HOPPLES. 43 



the turf, there has been a change;' the synopsis of the 

 Cleveland meetings published with this memoir showing 

 that since 1899 the programme has been divided equally 

 between the trotters and the pacers. At the small meet- 

 ings, and especially where there are mixed races, the hop- 

 pled brigade reigns supreme and is gradually forcing the 

 trotters off the turf at such places. As the half-mile rings 

 are the feeders of the mile tracks, there must in time be a 

 decided falling off in the number of entries in the trotting 

 classes, as the owner of a promising young horse finds but 

 little encouragement in paying training bills and entrance 

 fees in races where he has to contend with a drove of hop- 

 pled horses that in the majority of cases would not sell 

 under the hammer for as much as the sulky they are 

 hitched to. Ninety per cent, of the men identified with 

 racing are opposed to hopples, but as the associations, 

 with but very few exceptions, want all of the entries in 

 sight, their use has been permitted until they have become 

 so common that it is a rare thing to see a pacer on a half- 

 mile track without them, while on the mile tracks even the 

 best gaited ones that are liable to make a break wear the 

 straps. In 1898, when discussing the question, William 

 B. Fasig made the following statements in reference to 

 them : 



"Hopples are the bane of light harness racing. They 

 have done more to cheapen horses, to say nothing about 

 the danger of them ; have brought odium on the sport, 

 and are, from every point, a disgrace to the trotting turf. 

 They should be abolished. But it would seem only fair 

 to establish a date after which they would not be allowed. 

 We have been breeding to establish a family of useful 

 light harness horses, and racing has been conducted on the 

 theory of encouraging that end, for fifty years. Now, if 



