Crítica
- MACON!... ALONE! ALL BY HIMSELF!...
- Judge Ortega Warned the Jockey Club That It Could Not Hold the Well-Known Auctions of the Classic
Crítica's page of 11 November 1926 led with an exuberant, exclamation-packed headline on the racehorse Macón. It reported that Macón had scored another brilliant victory over 3000 metres, finishing a length and a half ahead of his stablemate Goldseeker in 3 minutes 10 2/5 seconds, with Tropel third and Hermes fourth. Lower on the page, an article headlined that Judge Ortega had warned the Jockey Club it could not hold the well-known auctions of "the Classic." In the legible fragment of that report, the paper hailed the arrival of a judge who was not frightened by the "specter" of the Jockey Club and would not let tradition hold him back.
This reading covers two excerpts: the Macón race result and a short fragment from the Judge Ortega article. Across most of the page the OCR runs together lines from neighbouring columns, so the race tables and most of the Ortega report cannot be quoted as continuous text, and the Ortega fragment is cut off at both ends. Small type in the race tables is blurred in places, the right edges of two tiles are shadowed, and the last digit of the issue number is illegible. The legible text does not name the law Judge Ortega invoked or describe how the auctions worked. The background pages consulted do not cover Judge Ortega, the auctions, the 1926 gambling-law campaign or the bill to give the city control of racing, so the commentary does not discuss them.
Translation
MACON!... ALONE! ALL BY HIMSELF!...
Macon secured another brilliant triumph, crossing the finish line 1 1/2 lengths ahead of his stablemate Goldseeker, in 3'10" 2/5 for the 3000 meters; Tropel placed third and Hermes fourth
Judge Ortega Warned the Jockey Club That It Could Not Hold the Well-Known Auctions of the Classic
matters. The real point is that there is now a judge who is not frightened by the specter of the Jockey Club and who does not let tradition stop him from enforcing the
Context
Macón, the unbeaten champion behind the headline
Crítica's headline, shouting that Macón won "alone," celebrated a horse whose record justified the enthusiasm. Macón was undefeated in 15 starts. He had been sold as a two-year-old in 1924 and bought at a high price by Jorge Mitre for his Stud Don Alfonso. In the 1925 Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini he set a race record of 3:06, and by winning the 1926 edition he broke Argentina's earnings record, reaching 404,623 pesos. The time printed by the paper, 3'10" 2/5 for 3000 metres, was slower than that 1925 record. The paper describes the runner-up Goldseeker as Macón's stablemate, a horse from the same stable, and the margin of a length and a half over him is consistent with the record of a horse that was never beaten.
The 3000-metre race and its 1926 name
The race the paper reports matches, in its distance, the event now called the Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini, today regarded as Argentina's most prestigious horse race. In 1926 it did not yet carry Pellegrini's name: it was first run in 1887 as the Gran Premio Internacional and was renamed the Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini only in 1941. From 1896 to 1940 it was held at the Hipódromo Argentino, and from 1887 to 1978 it was run over 3000 metres, the distance given in the paper's report. Macón's record lists him as the winner of both the 1925 and the 1926 editions. The race was already a major prize in this period: by 1920 its purse had risen to m$n50,000 and it attracted 134 entries. The excerpt does not name the race, and Macón won six stakes races in 1926, so distance, winner and year alone do not establish that this was the Gran Premio Internacional. The "Classic" in the Ortega headline on this page may refer to this race, although the legible text does not say so.
The Jockey Club's hold on Argentine racing
The fragment of the Ortega article praises a judge who is "not frightened by the specter of the Jockey Club" and does not let tradition stop him, language that reflects the club's standing in 1926. The Jockey Club of Buenos Aires was founded in 1882, with Carlos Pellegrini as its most determined promoter and first president, and its founders set out to create a body able to organize and govern the national turf. By 1883 the club had been entrusted with managing the Hipódromo Argentino, and the racing regulation it introduced soon applied throughout the national territory. It was at the same time a social club that gathered the male members of Argentina's elite. In April 1926, about seven months before this issue, the club formalized its purchase of roughly 316 hectares in San Isidro for a new racecourse. The warning about the Classic's auctions itself is known here only from Crítica's own headline.
Original
¡MACON!... ¡SOLO! ¡NOMAS!...
Macon se adjudicó otro brillante triunfo cruzando el disco con 1 y 1 / 2 cuerpo de ventaja sobre su compañero de techo Goldseeker, en 3'10 " 2 / 5 para los 3000 metros; tercero se clasificó Tropel y cuarto Hermes
El Juez Ortega Advirtió al Jockey Club que no Podía Realizar los Conocidos Remates del Clásico
importa. El caso real es que ya hay un juez que no se asusta del fantasma del Jockey Club y no se detiene en la tradición para hacer cumplir la
Source: Source: Internet Archive / Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina