THE OLD PLAN THE BEST. 



(Published in the "Trotter and Pacer," January 1, 1899.) 



The mile and repeat plan has often been tried and has 

 never proved a success. Associations that now have the 

 most successful meetings every year have all tried two- 

 in-three heat racing, and you notice they don't put them 

 on their programmes now. It was tried at old Fleetwood 

 Park; Cleveland has tried it; Terre Haute and other 

 places have given it a trial without success. I may be 

 old fogyish, but there is a higher aim in the breeding 

 and racing of the trotting horse .than to make of him a 

 medium for gambling, which I see is one of the argu- 

 ments in favor of shortening the heats. I regard the trot- 

 ter too highly for that. Those whose want to bet can do so, 

 as it is, and I am opposed to anything that will offer 

 any stronger gambling inducements. 



If associations wish to shorten their programmes, let 

 them give fewer races. Let them have but two races 

 during an afternoon. That will give at least six heats, 

 virtually six races, and probably more. As soon as you 

 begin to shorten the distance the horses have to travel, 

 horsemen will begin to breed for flights of speed, to the 

 deterioration of stamina. Instead of having good, game 

 horses that are able to go mile after mile, there would 

 soon be a lot of soft things, that would quit like dogs if 

 pushed to their speed beyond a mile. 



Our present system of three-in-five heat racing has 

 been evolved by leading minds in the trotting horse world 



