RACING.
[Illustration]
The national love of horse-racing, which is growing in intensity year
by year, finds nowhere a better ground for development than in Chicago.
There are in active operation in this city during the months of summer
and autumn three admirably equipped race tracks, where the fleetest
horses in the world are entered in daily contests for fat purses.
Attached to each are commodious betting-rings, where the spectator
may indulge in any size of wager he desires, from a dollar upward. On
any fine day during the summer the roads leading to the tracks are
thronged with gay equipages, which add spirit to a scene always varied
and beautiful. Two of these tracks are located on the West side, one
at Hawthorne (Corrigan’s) and the other at the western extremity of
Garfield park (the Garfield Racing Association). The other, and by
far the most famous of the three, is the Washington Park Club, at
the southern end of Washington park. The Washington Park Club, under
whose auspices the races there are given each year, is a somewhat
aristocratic organization, composed of a number of the well-to-do
citizens of Chicago. The commodious club-house occupies a commanding
position to the west of the grand stand and admission thereto is
confined to members and their friends. To the grand stand and enclosure
adjoining, the public is admitted at a charge of one dollar per head.
The betting-ring is under the grand stand, and, from the fact that one
hundred book-makers are sometimes doing business there at the same time
and paying the club $100 per day apiece for the privilege, it may be
inferred that the industry is highly profitable.
The races given every year at this beautiful track are famous the
country over. They commence early in the month of June with the
American Derby, a race for three-year-olds, for which a stake of over
$20,000 in value is annually hung up. Derby day is one of the events
of the year in Chicago. Every vehicle capable of transporting two or
more people to the pleasure ground is bespoken for weeks beforehand.
Along Michigan avenue the gay cavalcade goes--tally-hos with their
freight of gallant knights and ladies fair; wagonettes, dog-carts,
man phaetons, with their clanking chains and glossy steeds; tandems,
cocking-carts--the new fashionable vehicle drawn by three horses
abreast--down to the simplest and most democratic of conveyances. Away
they go, and every window along the route contains its group of people
who, while not going to the Derby themselves, intend to see the best
part of the show. For hours the procession continues, the vehicles
turning from Michigan avenue into the boulevards and then winding into
the parks, to emerge presently at the great gateway of the tracks and
unload their pleasure-seeking occupants.
The scene when the bell is rung for the great race is one which
impresses itself on the mind beyond all possibility of effacement.
Spectators are packed in the paddock like sardines in a box. The grand
stand is a solid mass of men and women, the toilets of the latter
presenting a brilliant picture in the gorgeous sunlight. In the centre
of the great in-field, as it is called, jockeys and stable boys are
walking about, and scattered here and there are some of the noble
brutes that are to take part in the day’s contest. The horses come
on the track and a buzz sweeps over the vast assemblage as they go
cantering to the post. A few minutes of suspense and then--“They’re
off!” cries the crowd and past the grand stand they sweep like a
splendid troop of cavalry, the jockeys sitting like statues on the
struggling beasts, each one of which is animated by an almost human
determination to conquer in the struggle. A moment more and it is
over, and a roar goes up as the winner sweeps past the judge’s stand.
The great Derby has been lost for some and won by others. After the
subsequent and lesser races are over the cavalcade sweeps back to the
city again, the winners shouting and singing for joy and the losers
solemn in their silence.
The Washington park meeting lasts till the latter part of July. The
present officers of the club are as follows: President, George Henry
Wheeler; vice-presidents, Samuel W. Allerton, Albert S. Gage, H. I.
McFarland, Charles Schwartz; treasurer, John R. Walsh; secretary,
John E. Brewster; assistant secretary, James Howard; directors, N. K.
Fairbank, Norman B. Ream, Samuel W. Allerton, James W. Oakley, Columbus
R. Cummings, Charles I. Barnes, John R. Walsh, Henry Norton, A. S.
Gage, S. H. Sweet, G. H. Wheeler, Thomas Murdock, H. J. McFarland,
C. J. Singer, and others.
The Garfield park and Corrigan tracks commence operation at the close
of the Washington park meeting. The gatherings at these tracks are by
no means so aristocratic, but the purses offered are rich and the
racing is of the first quality. The betting facilities are ample. For
a while the admission to the Corrigan track was free, but it is a
question whether the practice will be followed in future.
At present Chicago is one of the liveliest racing centers in the
country during the season and the visitor who desires to see a little
of this exciting sport will find the amplest facilities at his command
for so doing.