CHAPTER XXIIL



                   The Track Record&s
    The whole thought of the turfmen of to-day inclines
toward speed and there is nothing they have not done to
assist in this development. Comparisons, therefore, of the
time in races made in the years ago and that at present
clipped off are merely interesting without being conclusive
of anything. Time is relative and so always has been con-
sidered by turfmen, whether racing is to them a matter of
speculation or a medium of recreation.
    Atmosphere, environment, condition of course, charac-
ter of pace, judgment of jockey-all these and a dozen more
contingencies enter into the making up of time. To-day
it is a selling plater that makes a record and to-morrow for
that same plater to be beaten thoroughly in much slower
time by a horse of quality who always could and always
would beat him, and yet who never had a record emblazoned
on his career. Discussions of records, therefore, from a
time standpoint, are profitless and, in many instances, mis-
leading. I do not mean to dim by any word of mine any
laurel now worn by the glorious living or by the valiant
dead. Time is interesting and, at periods, informatory, but it
never can, other than by accident, be conclusive as to merit.
   THE GREAT FUTURITY, inaugurated in i 888 by the Coney
Island Jockey Club, run in the fall, six furlongs, by two-
year-olds, annually, is one of the richest of all of the Ameri-
can classics, and has been won by the horses year after year,
as herein mentioned, since it was inaugurated:
i888.-Proctor Knott, 122 lbs. (Barnes), ist; Salvator, io8
    lbs.; Galen, ii5 lbs.; time, I.15+; value, 45,000; 14
    starters.
i889.-W. L. Scott's Chaos, io9 lbs. (Day); St. Carlo, 122
    lbs.; Sinaloa II, 105 lbs.; time, I:I6-; value, 63,675 ; 23
    starters.
I890.-August Belmont's Potomac, 115 lbs. (Hamilton);
    Masher, io8 lbs.; Strathmeath, 124 lbs.; time, 1:141;
    value, 77,ooo; 15 starters.