NINETEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART III 133 



attach to them if they do not show up. I am in favor of making a flat 

 purse, and that the additions thereto might be governed by conditions in 

 your immediate vicinity; but I am in favor of making it obligatory oa 

 the part of the horsemen to put up their money when their entry is made, 

 and if they don't come they forfeit that money. It seems to me a ridicu- 

 lous proposition to ask that a race be not declared off if there is only, 

 one horse there. 



George White (Mills): I would suggest a way that might prove to by 

 a good proposition: If you are giving a purse of $500, say, and added 

 all money secured from the $10 entrance fee, in order to protect yourself 

 you need only to refuse to enter the horse unless the $10 fee was included 

 in it. Then you would know where you were at. It is just as easy to 

 send the $10 at one time as at another. 



Mr. Christenson (Boone) : What is the difference between offering a 

 purse of $400 and not charging an entrance fee and giving $200 and 

 charging an entrance fee? In our own case, last year we gave a purse of 

 $400 and charged an entrance fee. I would like to hear it discussed. 



The Chairman: Taking as a basis Mr. Cameron's suggestion that we 

 are required to pay about $200 for each class of race that we advertise 

 and get, and that is about what it does cost us, from $180 to $200, if we 

 take it on the basis of added purses, and there are ten horses there, 

 there' would be $100 to add to the purse making the horseman $150, while 

 under the old plan, with a $400 purse, he would receive $180, or $30 more. 

 That would be the share of the man that wins first money, however. 

 Mr. Christenson: Couldn't you get more horses to your fair without 

 . paying the entrance fee? If they didn't have to pay the entrance fee, 

 the men that come in fifth, sixth or seventh, outside of the money, wouldn't 

 have to pay anything. 



Mr. Whetstein (Louisa) : The $400 purse would be all right if we could 

 afford it. The fair would have to pay all of it out, however, and it would 

 be the horseman's money. Taking up this subject, you secretaries and 

 speed superintendents, you have the horsemen to deal with, you know 

 what it means when you have ten or fifteen entries for a race and when 

 the horsemen get in on the ground you have about seven or eight who 

 feel that they have a chance for the money and the balance of the entries 

 are fellows that know they cannot get in the money. There is the problem. 

 What are you going to do with the fellow who knows that he cannot get 

 in the money? Is he going to spend $10 to get in the match? You say 

 to a horseman, "I want you to bring your stable of horses over to our 

 fair." When he gets there and looks the entries over, he thinks he has 

 one horse that can get in the money and two that cannot, but if you ask 

 him for cash in advance he will not bring any of his horses. 



The present arrangement is a good proposition for the men who are 

 training colts. If a horseman has a bunch of colts which are run to give 

 them an education, he is willing to pocket his loss if he doesn't get in 

 the money; but if he had to pay his entrance fee in advance he will get 

 out of the race game. If you put that suggestion into practice, you will 

 find a great many men who will have to send their horses to the stable. 

 I don't blame the horsemen for getting up some kind of organization to 

 protect themselves. A horseman told me last year, "You fellows put up 



