THE EVILS OF RACING TWO-YEAROLDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2565, 13 May 1903, Page 46

THE EVILS OF RACING TWO-YEAR-OLDS.

Ph» Americans are beginning to realise the evil effects of racing two-year-olds, the dearth of entries for the valuable stakes provided by the leading clubs for horses threa years old and over having thrust that fact prominently before them. "On the Continent," says the Horseman, "the opposite has been the custom, with the result that in F:..nce the number of first class aged horses i« very large, much larger in proportion than is the case across the Channel. Oil the face of it this would seem to prove the assertion that breeders in this country and England are making too much use of the- young horses. There are some who take exception tc tihis, but the weight of evidence appears vo be against the too frequent racing of colts, especially in their two-year-old form. There is not quite the same comparison to be mAtL& 'between the racing of young trotters and runners as there is between the thoroughbreds raced in different countries, but in tihis connection it is interesting to note that the racing of aolts has been quite generally abandoned by the leading breeders of tihe light harness horse. Several years ago yearling and two-year-old stakes were to be frequently found on the stake programme of the leading racing associations. To-day thera are practically no yearling races, and but very few two-year-old events, and of the latter but one <rr two develop any general interest en febe part of either the breeders or the public. A few of the breeders of trotters went so far when the reaction against the racing of youngsters commenced that they ceased entirely in making entries in Uhe Futuritys. This plan worked to the satisfaction ot the breeders so long as they were able to race their own horses, but when breeding operations became so large that tihe youngsters had to be disposed of at public sale, the breeders found that colts jrhieh were not entered in tihe leading Futuritys failed to bring the price which their breeding would warrant wher compared with colts of at least no better breeding which were liberally enga.gied. Ac a rule, however, the trottingbred youngsters are not raced to an extent .'•hat does them any material damage, and nowhere near as much as the two and three-year-alds on the running turf. The worst .feature in connection with the racing of youngsters of eifcher breed does not appear on the surface. In rare-paring the oolite for their stakes there are many which are knocked out in their preparation of -which the public hear and know nothing. This loss is felt later in the dearth of really good aged horsw able to stand a season's campaign. The managers of the trades over which the thoroughbreds race are commencing to feel this state of affairs quite keenly, but, thanks to the conservativeness of ihe breeder of the trotter, there is not the same trouble confronting thf managers of the light harness tracks."

Sir Joseph Hawley, one of the greatest turf men in the English calendar, and probably the best judge of racing and racehorses of his time, was a strong opponent to early two-year-old racing. He won the Derby four times, but none cf his winners wero brilliant two-year-olds — in fact, three of them were, next to useless at that age, but Blue Gown, his fourth Derby winner, won three races as a two-year-old lafce in the season. The training and racing of two-year-olds early in the season Sir Joseph denounced as a "crying iniquity." This wa.s 30 years ago. What would he hav<» said had ho lived to the present day? About 30 years ago Sir Joseph wrote to the English .Jockey Club in these terms : — "The annual destruction of two-year-old material leaves us with less proportionate stock on hand for three-year-old racing, and towards the end of the fourth year — when maturity can be said to have been roachod — there is a dearth of first-class animals never before paralleled. To offer inducements which create animals espseially adapted for early rcoes, but very little good afterwards, seems to mo suicidal. The Legislature says that it is for the good of all that there should be a c!'Ot*> time. They enjoin the owner of property to disregard his temporary pecuniary interests, and to refrain from kilinig his own salmon and his own partridges within certain periods-. Again, to use an analogy more like the present, they prevent child, father, and employer a? ike from unduly taxing youthful energy by overwork at an early age. What is this but interfering with private rights for public good? It is because Parliament is sunpots-ed, in its rrllective capacity, to bo removed from the influence of individual prejudice or interest that all of us iicquiesce in what is done to retrain ".s fo.- o\ir good. Nc man is a safejudge cf what is best for bis future interests when present gain coniM iv quest ion."