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Show ''HOP" ON A RACE TRACK. Tom Turnmire is the owner of Special Delivery, a race horse at the local track. Mr. Turnmire is something more than the owner of a race horse; he is a believer in the humane treatment of dumb animals. Every man long enough on a race course to make an attempt to beat "the books," after developing a "system," knows what "hop" and "dope" are, and some without a knowledge of the nice angles of the game may have wondered to what extent "hop" has been used. To the public generally the terms may mean nothing, so an explanation is in order. When a race horse lacks life, cocaine and other stimulants are injected just before a race. With some horsemen this becomes a practice and all their horses are subjected to the arousing effects of the ''hop." Animals thus treated, like tho human cocaine fiends, are useless without it. The practice had grown so extensive up to a few years ago that the horse free from doping was tho exception. Tom Turnmire, when he purchased Special Delivery last spring, j took him from a farm wagon, a discarded race horse. The animal was afflicted with boils and its system filled with the poison of racetrack race-track hop. The new owner reasoned that a horse made inferior by cocaine could be restored to his former condition, if the poison be eliminated, and so he proceeded to put Special Delivery through the "drug cure." Using linseed oil and feeding him on bran mash, Turnmire brought forth a revitalized pony and since then he has been racing, and racing with remarkable success, winning everything in sight, including a purse of $1,000 at Grand Jnuction, the government govern-ment handicap at Cheyenne and numerous purses at Denver and Ogden. The horse broke the United States half-mile track record, going 1 1-8 miles in 1 :55 3-5 on the local traek. And best of all, Mr. Turnmire will not allow the animal to be plied with "hop." He says that what is not good for man is not good for his horse, and he has proved conclusively that he is right. His experience is causing other race horse owners to discard "hop," and the unnatural unnat-ural practice promises to soon disappear. For this change in the treatment of dumb animals, the Humane Society of America should decorate Mr. Turnmire. |
