SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1961 ONTARIO TODAY CRAZY OVER HORSES ARNESS racing has been spat- tered with an inordinate amount of attention this summer, a con- dition arising out of Mr. Frost's springtime decision that since electricity appears to be here to stay, it might as well illuminate the trotters and pacers. Almost everyone this side of Thomas Edison has had the same idea at one time or another, and Mr. Frost finally got around to seeing the light, as it were. The instant the benign smile was bequeathed, London erected lamp- posts around the half-mile track in the Western Ontario fairgrounds for 24 nights, and Old Wood- bine in Toronto turned night into day with $700,000 worth of electri- cal geegaws through July and on into 'August. Inevitably, the people who see hell around every corner cried out against the new legislation. A new element of gambling had been thrust upon the unsuspecting and gullible public, they trumpeted. One such, Dr. J. R. Mutchmor, who seems to pop up everywhere in his relentless fight against practically anything, popped up on television one night and was asked if night harness racing was contributing to crime in Ontario. "A harness horse can be fixed," declared the peripatetic padre with incredible logic. "At least in a running race the bettor has a better chance to win his bet." BY TRENT FRAYNE What has this to do with night harness racing? If a harness horse can be fixed, as Dr. Mutchmor avers, can it not be fixed in the daytime? How is a harness horse fixed more easily than a running horse? Does a scoundrel sneak up in the middle of a race and punc- ture a sulky tire? And since standardbred racing and thorough- bred racing are both governed by the same group of men, the Frost- appointed Ontario Racing - Com- mission, how come runners give bettors a better chance? HE truth is, friends, that night racing is the best thing that's happened to hundreds of Ontario farmers since the invention of the threshing machine. By the very nature of its hours, night racing attracts larger crowds than day racing. Larger crowds mean more legal betting. More legal betting means bigger purses owners, and bigger purses mean better prices for breeding. Accord- ing to the Canadian Trotting Asso- ciation, 3,950 eligibility cards were issued this spring to 506 owners, which illustrates that 506 people, at least, are engaged in the business of racing standardbreds. The vast majority of them are Ontario farm- ers. Chances are that as night racing's popularity increases there'll be twice that number of people en- gaged in the industry within a few years. for the, Light For Harness Racing The thing about harness horses, it's not necessary to be a rich mil- lionaire with money to own and operate one. This can never be said for the throughbred owners, most of whom go to the races with grey toppers on their heads and minked ladies on their arms. They need help like J. Pierpont Morgan III or IV needs help. Into their limousines. INETY-NINE per cent of stand- ardbred owners need help with a capital $. Vast numbers of them are completely devoted to the animals they raise, train and race, even sleeping in the same stalls as their four-legged (most of them) breadwinners. They often race at places like London and Ottawa for purposes of $200 a race, a tenth of the cheapest race conducted in Ontario by the thoroughbred people. Worse, the purse is divided among the first five finishers, so that even in winning, the owner collects a camparatively picayune $100. It's scaled down at $50, $25, $15, and good grief, $10. These are the people, then, that the righteous orators are harpooning with their blatherings about fixed races and the contributing factor of night racing to crime in On- tario. 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