view raw text
BELMONT PARK. Fitting, indeed, is it that the greatest of American race tracks should be reared as a monument to the zeal, the devotion, the energy and the wicdom of the man who more than any other has made of racing the immensely popular and successful sport it is today. Whatever difference of opinion there may be among outsiders, no claBS of racing men needs to be told that this man is August Belmont, in whose honor the palatial race course to be built at Queens, L. I., by the Westchester Bacine Association, will be named. August Belmont is more than the foremost spirit in the Westchester Bacing Association, mora than the chairman of the Jockey Club, more than the president of the State Bacing Commission. He is more than all these because by his labor and his wisdom were created the conditions without which these different bodies would have been no more than so many empty names, meaning nothing and suggestive only of a past freighted with harrowing memories. In the dark days 1895, when racing seemed to have run its course in this state, when the breeders of the country were panic stricken at the bare thought of losing their chief market, when the horsemen of the country knew not which way to turn and could look no furtner than the morrow in that dark hour arose August Belmont, and practically alone and unaided he succeeded in having the Percy-Gray law passed, succosded in breathing new life and new hope into the sport and made possible the flourishing condition which now obtains in racing. One might write without end of the multiplicity of bnefits which have followed in the wake of Mr. Brlmonts labors. Suffice it to say-hero that racing man know him by his works, and that he and his works are appreciated and honored heartily and rincarely by racing men of all classes by the humblest racegoer and trainer as well as by the wealthiest breeder and owner. Therefore it is that the turf world will look forward with pleasurable anticipation to the opening of Belmont Park in 1904. Long may it flourish. Vast and imposing will be the new race course: Six hundred and s ixty-wx acrr.s a wholn countryside; a grandstand that will seat 11,000 persons and a field stand that will seat 5,500, or 16.5C0 in all, and broad slopng lawns and fields for the accommodation, of other thonsands who, in the days that are to come, will be thrilled by the battles of the thoroughbreds over a course that is destined to become historic in the annals of the American turf. For those who care to place a wager, whether bo-cause of sentiment or a desire to gain, there will be a spacious betting ring, the interior of which will be of a horseshoe design, so that the bettors, at the sound of the bugle, may pour themselves out on the lawn without having to scramble over or throngh their own ranks or the ranks of the layers. A club house that will be a model a three-story structure, with reading rooms and offices on the first floor, a ladies parlor and dining room on the second and a cafe on the third. And for the thoroughbreds a great circular clay track of a mile and a half, a straightaway course of seTen furlongs, two turf courses of a mile and a quarter and a mile and a furlong respectively, and stables sufficient to accommodate half of the thoroughbreds in tho land. At present it is the intention to have the horses run to the right, as was the rule at Monmouth Park, instead of to the left, tho Tegular style, but this has not been determined upon definitely and in all probability will not be determined until after the horsemen have been consulted. Owners and trainers never took kindly to the Monmouth Park style of running to the right, but they raced there, and if this style should be adopted at Belmont Park they will race there also. All the stands at the new course will be arranged so that they will be in the shade, and their occupants will not be disturbed by the sun during the racing hours. Another good idea in connection with Belmont Park is that there will be no crossing and recressimg of the courses either by pedestrians or by horses. There will be numerous approaches to the infield, but all of them will be by tunnel. More than one good racehorse has been ruined by striking suddenly the hard path beaten by pedestrians in passing to and from the infield of the various courses, but at Belmont Park this danger, frequently complained of and much feared by owners and trainers, will be obviated. Aside from the great and well deserved honor paid to Mr. Belmont, one significant fact stands out in connection with the announcement of the plans for the new course. This significant fact is that for the first time in the history of racing in this country at aay rate since racing became the immense industry and business it now is we are to havo a turf headquarters not a headquarters by virtue of the fact that i.t is dubbed such, not a headquarters by courtesy, but a headquarters because of the fact that it will be the racing center of the American turf. It will be to America what Newmarket is to the English turf. There annually the great breeding sales will be held, and there annually will gather the breeders, owners and trainers of the country to buy, sell and talk horse. In the announcement of its plans the Westchestor Bacing Association makes this point clear by stating that it not only will have unrivalled accomodations for horses engaged in actual racing, but ample facilities for the stabling and breaking and training of yearlings. Thus it is that Belmont Park, of necessity, must become the turf headquartersmust become tho Newmarket of America. The Evening Sun.
