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Show IRON BOOKMAKERS SAVE RACING GAME Sport Kings Flourishes in Kentucky Under Racing Commissioner and the Pari Mutual Machines. -. By JACK SALLEB. LOUISVILLE. "E?y., fob. S.Duriug tho "past oifjht years there has been a complete change in the- methods of holding race meetings , in Kentucky,; and the change, in tho opinion of turf exports, s nil that kept tho sport of kings from being placed undbr tho ban ua it has been in Hoveral states. . From tho old system whoroby tho bookmakers appeared . twieo ;i year; owned horses which wcro, eapablu of perfect somersaults as Jo form,, mid above all, their dealings with joekuys which brought about th'o change to a system whereby horaem.cn and tho public pub-lic are on an equal- footing, aud this tooting is carefully watched by five uieu nppointod by tbegovcrnor of the stale. "While racing in the cugt and treat baa died, tho sport of lunps is nourishing nourish-ing in the Blucgrnes blatc, W, it is claimed by both horsemen and jockey j elube, to tho fact that thc bookmakers .and their boards and chalk havo been consigned to tho rubbish pile to mke room for the pari mutuel s stem of betting. The joukoy clubs admit that the 'pari mutuel machines havo encouraged encour-aged tho public tp. such an extent that more wagers nro boing laid through tho "iron men" than in former years. Betting Bet-ting in Kentucky i&- largely douc in the $2 machines, but tho increased attendance at-tendance at the races makes more for the jockev clubs thivn the amounts Pid by tho bookmakers to do business for a given length of time. The pari nvutuol systom, which came throe ycara lator tjian the formation of tho racinn commission, cuused n 'slight falling off for tho firH your, but whpn it was. found thut the raeiug gamo had roacbod a firmer footlug tbo pubhv. bus more than mado up tho deficit. The Kentucky racing law ib nmob simpler thun tho la-ws of thai nature of any othor stain. Tt merely stipulutos that thu vaemg commission of five men appointed by thc governor' constitute a supremo court of raeiug, and it is within tho jurisdiction of that body to refuso dates to auy jockey club'; decide upon tho dates for tbo various courses; paas upon tho licenses of trainers, owners aud jockeys. At each track a member mem-ber of tho commission acts' as steward. The present membership of the commission com-mission .'is Charles F. Grainger, Louisville: Louis-ville: Ctcorgo J. Long, Jefferson county;. coun-ty;. Colonel Alilton Young, Lexington; T. .llart Talbolr, Bourbou county, and .Tohuson 'X. Camden, Woodford county. Talbot t was but recently nppointod, and takes the placo mado vacant by tho death of the great horseman'. Major Foxhhll A. Daingcrficld, who for years had charge of tho brooding establishment establish-ment of his 'brother-in-law,. James K. Keono of Xew York. Every member of tho commibsion hiia had practical experience as horBomeu and breeders. All of them at one time or another had extensive stables aud aro qualified through experienco to bold a pluco on tho commissiou. Xot a member of tho commission has ever been accused of any work on race courses other than that of an houost horseman. This alone has had more to do with tho success of the cotnniibsion than an' other ono tiling. Having won tbo confidence of the., public, the work of makinjr tho racing; commission a successful body in ovory way was easy. Tho jockey clubs did not want to seo the sport die in Kentucky, Ken-tucky, and gave ovory possible aesist-auoc" aesist-auoc" to nmko tho change, a, Bucessful one. At present' tho racing commission has allotted dates for four tracks in tho state without tr kick from any jockb club. The greatest piuco of work accomplished accom-plished by the body waa thc establishment establish-ment of tho Kentucky Buduranco stnkes.. at four miles, tho richest turf (Continued on Following Paffe.) 