Speed v. Stamina.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIX, Issue 4, 22 January 1913, Page 13

Speed v. Stamina.

SUCCESSFUL RACING MAN TALKS. Mr E. Hulton, who -was high in the list of winning owners on the flat during the late racing season in England, and for whom Mr R. Wootton trains, gave listeners the benefit of his experience and -opinions on various matters connected with racing while making the principal speech at the 146th annual dinner of the York Gimcrack Club a few weeks ago. Mr Hulton was the principal speaker by reason of his horse Flippant having won the Gimcrack Stakes at the York Airgust meeting. He is a newspaper owner in a large way, maintains about 25 horses in training during the season, and therefore should know his subject. Mr Hulton, in making reference to the growing disfavour of long distance handicaps, said that Ire believed long races were watched by the public with more interest than any, but owners and trainers of horses did not favour them because they found more scope in going for shorter races and less risk of breaking horses down. It is much the same in England as with us, for valuable

prizes in longer races do not necessarily produce a better entry either in number or in class. “Perhaps,” said the speaker, “if a series of long distance handicaps Jf fair value were arranged by concerted action amongst the race companies better results would follow.” Mr Hulton does not subscribe to the belief that the failing popularity of long distance racing pointe to the decadence of the present-day racehorse. Like many other students of racing, “he was inclined to think that there is a great deal of -miseoneeptioii as to what really took place in those early days when horses ran long distances. It wil? be found on investigation that very few horses ran more than once in one’day; that, although the events were over long distances, the pace was bad, and, in fact, there was more dawdling about than running, except at the finish.” Calling further upon records, Mr Hulton remarked that from a glance back at 1812 and later, it could be seen that there was a gradual tendency to cut the distance and increase the pace. The heats do not appear to have been timed, and, in the speaker's opinion, pace was the deciding factor as to the merit of endurance, and that led him to claim that the races of these times are far more strenuous and exacting than the old heats. He had no doubt that those old-time champions would cut a poor figure now. (Believing that the real test of merit in a racehorse is the fast mile, but to which many people are likely to take exception, Mr Hutton said that “the horse which can succeed at that distance amongst the best class and in the best time is the horse that is wanted. The fast miler is the horse to breed from. As long as this type is produced—-and it is being produced—there is no fear of decadence.” Passing on to racing from the breeders’ point of view, the speaker tackled the question of speed as a factor in breeding racehorses. He ventured the opinion, without any reservatioji, that “the best stallions have proved their speed at about one male. They never hav-e suibseaj.ueeifly slioim they could stay longer distances as well. But no great stallion -has lacked speed. It is the essential. Even tliough they have won the best long distance races, pure stayers —horses of one pace, but without speed —have never been successful stalk ons.” Tn support of this contention, Mr Hulton said, “How few Cesarewitch horses have succeeded as sires! On the contrary, in the Cambridgeshire—a very fast run mile—many winners have subsequently become successful at the stud. The winners of the Ascot Gold Cup may be divided into two divisions, the first consisting of very high-elas® horses, many the best of their year, who had already proved their speed, such as Cyllene, Persimmon, Isinglass, St. Simon, Isonomy, Petrarch, Doncaster, Scottish Chief, and Thormanby.- All these were great stallions. The second division might be called the handicap class, with whom mere staying was a far greater cliaracteristic than speed.” Mr Hulton contended that it would speak very poorly for the intelligence of racehorse breeders if the same progress had not taken place in the racehorse of late years as in running, walking, swimming, and jumping. Since 1846, when the first time -was recorded, 19sec. have been knocked off the Derby time, and the Denby is run Iflsec. faster than it was 30 years ago, figures which were accepted as endorsing the speaker’s contention.

Among other subjects touched upon by Mr Hultou -was that oft-discussed rule under which entries are cancelled by the death of the nominator. In stating that an alteration is desirable, the speaker suggested that the legatee should have the option “to declare, within a definite period, whether he will take the engagements or not. Of course, he would have to take aH the engagements or none. He would also have to satisfy the stakeholder of his bona fides, and, if necessary, he might be called upon to pay in advance.” In pressing his argument right home, and the loss to racecourse executives of subscriptions, and of Interest in their races, through entries of good

horses being cancelled by death, Mr Hulton said: “Look, for instance, at next year’s Derby. The two horses that aoukl most readily occur to the mind in connection with it would be Craganottr and Shogun. Neither of these horses is nominated by its present owner, and through an untoward circumstance neither animal might be able to start. There would be intense disappointment to their owners; the value of the homes would be tremendously decreased, and the public would be disappointed in teeing, possibly, the best horses cut out of the best events of the season.”