526 THE HORSE OF AMERICA. 



advantages were to accrue, and the theory that Kentucky run- 

 ning blood was not the best trotting blood in the world was to be 

 smashed, and here we reach "the milk in the cocoanut." So 

 far as we can understand the conditions as they then existed and 

 so far as we can analyze the facts developed, this seems to be a 

 fair interpretation of the impelling motive. In an unfortunate 

 hour I took up this bantling of the young manager and exposed 

 its absurdities, addressing the exposure to a highly esteemed 

 personal friend whose name was connected with the movement, 

 and just as soon as the gentlemen interested could be got to- 

 gether, every vestige of the "Pinafore" features was eliminated, 

 the poor old grandmothers and their sisters being ruthlessly 

 turned out in the cold. This was the first set-back which Mr. 

 Brodhead received in his enterprise, which was to accomplish so 

 much for Woodburn, and which ended so disastrously. 



There was another feature embraced in the "Pinafore," and 

 protected by the same "copyright," that was of special signifi- 

 cance. It was provided that time made in a public trial, against 

 the watch, should be accepted as of equal value with time made 

 in a race with other horses. It is not worth while to stop to con- 

 sider the question as to whether these two kinds of performance 

 are of equal merit, and should receive equal honor, for every 

 honest man will call such a claim a bald absurdity on its face. 

 Then why has Woodburn, from time immemorial, it will be 

 asked, always refused to enter a colt in a stake or start one 

 against others? If you ask the manager he will tell you that Mr. 

 Alexander, the owner, is opposed to racing in all its forms. Then 

 why does Woodburn, in one form or other, hold so much stock 

 in the Kentucky Breeders' Association, one of the most notorious 

 gambling concerns in the whole country? We will not press this 

 question too closely. There can be no shadow of doubt, there- 

 fore, that this feature of the "Pinafore" was the special product 

 of the mind of the manager at Woodburn, for no one of the other 

 gentlemen would be willing to own it. 



The quasi-organization from which, nominally, the "Pina- 

 fore Standard" emanated consisted of the five gentlemen follow- 

 ing: Lucas Brodhead, Henry C. McDowell, Richard S. Veech, 

 James C. McFerran, and Colonel Eichard West. The names of 

 these five gentlemen when appended to any matter connected 

 with their enterprise and given to the public had no rank assigned 

 to them, except "Committee on Rules." This implied that 



