TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 131 



horses, while the smaller fairs will have to find something else to take 

 their places. 

 Gentlemen, I thank you! (Applause.) 



The President: Gentlemen, if there are any questions you want 

 to ask Mr. Curtin, I presume he will be glad to answer them 



Andrew Steward : We had 26 entries in the 2 :25 pace, w^ith a 

 purse of $250. How much would they get? 



Mr. Curtin: About $9.50 each. 



Member : How are you going to do away with a fixed race, which 

 has become so common as to make the public dissatisfied? 



Mr. Curtin : Well, sir, that is something that in my experience is 

 not common. That results from these special races, mostly, that 

 they fail to fill. You have specials, and they say they are not 

 getting very much money for them, and they fix them and race that 

 way. I am very much averse to these specials, and if the races don't 

 fill I don't give them. 



Mr. Hanson : We had six or eight races at our fair, with six of 

 them filled, and out of those six races five of them were fixed, and 

 the other one would have been fixed if they could have got together. 

 They were all fixed up before they started. Those things are what 

 do more harm for horse racing than anything else. 



Mr. Shipman : Put some good judges in the stand. 



Member: I would like to ask the gentleman if you have an 

 honest superintendent of speed. 



Mr. Hanson : I think so, yes. 



Mr. Curtin: Why does he permit such a thing? 



Mr. Hanson : I don't know. 



Mr. Curtin: What is the object of fixing it? Why do they want 

 to do that? Why do they want to fix anything? There is nothing 

 to gain by it. 



Mr. Hanson : We know they all do it. 



Mr. Curtin : It is my experience that with the fellows who have 

 capable superintendents that there is no fixing. Mr. Shipman, you 

 don't have fixed races, do you? 



Mr. Shipman : No sir. 



Mr. Young: We had two attempts at that, and we took the drivers 

 oflF, and we didn't have any more of that. 



Mr. Curtin : I don't see why there should be any attempt to fix 

 races. Isn't that a kind of relic of the past, thinking that every 



