Selling Races 



It is generally conceded that selling races have become the bane of the American 

 turf, and that the time has come for a partial, if not total, abrogation of the evil. Of 

 course, such a thing is impossible at the mi'd-winter tracks, as selling races form four- 

 fifths of their daily programs. But at New York there is a talk of reformation in this 

 quarter; and President Belmont has called in E. R. Thomas and Walter Scheftel for 

 a consultation as to the modification of the crying evil. 



Some ten years ago the Australian racing authorities had a good deal of trouble 

 with this matter. A diminutive creature, who began life as a fish peddler from house 

 to house, had become an owner of a few cheap selling platers ; and, with his gains from 

 their earnings, had begun to buy horses of better class which he persisted in running 

 in selling events. Of course, when such horses won, they were liable to be run up 

 and whenever this occurred the services of a notorious bruiser were called into requisi- 

 tion and the purchaser got a hard beating for spoiling the owner's little game. This 

 procedure took place so often that the racing authorities felt in duty bound to take cog- 

 nizance of the evil, and the consequence was that the four leading clubs, controlling the 

 tracks at Randwick, Rose Hill, Flemington and Caulfield, held a convention at which 

 it was resolved to abolish selling races altogether, leaving such events to be run at 

 the smaller and less important tracks, of which there are about thirty. That was nine 

 years ago, since which time there has not been a selling race run at any one of the 

 four courses above named. 



In the writer's belief the time has arrived for similar action on the part of the 

 Jockey Club which controls all the races run over the great metropolitan race courses 

 situated in the vicinity of New York. If two cities like Sydney and Melbourne, 

 neither of which has over 450,000 population, can afford to inaugurate a movement of 

 this sort, surely New York, with nearly five millions, can afford to follow suit and get 

 rid of a class of races that are quite as objectionable as the men who participate in 

 them. The metropolitan tracks already are giving two stake races each day and can 

 easily fill in their programs with races at weights above and below the scale, as well as 

 with races to be run with penalties and allowances, thus eliminating the selling races 

 from their programs altogether. 



But where will the poor owners go to race ? The answer is that there are several 

 tracks in Canada, as well as at Baltimore, Washington, Buffalo, Detroit, Cincinnati, 

 and other places where selling races are necessary to fill up the bills of the day ; and 

 where but few, if any, valuable sweepstake races are run during the entire year. At 



