CHAPTER XXIIL 

 The Track Records* 



The whole thought of the turfmen of to-day inclines 

 toward speed and there is nothing they have not done to 

 assist in this development. Comparisons, therefore, of the 

 time in races made in the years ago and that at present 

 clipped off are merely interesting without being conclusive 

 of anything. Time is relative and so always has been con- 

 sidered by turfmen, whether racing is to them a matter of 

 speculation or a medium of recreation. 



Atmosphere, environment, condition of course, charac- 

 ter of pace, judgment of jockey — all these and a dozen more 

 contingencies enter into the making up of time. To-day 

 it is a selling plater that makes a record and to-morrow for 

 that same plater to be beaten thoroughly in much slower 

 time by a horse of quality who always could and always 

 would beat him, and yet who never had a record emblazoned 

 on his career. Discussions of records, therefore, from a 

 time standpoint, are profitless and, in many instances, mis- 

 leading. I do not mean to dim by any word of mine any 

 laurel now worn by the glorious living or by the valiant 

 dead. Time is interesting and, at periods, informatory, but it 

 never can, other than by accident, be conclusive as to merit. 

 The Great Futurity, inaugurated in 1888 by the Coney 

 Island Jockey Club, run in the fall, six furlongs, by two- 

 year-olds, annually, is one of the richest of all of the Ameri- 

 can classics, and has been won by the horses year after year, 

 as herein mentioned, since it was inaugurated : 

 1888. — Proctor Knott, 122 lbs. (Barnes), ist; Salvator, 108 



lbs.; Galen, 115 lbs.; time, 1.15^; value, $45,000; 14 



starters. 

 1889.— W. L. Scott's Chaos, 109 lbs. (Day); St. Carlo, 122 



lbs.; Sinaloa II, 105 lbs.; time, i:i6f ; value, $63,675 ; 23 



starters. 

 1890. — August Belmont's Potomac, 115 lbs. (Hamilton); 



Masher, 108 lbs.; Strathmeath, 124 lbs.; time, 1:14^; 



value, $77,000 ; 1 5 starters. 



