Two-T^ear-Old Racing 



This I can honestly call the curse of the American turf. If there be no legisla- 

 tion to stop it, the character and quality of the American thoroughbred is bound to de- 

 teriorate before long. Men say, "Oh, you're a pessimist. Our horses make better 

 time than ever they did. You have seen Lexington's time equalled by a third-class 

 horse and beaten four seconds by horses that were never first-class foir an hour of their 

 lives. The mile record, on a circular track, is now 6*/2 seconds faster than it was in 

 1857 and the two-mile record seven seconds faster. And yet you talk of deterioration." 



My answer to this is, first, that the time test was never an infallible one. It is 

 merely good as a side issue, like the Bruce Lowe system in breeding. Second, the 

 tracks are now much faster, especially on the Pacific Coast than they we're forty 

 years ago. Third, training is progressive and the ablest trainers we have, with one 

 or two exceptions, are men less than forty years old. The least success achieved 

 since 1900 has been by men of. the longest experience. All these things have con>- 

 tributed to bring about the lowering of records. 



Now go back to 1840 and thereabouts. We had scarcely any two-year-old racing 

 at that period ; and Clara Fisher, by Kosciusko, was the only horse up to that time to 

 start in eight races, six of which she won. Boston was not trained till the fall of his 

 three-year-old form and what did he do? He won forty races in forty-five starts, 

 of which thirty were at four-mile heats. Not only that, but his thirty races at four 

 miles will bear a still stronger analysis. In four of his races he had to run four heats, 

 sixteen miles in all, making sixty-four miles in all ; and in five others he had to 

 run three heats, making a total of sixty miles, so that he had to go one hundred and 

 twenty-four miles, to win nine races. Nor was Boston alone in this great quality of 

 endurance. Long before the great Boston was foa.Ied, Black Maria had won a four- 

 mile heat race in which she and Lady Relief ran twenty miles (five heats) before the 

 race could be decided. And after Boston's retirement, Charmer (by Glencoe) gal- 

 loped over for a fifth heat, nothing starting against her. So if any one tells you that 

 there has been 'but one twenty-mile race run, bet them all you can lift. For while 

 Charmer won the fourth heat, making sixteen miles, that did not decide the race and 

 she was obliged to strip for another heat. The mere fact that no other horse started 

 against her in the fifth heat, would not invalidate the bet. 



There are no Bostons nor Charmers nowadays. We have, in their stead, a 

 growth of big and heavy horses bred solely for speed and not expected to go a dis- 

 tance. If men would only start their undersized two-year-olds and keep the big fel- 

 lows over till the next year, the racing of these youngsters would be less reprehensible. 

 I don't care how many six-furlong races they run at Oakland, Ingleside or /^.scot Park, 

 with old and worn-out geldings that ought to be hauling laundry wagons! and bread 

 carts; nor do I care how many job races are pulled off by these old skates, in the in- 

 terest of a class of men who, when they lie down in an Oakland or Ascot stall, find 

 themselves in the cleanest rooms they ever occupied in their whole lives. But I do 



