"CHERRY AND BLACK" 



for the Juvenile or the Nursery. Then a regiment of 



sheeted racers appeared, walking In In- 



The Morning j- ri ,i • hi jm - m • • 



^11 * dian hie, their banged tails swinging 



gracefully from side to side, and the 



morning work was on. Indeed, the "morning gallops" 



became almost as popular as the races. There was not 



the display of equipage, the crash of the band, or the 



crowd, or the betting. Nor was there the glamor of 



the silken jackets at the post, looking like a tulip-bed In 



Its blaze of color, but there was the true spirit of racing 



In the people who gathered to watch the preparation of 



the candidates for the Belmont and the Juvenile. 



There was a "racing spirit" at Jerome Park— "a 



smell of real sport." Horses came to the post with 



their tails squared ( "banged" ) , their manes plaited and 



tied with ribbons of the stables' colors. They looked 



like race-horses, as race-horses should look— like a girl 



dressed for a ball. Indeed, all our race-horses' tails 



were "banged" up to 1893. Since then, our horses have 



gone to the post with long tails, looking like a 



c . ^^"^ lot of coach-horses. There was no such thing 

 Spirit . .... . 



as stewards perverting their judicial functions 



and playing police-detective in order to attract attention 



to themselves and gain a reputation for official activity. 



There was little of that constant hunting for newspaper 



notoriety, and few "press agents." 



In short, there was an atmosphere of real sport at 



these Jerome Park gatherings. They had not reached 



