A Plea for a Useful Trotter 311 



The handicapping system is likely to become popular not only be- 

 cause it enables the so-called outclassed horses to win a little money on 

 the circuit of meetings, but also because it is apt to do away with the 

 monotony of the single-file races, where certain fast horses keep at the 

 head of the processions, thanks to the method of closing the entries 

 very early in the season. The "glorious uncertainty" of the sport is 

 increased by the handicap system and will not fail to draw a large and 

 eager crowd. Even here I must plead for the recognition of size and 

 substance in the horse as being the very features that constitute the 

 usefulness of the harness horse ; and in handicapping it might be feas- 

 ible to take into consideration these admirable qualities and the accom- 

 panying capacity to pull weight, as compared with the lack of such 

 traits in the much speedier horse. 



There is, however, more to harness racing than even such a well- 

 managed innovation as a handicap race, and that is the absolute en- 

 forcement of that set of rules by which all harness races are, or at 

 least should be, conducted. If these rules are just and fair, and tend 

 to protect the vital interests of harness racing, they should be strictly 

 enforced. If not, then they should be abolished or amended. But in 

 no event should such rules be ignored by any official, whatever the 

 custom so arrogated. I have in mind a flagrant instance of arbitrary 

 authority assumed by two secretaries. The repeal of an objectionable 

 rule lies in a proper procedure before a meeting; but nothing so under- 

 mines harness racing, or any other sport, in the eyes of honest men, as 

 the questionable rulings or arbitrary decisions of indifferent or partial 

 officials, be these the judges, timers, starters, secretaries or members of 

 the Boards of Review. Against such decrees an upright trainer or 

 owner has but little redress, except it be the usually ineffectual proc- 

 ess of an appeal. For, in most cases the decision of a previous inquiry 

 will be sustained on the general principle of harmonious concurrence ! 



Our harness horse of to-day, with his two gaits of trotting and 

 pacing, tends to prove that the inheritance of acquired qualities is a 

 larger factor in the laws of heredity than men of science have been 

 willing to admit. We have apparently better gaited and better man- 

 nered trotters and pacers to-day than we had fifty years ago. Besides, 



