow Motion At this point in the showing of the film, Cassidy called for the projection to stop and had the portion dealing with the foul run over again in slow motion. Strange was then asked whether he could see himself looking back, but the boy stubbornly denied what was evident to everyone in the room. Cassidy then asked whether anybody else did NOT see Strange "corking the bottle," so to speak. There was no answer and the case for the prosecution rested. The same morning, another claim of foul was reviewed, but this time a clear-cut decision, as was inescapable in the case of the offending Strange, was more difficult to make, and the defence of the jockey involved, Eddie Arcaro, was also much more reasonable. In a hard stretch drive, Arcaro had been accused of coming over on the horse immediately inside his mount. The film showed contact between the horses, Van den Bergh told us as he related the evidence of that mornings "class," but as Arcaro explained it was hard to determine whether one horse, and they both tired and under the whip, was bearing in while the other horse was. bearing out. Again the film of the final furlong was run in slow motion. The stewards and the jockeys involved discussed this first-hand evidence and a decision was reached. To Recommend Film Patrol "How much better," Van den Bergh said, "to have this permanent record than to trust solely to the fleeting testimony before ones own eyes! No matter how experienced an official may be, I believe that the Film Patrol, as I .saw it in operation here in New York, is invaluable in arriving at a just estimate of what takes place during the running of a race. We do not have the Film Patrol at our Canadian tracks, and I know that the cost is large, even for our more important associations. I believe, however, that the installation of this system would eventually pay for itself in added public confidence, and I intend to, urge its adoption in Canada." ! Following his visit to the projection room and the interrogation of the jockeys,- Van den Bergh, unofficially, of course, served as a member of the staff of racing secretary John Campbell; as one of the Jamaica patrol judges, watched starter George Cassidys work at the gate; explored the mysteries of pari-mutuel operation; identified starters in the paddock; became a clerk of the scales, and finally joined the stewards in the glass-enclosed rotunda high above the race track. A man of rich and varied racing experience. Van den Bergh had interesting com- r HIHIHIIHHIHIHHIHHI ROBERT VAN DEN BERGH ments to make concerning each of these branches of officialdom here in New York. He said, for instance, that he had expected the riders on Long Island to be different somehow from those north of the border. When he joined George Cassidy on the starters stand, however, he heard exactly the same anxious cries as at Woodbine or Fort Erie. "Not now, Sir. Not now. Just a moment, Sir. "Hes not ready yet." They are the same the world over, and Van den Bergh has heard this pleading in England, France, Egypt, Syria and India. Describing the "double check" method of identification of horses at New York tracks, Van den Bergh said that he liked the lip tatoo system, but that, personally, he was glad to have it reinforced by the "Night Eyes" or "chestnut" system, and by photographs. Perhaps the strongest impression made on the Canadian horseman during his visit to Long Island, and one that he asked us to emphasize, was the enthusiasm shown by the different men beside whom he worked. "I had the feeling," he told us, "that everyone was doing just what he wanted to do, and that it wasnt a question of salary, but of being in love with his work. No wonder you have fine racing at the New York tracks when it is under the direction of. such thoroughly disinterested sportsmen. Years ago, in England I rode at a hunt meeting against Pete Bost-wick and the late Louis Stoddard, Jr. They had that same quality — keenly competitive, highly enthusiastic."
