Show SPORTING I i Sports of all kinds are not only pleasing pleas-ing and entertaining but they are in tho highest degree healthful But the danger of all sports is that they will degenerate into the vulgarity of being professional rather than amateur The country is now flooded with professional base ball clubs and oven our own city seems to have gone mad over the game There can never bo tho same love of genuine sport where any game is turned into a moneymaking affair that there is when the game is played no matter what it is I for tho love of it In the East they have a much greater variety of sports than out West owing to the West being without bays and sounds but there is one sport which if properly conducted should be as successful in the West as in tho East We refer to the matter of racing From time to time races are given here and some have been of a very good character and worth of far more famous turfs than that of Salt Lake and some have been unworthy this city Americans as a rule have as keen a love for horses as any people in the world and each year races become more numerous everywhere throughout the coutry and better horses are put on the turf All this is commendable but thc turf has always been a place for the operations of rascals who would not hesitate to dose a horse or a tnnn to win n few naltrv dollars But U n qn such as these are not the only ones who perform swindling operations at races there is another class we refer to tho drivers and trainers of horses It has I become a common remark that no man can tell the best horse in a lot of starters I unless he is on tho inside Such things should not be yet such things are The managers of race courses cannot always control such matters but they I should be extremely vigilant and see I that everything within their power is done to prevent frauds being committed and when they detect anyone perpetrating perpetrat-ing a fraud they should not hesitate to I deal with him as severely as possible and I publish the name of such a one in the I papers i and they should immediately I send the name of such a driver or trainer or owner to all the associated tracks of I the country Another thing that should he done by managers of race cotrses is to I abolish the sale of pools no maettr what their form upon tho course elsewhere of course they cannot control the matter It is often said that without tho pool box on a track there would be no interest in races and that there would bo no patronage of races We believe tho very contrary to be the truth What all truo lovers of horses desire to sec at a race is honest contest between horses and not a contest between the pool box and the public Tho inducement offered by the chance to bet at a race draws tho betting class of the community and tends to keep away the classes who care for horses and honest sport but not for gambling Ono way in which this could be partially accomplished would be for the owners of fine and fast horses to refuse to let them go in any race upon which pools were sold on the ground and we hope that I somo of Salt Lakes leading horsemen will introduce this practice Another danger in the extreme West on race tracks is i the danger of ringers The ringer may bo described as an old turf hero whose name is changed and who is sent away from tho country where he is known to go to a new one where he is unknown I for the purpose of swindling people We believe there have been some such I in Salt Lake and that they have been represented as coming from some of the t country towns The race course should he an auxiliary to the breeding farms and it hould create cre-ate a generous rivalry between breeder by offering colt and other stakes After all the first great interest in all races should be the horses and not tho betting I and to them should be given tho encouragement encour-agement Let the breeders make their I own stakes and then they will have an inducement to rear better horses and let I them discourage the idea that races are gotten up merely for the purposes of the I pool box |