BREEDERS OPPOSED TO HANDICAPS.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume X, Issue 489, 7 December 1899, Page 17

BREEDERS OPPOSED TO HANDICAPS.

The running <>t the Hunter Handicap at New York last week gave the breeders, many of whom ate now in the East, ample opportunity to criticise the present tendency in the racing world to handicaps rather than weight-forage races (writes 8. B. Weems in the Breeder and Sportsman of October 21). This switch to the handicap theory began some eight or ten years ago, when many of the valuable fixed events at weight-for-age conditions proved to be virtual walkovers for the two or three best horses of the year. There was then a clamor for handicap conditions It was argued that the weight for age conditions deprived the public oftentimes of good contests which might have beeii obtained'through a handicap adjustment of weights which would have placed the champions on a more equable footing with the lesser lights of the turf, and so brought out good fields and provided good racing. The breeders and those interested in breeding advanced the counter argument that when a man bred a first- class racehorse it was right and proper that his horse should have an earning,capacity -—that he should not be weighted out of valuable races just because he happened to be a good horse. Much might be advanced in support of both sides of the controversy. There can be no doubt that a fair portion of handicaps are necessary in order to make good racing. But a certain percentage of weight-for-age races for the three-year-olds is absolutely indispensable as a guide to successful breeding The three-year-old colts are now tolerably well taken care of with the Withers, Belmont, Realization, Brooklyn Derby, and a few minor fixed events but the fillies have absolutely no genuine tests of merit at weight-for-age, and it is therefore a pity that an old classic event like the Hunter, which was originally intended to give a line on breeding in the way of providing a test for the three-year-old

fillies, should have been changed to handicap conditions. The turf needs a series of weight-for-age events for three-year-old fillies, just as for the colts. The Withers, Belmont, and Realization pretty well determine the best of the three-year-old colts. There is no such test, however, for the three-year-old fillies, and it -is almost impossible at the end of a season to determine accurately which one of the three or four fillies may be the best of the year. The Jockey Club could render a service to - breeding by changing some of the filly events back to their original weight for-age conditions.