Number 6
Race Tracks vs. Golf Courses

The horses certainly have been playing hell with golf in many sections in recent years. Several years ago I had to make an inspection of a noted golf course close by the Narragansett track near Providence, Rhode Island. There was a big handicap being run at the track on that particular day and you could shoot a shotgun off in the golf clubhouse without hitting anyone other than the attendants. Many of the California courses are but slimly patronized on the days when the big track events are scheduled and throughout the entire meeting golf shows unmistakable signs of slumping–off to some extent.

Now there is nothing that can be done about it except to let Nature take its course and hope for the best. Golfers are sportsmen and the track exerts a strong appeal to them just as it apparently does to other people in all walks of life. Certainly! We all know that it is the betting angle that gets them all. While I admit that a few attend the races just to see the horses run and because they are tremendously interested in the breeding of fine stock but these are comparatively few, although there are many that insist that this is true in his, or her, case. But as a matter of fact not one of them could tell whether Sysonby was a race horse or a little place that Herr Hitler wanted for the Reich, who won the Zev–Papyrus match or if Domino was a mare. Maybe after the tracks have collected all their dough the derelicts will one by one come slipping back to the golf courses for a less expensive and certainly more healthful pastime.

I suppose that I have seen about as much horse racing through the years as most citizens not directly connected with the game. I like good stock as well as the next one. Many of my friends have been and are breeders of the best. I have traveled miles to see Man O’War at Lexington, Kentucky. But I insist that when it gets into your blood to such an extent that you play every race, day–in and day–out, it is a sucker’s game, and you had best follow that well known slice of yours around eighteen holes more often, best for your nerves and incidentally for your purse.

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