RACING V. SCRAMBLING.

Otago Witness, Issue 2325, 22 September 1898, Page 36

RACING V. SCRAMBLING.

The agitation for long-distance races is now at its height in England, but, with all due respect for the praiseworthy motives which prompt such measures, I venture to think 'that nothing in the world can make long-distance racing popular with owners and trainers, and more especially in the summer months, says a London Sporting Life scribe. Where is it possibe jto train a horse for a two-mile race when rain is conspicuous by its absence for two sultry months? .And I believe it is impossible to train a horse thoroughly for a long-distance race more than twice a 3 r ear. I was talking to one of the few remaining old school of jockeys the other day, Dick Parry, who rode second to Croaghpalrick for the Stewards' Cup in the biggest field that ever started for that race, namely, 45, and he then rode 4st 111b. He argues, why cannot horses be trained now as ihey were then, when he used to ride two-year-olds the last three miles of the Beacon course, and two-mile heats did not seem to do so much harm as one five-furlong race does the horses of to-day. Either, then, our breed of horses has deteriorated or the system of training of the present day is not adapted to the old style of racing, and if we are going back to the old style of racing we must go back to the old style of training. Parry rightly suggests : "In those days we used to gallop our horses in the races, and all the training they got was walking from one place or another. Now they are racing on the train ing grounds every day for nothing, and they don't get the good old oats and hay and Deans that they used to have." No doubt there is much in this, for I know from personal observation that half the trainers in England who think they are feeding on old 13st oats have not an old oat on the place, and they would not weigh 12st except for being chopped. Another thing, there is nothing makes horses stay like long walking exercise. Look at hunters. In sprint races they go from post to post without a chance to draw breath. In long-distance races they ought to be ridden nicely at first, and they have time to get their second wind. So far as wind goes, one race does not hurt more than another, but to endure the long strain of a long race a horse's muscles must be hardened by long, slow work, at the risk of his losing speed. The opinion that longer races would be better for owners as well as the public is gaining ground every day, and there wiD be a vast deal more interest in racing, with a better chance of backing the winner, than in this monotonous multiplicity of scrambles, embodying the maximum of uncertainty without sport. Trainers like short cuts because ie is easier to train, jockeys and the heavy bettors who are in with them like them be cause it is easy to stop a horse, and they store away seorets to use later on to their own use. The higher class of owners do .riot like them as a rule, because they generally manage to bo on their horses when they lose, and find some one else profits when they win.