132 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



horse race is crooked or gambled, because some 25 or 30 years ago 

 they were ? That's the way it looks to me, and I don't see any fixing 

 of races these days. 



Mr. .Hanson : I think where your races are filled good, you don't 

 get that, but where your races are just barely filled, they do it. 



Mr. Curtin: Why do they want to fix them? 



Mr. Young: I think the solution of that, a good deal, is this: 

 Since they have appointed the official timer this thing of setting a 

 watch back or up a little in the time is not so promiscuously done as 

 it was a few years ago, and we had one or two cases where the men 

 didn't want to mark their horses, and they would rather take second 

 place than give them a mark, and that was the cause of our trouble, 

 absolutely nothing else. They had more speed than the other horses, 

 and we knew it, and the result of it was that it was a kind of hard 

 thing to do. I don't know that I would have done it, because I have 

 a lot of sympathy for these horsemen. A lot of them are a little 

 aggravating sometimes, but I find they are a pretty nice set of 

 fellows if you treat them right. You have to favor a fellow a little 

 once in a while. I can't help doing it myself, and that was the cause 

 and the only cause we had. We had the best racing we ever had on 

 our fair ground, and we had more horses, and I think every man 

 went away feeling that he was treated absolutely right, but as I said 

 we had a little kick in one place, and it didn't get them any place, 

 but we took on another driver, but he was gentleman enough so that 

 he drove the horse like the other fellow did. (Laughter). But we 

 satisfied the kick. We had a good race, but some fellow got it up his 

 snoot that this fellow wasn't doing as he ought to do and we put on 

 another driver and he drove just what the other fellow did, and he 

 got out of him all that he could. 



Mr. Austin: We had a little experience this year. For once we 

 were short of horses. I went to the boys and said "There is a piece 

 of money in it for everybody that will race." After the free-for-all 

 race, there were only two starters, and I went to the boys and said 

 "Will you give us a race?" and they said "Yes, we'll give you a good, 

 honest race," and they sped around in ten and a quarter. That was 

 going some, wasn't it? 



Mr. Curtin : I guess it was ! 



Mr. Austin: In our 2:17 pace I said "The money's up, boys; go 

 after it" and they stepped it and made a race out of it. and they 

 played square. Your man was one of the men that done it, but we 

 don't have very many, and some of the folks came to me and com- 



