182 



The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



speedways in the country, their demands for 

 material covers only a very small part of the 

 material at hand. It then certainly behooves 

 every breeder, horseman or horse lover to 

 encourage, in every way possible, the growth 

 and extension of this manner of sport. 



"It is a sport of comparatively recent 

 development, and. at the outset, met with but 

 little encouragement from our horse in- 

 terests, and many rebuffs. It would seem 

 that it might be susceptible of development 

 if pushed a little, for it has thrived and grown 

 with little of that. It's a strange man that 

 does not love a horse, and the majority 01 

 men, who have the price, would love the 

 ownership of one or more, could they find 

 use for them. 



"One of our horse papers, in 19 12, criti- 

 cised the management of the Lexington 

 (Ky.) meeting, because they saw fit, as ex- 

 pressed, 'To cater to the amateurs.' and, fur- 

 ther, they had the nerve to say that it was 

 this method which killed the Memphis 

 Trotting Association. The fact is that one 

 of these amateurs they saw fit to fire at 

 built the Memphis track and paid each year 

 a large loss there in endeavoring to make a 

 trotting meeting popular in that hotbed of 

 running horse people. He probably spent 

 more in this venture and generous act to en- 

 courage the trotting game than was ever 

 spent by one man before. 



"It is easy to recall the unpleasant and un- 

 kind things said of the amateur and his 

 actions by some of our turf papers a few 

 vears ago, when matinee racing, as it is 

 called, was first inaugurated. The formation 

 of the League of Amateur Driving Clubs 

 was severely criticised, its members were 

 held up to ridicule and matinee racing 

 laughed at, while the horsemen themselves 

 waxed hot and wrathful when any associa- 

 tion permitted a wagon or amateur race to 

 be held during its meeting. 



"To me, it always seemed that antagonism 

 to this sport (amateur racing) was a blow 

 always at the goose that lays the golden 

 efi;g. Who puts up the money to build 

 tracks, to train horses, to campaign them, to 

 buy horses and to drive? Who, but the 

 amateur! And, if you can add to his number 

 by encouraging him to drive, does that not 

 help all around? 



"Fourteen years ago the Gentlemen's 

 Driving- Club of Boston, in order to stimulate 

 the interest in amateur driving, offered a 

 valuab'e trophy, with open competition, the 

 only stipulation being that the contestants 

 must be trotters, driven to wagon by ama- 

 teurs. Competition for this cup caused much 



interest, and it is conservative to say that 

 (iver $100,000 was spent by the amateurs foi 

 In >rses to race for it. 



"Previous to this the amateur clubs had 

 been conducting their matinees, at which no 

 gate admission was charged, and while 

 efforts had been made to get the National 

 Trotting Association to recognize them and 

 distinguish the difference between profes- 

 sional and amateur, and between technical 

 records and amateur records, it was 

 with no success, but, instead, there was an 

 understanding that these matinees were not 

 regular meetings and no records could 

 attach to the horses winning the cups and 

 libbons. 



"At the first contest for the Boston Cup. 

 the winner trotted one heat in 2:10, which 

 was faster than the then existing wag' iri 

 record. 



"I immediately began a discussion as to 

 whether this horse had not acquired a tech- 

 nical record in winning this cup for the club 

 he represented. The argument waxed warm, 

 and the majority of the turf papers took the 

 side that the horse should be penalized with 

 a record. So hot grew the debate, that it 

 became personal. The amateurs were 

 accused of being undesirable members, of 

 playing the game unfairly and, altogether, 

 they were roundly flailed. Some of the 

 articles written on this subject would make 

 funnv reading now. 



"The outcome of this controversy- was a- 

 decision on the part of the National Trotting 

 Association to the effect that the horse had 

 acquired a record for winning a race, by 

 their rules, at what was not a public meeting 

 and for winning nothing. This was a bomb 

 m the amateurs' camp, as it put all previous 

 winners in races of this kind in a position to 

 l>e protested, and was a serious blow to fur- 

 ther racing- of this character. 



"A fight then began between the amateurs 

 and the National Trotting Association, 

 which, after much feeling on both sides, re- 

 sulted in the National and American Associa- 

 tions both enacting legislation favorable to 

 the amateur. Since then he has thrived, and 

 there is a matinee club in most all towns that 

 have a track. 



"Calm deliberation will prove the benefit 

 this has been to our trotting horse interests, 

 and to encourage and foster their further 

 growth will help, in a large measure, to solve 

 the problem put up to our breeders and 

 horsemen through the remarkable achieve- 

 ments of the pushing and ever zealous, 

 though not always truthful, automobile 

 manufacturer and salesman." 



