196 'The American Thoroughbred 



those tracks the selling platers would have things pretty much their own way and no- 

 body would be the worse for it. 



There is no lack of high-class horses about the New York tracks, for there you 

 find the very pick of the country. If any man doubts this, let him look over Good- 

 win's Guide and see how often a western horse wins races at the metropolitan courses. 

 The receipts from the gates are so large at Coney Island, Morris Park, Gravesend and 

 Saratoga that those tracks are in no sense dependent upon the support of the book- 

 makers, who are the chief advocates of selling races. Let us see if the Jockey Club, 

 of which August Belmont is chairman, will have the moral courage to abolish selling 

 races altogether, leaving them to be run at the cheaper and more remote tracks. The 

 time is ripe for a sweeping reform in this matter. 



