RACING BY THE CHART.

Otago Witness, Issue 2407, 19 April 1900, Page 39

RACING BY THE CHART.

Says the New York correspondent of the Sportsman: — The people in America have been educated to racing instead of naturally "acquiring it. This is caused largely hy the chart. While I consider racing by the. chare the curse of the turf in America, an explanation ip necessary to those who are not familiar with it. I can remember in days gone by how useful I found o pocket edition of "Huff's Guide." but that is a slim volume in 1 comparison with racing by the book as irf now, perfected in America. The chart is a great leveller. It puts the horseowner and counterjumper on the same terms at the post, and ii| the horseowner has nothing up his sleeve, the , counterjumper, provided he can underoiand handicapping and has the usual amount of common sense, is quite likely to prognosticate tbe winner and forestall the owner in the betting, though the latter may have been a long* time planning a coup. It is a very nic<9 thing to be able to sit down in a room and, | with the assistance of charts on races run for the last year or two, decide what chance a hor&e has or has not in a given race. But the chart has educated a certain class of people that have done more harm to racing than the good it can ever do. A man look? on a race here the sairte aj a stockbroker looks on an investment in slocks. He takes horpes for machines, and because thej' are not, cries fraud when the unexpected happens. Ah racing men all know, it is the difference at opinion that makes not only good betting bus good racing, and nothing gives a man grcpter satisfaction than to bock hip own judgment in ihe face of others who may know equally as much, and see his selected gain th& honours. The chart oftsu makes fake favourites, and the reason of it is that horses that have not been seen in public for <:ome time are overlooked. With the chart as a guide, it is almost impossible to overlook the true form of a horse that is constantly running, but the conditions of track, which vary considerably here, account for some of the widest discrepancies On a dirt track the slightest change in the weather makes a difference in the going, and then it is that a thorough knowledge of pedigrees is of assistance to the "dyed-in-the-wool" turfmen, something that the man educated by the chart never acquires. To bring off a coup in a country that is dominated by charts is naturally difficult. All sorts of devices are reported to. Horses are run unfit, on going that is unsuitable to them, and in many other way that are not absolutely fraudulent, and in this manner the public is sometimes thrown off. I will say from my experience of m?ny years on the turf that there is not half the fraud perpetrated that is generally supposed. The work on -\ chart is a great deal more than is imagined. Certain men, well educated in the colours of the owners, call off the race as it is run, and seldom make a mistake in the position of a horse at a single post. There are men beside them who jot down every call, and at the same time there are others making notes of jockeys and horses, and watching the things that could not be shown by figures'. Their notes arc appended to the chart, and if a man wants to follow racing by the chart, all he has to do h to make n. careful study of them ard form his own opinion. Besides the chart, in nearly every chy where racing is carried on, either a, morning or evening paper publishes before the day's racing a summary of past performances. This is a chart on a small scale, which gives the last four races that a horse has started in. By this a man' can see at a glance how such and such a horde has been running, and compare his race-i] with any of the other entries. The information j oHained in this summary is, o£ course, an',

abstract of tke chart, but it brings it immediately belore the eys of the handicapper. A man iisecl not ba a judge of horses to win money on the turf in America, and this robs "the sport of half its interest. The attendance at an Amerloau racecourse consists generally of about on€-l<alf regular-, the majority of whom ere thorough horsemcr-. The other ha">f is clhideJ between rich brokers, v/ho -.vill tet on tho drop of a lift, small bettors whom tlie c'.iart has educated, and women who make the turf a Ftudy.