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Show S THERE a limit to speed for a man or a horse? Can the human or the equine frame carry just so much drive before it starts to crack? We put this query to Hirsch Jacobs, one of the finest conditioners condition-ers in any sport, one of the best horse trainers of any given decade. "To set a record," Jacobs said, "one must have a fast track. That means a hard track. Setting, records on a fast track is dangerous. It has wrecked many fine horses. I would say there is a limit to how fast a horse can run before he cracks up. Especially Espe-cially if he Is after records over a hard, fast track." This reminded Grantland Rice me of a story that Charley Paddock once told. "Just at the time," the World's Fastest Human said, "I was at my peak. I had just tied the world's record at 9 35. I knew I could do better. I was set that day at Los Angeles in a Southern California meet. I broke in front. I was flying fly-ing at the 50. ' "Around the 80-yard mark I knew I was headed for at least a 9.1 for the 100 yards. I knew the record was mine. Then the calves of both legs began to shiver. I felt all my leg muscles mus-cles pulling apart. The thought suddenly hit me that-1 was on my way to being a cripple. I felt my legs were breaking up over this hard, fast track. I pulled up and still finished in 9 35. "I couldn't run again for weeks. The calves of both legs were extremely ex-tremely sore and strained." And don't forget that Paddock had two of the strongest looking legs anyone ever saw on a track star. Limit on Speed "1 realized then," Paddock told me, "that as we are developed today, to-day, we are capable of handling only so much speed. I mean our muscles and our ligaments. In the course of evolution and development develop-ment someone will run the 100 yards in 9 fiat. But not now." This was proved when Mel Pat-ton Pat-ton ran 100 yards in 9.3 and wound up later with cramps. Patton was moving into the danger zone, due entirely to excessive speed over a hard, fast track. ' He was finding out what Paddock had discovered years before. "How does this sound?" I asked Jacobs. "It sounds 100 per cent sensible," Jacobs said. "You can't drive either horses or humans over fast, hard tracks into records without paying pay-ing the penalty. Which is a breakdown. What do the owners own-ers want a record or a sound horse? Jacobs claimed Stymie for something some-thing like $1,500 and turned him into a million-dollar probability. The racing game is packed with fine trainers. We could start with Ben and Jimmy Jones. We could bring you Maxie Hirsch, certainly one of the greatest. We could call on Sunny Jim Fitz-simmons Fitz-simmons who knows horses better than horses know themselves. A great trainer. There is Honest John Partridge, who has been a fine trainer for 50 years. Most of these are veterans. Ben Jones, Fitzsimmons, Hirsch, John Partridge Part-ridge able, smart, can take you back more years than you can remember. Young Trainers Are Good There are any number of younger trainers on the job Johnny Gaver of Greentree; S. E. Veitch of C. V. Whitney, one of the best, and several sev-eral more. But I also like the training methods of Jacobs, who wins his share of races without any $50,000 or $60,000 investments in young talent. Jacobs is a condition man. Condition Con-dition to me means so much more than anything else. A champion must have many things. But above all he must have condition. Joe Louis had little condition in either his first or second Joe Walcott fight. Walcott kept in condition. But he was a second-rate fighter. As a result, Louis, rated one of the best of all the heavyweights, was far behind Walcott after 25 consecutive rounds. When Louis' legs began to put on weight you knew what happened. He was far over the top. "Condition," Jacobs tells me, "isn't a matter of pigeons, horses or human beings. I've trained pigeons and horses. Human beings would be just the same." "What are the main qualities?" I asked. "Too many things," Jacobs said. "The amount of work they need. Food. Rest. I'll take up horses. You watch a horse. You watch the way he runs. He may be overworked. over-worked. He may need more work. These are the things to look for. "No one is ever quite alike," Jacobs said. "I mean a human being, pigeon or horse. Each case must be accorded individual attention." |