1 HOW RACING WAS SAVED IN, THE BLUE GRASS (Continued from Preceding Pago) , evont of America. La9t 8onson it was worth approximate' $10,000, and. this year it will be even Ticher. The commission com-mission offers the ovont each full to the track in the state which will give the greatest added amount. During the past two years Churchill Downs has outbid Douglas Park, Lexington and Latonia for the nice. Another step which helped to bring about better conditions for the horsemen, horse-men, was to place all guaranteed stakes under thc ban. For years tho fixtures at LoxiuEton. Latonia and ('hurehill Downs had been of this variety, and at foaling time owners had to nominate their foals for oveuts to be rnji two or three years later. In tho opinion of tho commission this prevented these events from being representative ones. In many instances thrco-ycar-olds which hal not been ontcred in tho Kentucky dorby or The Oaks proved to bo better animals than those which had hcen nominated. This year tho Kentucky dorby, Thc Oaks,, tho Latonia. derby and " othor fixed events in the state -will receive nominations up xintil irnrch 1, and every two-year-old or three-year-old in the nation will have thc ooportunitj' of being ontcred. It is believed that this season alone the Kentucky derby, which was a $5000 guaranteed stake, will be worth at lenst $S000, The other races will bo increased relatively. rel-atively. This is but an example of the working of the racing commiston which ha raised the standard of Taring in the Bluograss state higher than it has ever "been. Since tho inception of the commission it would bo almost an impossibility im-possibility for rncing to be resumed again under thc old regime of bookmakers. book-makers. Gambling Not Decreased. While the pari mutuel nystem of betting bet-ting has superseded tho "bookies" iu Kentucky, it has not dono away wilh the running of handbooks oyor the country. However, as it is impossible to calculate the odds 'before tnc running. run-ning. of. a raco it giv.cB thc hnndbook men considerable bother. Tt is impossible impos-sible for them to get any ligurcs, and in cases where well directed plunges have been made bv turfmen the handbooks hand-books have lost heavily. Every .flavor .flav-or two some little handbook, of which there are thousands in the Unitod States, goes UDder and its proprietor welshes. About a year ago poolrooms in several sev-eral aectiona were contemplating giving giv-ing over tho operation of books, but thc racing at Charleston and Juarez hns revived them to n certain extent. In the days of tho bookmakers pooN rooms laid as high odds as wore ofiere'd at the tracks, but the advent of the pari mutuels caused them to cut their odds to 28 to win, S to place and 4 to show as top pricos. At prcsont lo to win, 6 to place and 3 to show arc tho tops, with a bare possibility of prices Doing cut evon doopor. The talent, on account of its fickle-noss fickle-noss and failure to play horses on form, has created many false favorites, thac is, by backing every horse in a men to auch an extent that a favorite which the books would have laid 0 to 5 against actually paid its backors something some-thing like 3 to 2 and horsemen having noticed thia. glaiia fat played, ilia, poolrooms accordingly and won big sums. Few poolrooms havo mado much money in tho last few years, but tho handbooks, whose patrons are often women or children, arc vastly profit-able. profit-able. During the race meetings in Kentucky Ken-tucky the fow poolrooms, which exist Jin Louisville, are not open and the j wagers mado on horses running at any of the four tracks must bo Bmall ones I or else the "bookics,, refuse them. It. V. Carman, tho wealthy Now Yorkor, who owns such horsos ' .as Meridian, Bonnie Kelso, The Turk, Feather Duster. Dus-ter. Campoon and a numbor of other good ones has reaped big Towards, it is said, through poolroom operations. He, liko other owners, when thov had. a horse up which had a good chance to win, would lay their wagers in poolrooms pool-rooms all over tho country. This naturally nat-urally would cut a big figure in tho prices. Guess at the Oclds. Small bettors would figure the favorite favor-ite to win and would try to pick another an-other to boat tho first choice. This would result in heavy play all along the line, and when the winning pricos would be hung up it would bo found invariably that the bookmakers would have laid a much Hinallcr prico against thc victor. In thc pari mntuels no bettor can toll until lie cashes what odds he will got. A $5 bot somotimos profits ono only 20 cents. It has been demonstrated to turfmen and to turf writers that in tho 'event that thc pnri mutuel system of betting should be adopted universally that the poolrooms would cease to exist or else would recoivo but littlo play on account ac-count of short limit pricos. Canada is falling into lino with tho French systoru; Hnvrc fle Grace is another course which is ready to accept tho new-method new-method of betting "and at Juarez tho machines were need but tho Mexican, contingent preferred playing in the books. Tho inauguration headed -by tho Bluograss, state is undoubtedly tho only method to do away with "bookmakers, "book-makers, but tho public would always rather bet against human judgment of tho bookie than put money into tho ' slot machine. According to the Kentucky law each jockey club in tho state is allowed to take out 5 per cent of the money wagered as its share of the profits. A small per cont of tho amount allowed the jocke3r clubs gooa toward maintaining main-taining tho racing commission and incidental in-cidental expenses. After the.subBtraot-ing the.subBtraot-ing of the por cent the amount played on tho winning horses in then prorafod among those holding winning tickets. The money wagered on the winners, place and show horses is kopt separate. At each traek, there is posted post-ed immediately after a race thc number num-ber of tickets s.old so that bettors may compute tho prices for themselves, nnd in cafio of a mistake on tho part of tho jockey club it can bo rectified. Another An-other foaturo of the now method of wagering is that if yon fail to win someone else In tho same locality benefits ben-efits thoroby and the bookmakers fall to carry away tho money of one town to be dropped in the ritics in tho east. At present each joriccv Huh employs its own starter, presiding .judge, associate asso-ciate judges, paddock judge, patrol judge and ' other officials, but. tho name 9 of those employees must be sent to thccaiiuc commission, fox confirms-. tion before taking up tho work. In this way it is made impossible for the jockoy clubs to put in charge of a track any man in whom tho commissioners commis-sioners do not havo confidence. Veteran Officials. A year ago an effort was made to have the racing commission to take ovor tho authority of appointing a starter, a presiding judgo nnd a handi-capper handi-capper for all four tracks, but inasmuch inas-much as Charles F. Price, tho present presiding judge, Lyman H. Davis, sec-rotary sec-rotary and handicapper of Churchill Downs, Ed. W. Maginn of Latonia and Douglas Park, and William H. Shelley, socretnry and handicapper of tho Lexington Lex-ington track, havo all 'been allied with bettor interests of racing in the state and havo worked to get the sport on a higher piano, thc racing commission decided to leave- matters as they stand for tho presont. It would have meant that thoso same men would havo beon reappointed to their old places or Davis or Maginn thrown out of their prcsont berths, which would have boen a hardship, and would not havo attained any hotter results re-sults than aro now received. However, in tho event that Judge Price, who is ono of tho best known presiding officials offi-cials in tho country, resigns, tho racing commission probably will take up the question of putting the officials under, the wing of that oody. Since tho departure o the bookmakers bookmak-ers from Kentucky, the stakes have been richer at the various tracks and more money is now being offored tho horsemen than at any time in the history his-tory of tho turf in the Bluograss state. The Kentucky derby, with a valuation of closo to SS00O; the Kentucky Endurance En-durance stakes, worth this year over $12,000; tho Futurity, $8000; the Latonia derby, $0000; tho Kontuckv Oaks, $3000, and half a dozen two-yoaf-olds oventa which will Tjo worth closo to $3000. nnd tho stakea to "bo Tun off at Douglas Park this spring and thoir valuation not known at present, all go to make up a good example of the present pres-ent condition of the Kentucky turf as comparod to conditions as thov existed ten years ago, Eight years ago. just prior to the chango m the method of conducting meetings in Kcutuckv. thero were many of the old selling races, $200 "top and bottom." affairs, which wero practically prac-tically of no value to the winner, and afforded wide opportunities for horsemen horse-men to play for prices ij the betting, as it was impossible for a stable of pooror class of horsos to earn enough In racos to buy their food, , . At4 Pesont no races are run off in tho stato of less vnluc than $500. which makes the purse of sufficient value for tho horsemen to be "leveling" at all times. This hns beon the aim of the commission, and lack of notoriety of form rovoraals during tho past fow years on Kentucky tracks Bhows that to a large extont the plan has been effective. ef-fective. , According lo mombors of the commission com-mission as ovonta come up. steps will bo taken to bring about even better conditioiip. Breeders claim that through tho efforts of tho commission' the sport in this section has been kepr ' alive and has brought thousands of' dollars to Kentucky via tho thorougK-j |
