AN AMERICAN OPINION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 50

AN AMERICAN OPINION.

Jacob Phicos has been giving an American snribe his opinions of English racing. Pincus trained Iroquois, the only Americanbred racer that ever won the British Derby, and all persons who know him concede that hie knowledge of horseflesh is eood ; also that he was never a sanguine man. Iroquois, Pincus says, was never a first-class horse. He was robust and healthy and in no sense soft, and he had a great turn of speed. But there was never a time in his career when a really first-class horse could not beat him. By a first-claas horse Pincus does not necessarily mean an average British Derby winner. The British Derby, he thinks, is as often won by an ordinary horse as any racing- classic in the world. Iroquois was successful in England in his threa-year-old season because he did not meet formidably opposition. His great season was an off season in Great Britain. Most Americans are of the opinion that King's Courtier, brought over a few season's back by John A. Drake, was a better horse than Iroquois. Pincus dies not think so. Wliile he considers it highly probable that King's Courtier could have beaten either Diamond Jubilee or Disguise 11, his principal three-year"-old rivals in the colt line, if he had met them, he does not consider that N that entitles the Kingston horse to be rated as a better horse than Iroquois. Mr Pincus does not consider either Diamond Jubilee or Disguise 11, a first-class three-year-old. They were merely good, useful horses. Diamond Jubilee, he thought, was many pounds behind Florizel IT a.nd Persimmon, and that the master of King Edward's stud acted wisely when ho let Diamond Jubilee go to South America for 30,000g5. Thirty thousand dollars, the veteran trainer thinks, would have been a more reasonable -price. Pincue did not care a prreat deal for Diamond Jubilee, because the St. Simon horse was alitaxs napifi oj less gulky» He. does not

class Cap and Bells XL the only American that ever took the Oaks, with the best fillies he has xzen in England. She was remarkably fast and very game, but she could not have beateD Pretty Polly or Sceptre. Pretty Polly and Sceptre he considers two of the best horses of either sex he ever saw. Either of them could have whipped 90 per cent, of the stallions that have come under his observation. As a general proposition, Pincus says, training in America over big, elliptical tracks is easier and more satisfactory than training in England, and that American horsemen do their work more scientifically than the English do theirs. Training in England is largely guesswork. Timing a horse, except for the whole distance of a work or a race, is practically impossible, because no man watching a runner come bead on ca.i accurately tell when the runner reaches the various poles. Pincue is a great believer in time himself, and in the split second watch. It is everything, in his opinion, to know how fast a horee is running furlongs and halves and quarters, and to be able to stop a joebsy by a pre-arranged signal when he goes too fast or to wave him on when he goes too slow. When training on a straightaway, Pincus says all the E^fct trainer can do_ is to get a horse thoroughly tired. Getting a first-class racer tired in England is usually accomplished by working him out hard with a good horse of low calibre. This is rather au expensive prcee : a, because it destroys the trial horee as a moneyearner.