FOURTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 261 



go there, you know you are goiug to get a horse race for the 

 money that they advertise. If there was some other association 

 that I did not know, or was not personally acquainted with, adver- 

 tising the same amount of money, even though it was a little closer 

 to me than Mr. Pleasant, I would certainly go to Mt. Pleasant 

 because of the treatment that they have the reputation of giving 

 the horsemen. And there are a number of places. Sioux City is 

 a place that is well spoken of by the horsemen. You talk about 

 your advertising. If you want to advertise your place and get 

 good horses, let it get noised around among the horse fellows, the 

 fellows that train horses, and race horses, and own horses, that 

 there is a good place at Sioux City, Mt. Pleasant, Des Moines, or 

 wherever it happens to be, and I guarantee you will have no 

 trouble in filling your classes. 



Now, in regard to the entrance fee, that is a question that has 

 opened up a good deal of discussion. Personally, I am not in 

 favor of the free entrance. I believe that three per cent is very 

 liberal ; that ought to satisfy any association. Some town where 

 I raced this fall, for instance, down at Phoenix, Ariz., they took 

 out five per cent, of the first horse that wins, not of the entire num- 

 bers, however. The next horse, the second one, they took out 4 

 per cent; the third horse, 2 per cent., and the fourth horse, there 

 is nothing to it. Well, the fourth horse does not race for a lot of 

 money. Take $1,000, $1,500, or $2,000 purse and you get a little 

 money. They charge 5 per cent, entrance there of the entire purse. 

 At Dallas, Texas, they took out on the same basis. At our state 

 fair here they charge 3 per cent, and take out 5 per cent. I don't 

 know which of the plans I really prefer, from a horseman's stand- 

 point, but I think that the 3 per cent, is much the best and will 

 get a larger field of horses and better horses. 



Now, about this feed proposition. You take a man that comes 

 to the fair with a stable of, say, eight or ten horses, and there is 

 some feed store down town has the exclusive right to sell feed on 

 that ground. Well, they will pop their price up about fifteen or 

 twenty cents per bushel and charge an outlandish price for a bale 

 of hay. Now, it is no more trouble to deliver that stuff out to the 

 race track in large quantities than it is to deliver a bale of hay 

 over to this end of town and a bushel of oats over in some other 

 end of town at a much less price. I think those things should be 

 recalled by the fair managements. 



