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PEN PICTURE OF SALEMS NEW RACETRACK. New England Breeders Club Has a. Magnificent Plant at the New Hampshire Village. On Sunday last E. C. Smith visited Rockingham -Piirkf-nheneirrac shire, where, on Thursday of the coming week the first meeting of the New England Breeders Club will be opened. This is Mr. Smiths description of the new plant and its surroundings as published in the Morning Telegraph of Monday: Rockingham Park, -when the finishing touches have been put on it, will, for comfort of racegoers, and facilities for producing good sport, be the equal of any course in this country devoted to the uses of the thoroughbred. The builders of the plant were, to use the vernacular of the track, no "pikers." It was planned on an cxtravagaut scale and If anything is too big, too costly and altogether too expensive for the purposes of the club which is to carry the kingdom of the thoroughbred into virgin territory, where the most exciting form of entertainment in the past has been an occasional trotting horse meeting. The course is admirably placed, the track proper being a basin surrounded by low hills. It is well laid out and strongly reminds one of Sheepshead Bay, the start for races at one mile being very similar, though the straight course is like that at Belmont Park a real straight course. Both the main tracks and the chutes are wide enough to accommodate fields of the largest size, and the turns are graceful and easy. From the track fence the lawn rises rather abruptly to the grandstand aud clubhouse, which are several feet higher than the level of the course. This arrangement affords a good view of the track all around. The buildings are thoroughly up to date. The grandstand is modeled after that at Saratoga. The clubhouse evidently was built for the comfort of its patrons rather than for beauty. A rather squat appearing two-story house, both stories are surrounded by a piazza twenty feet wide, which fairly breathes freedom and comfort. The only fault in construction is the big uprights which support the overhanging roof of the grandstand. They are more than one foot square and so close together as to pretty well shut off a view of the races run out of the chute to those in the clubhouse end of the stand. The Saratoga plan has been followed in the arrangement of the boxes, one row extending the length of the stand, while the upper end is divided into private enclosures. The field stand is commodious, and the pavilion between the two stands, known by a different name than at the New York tracks, is well arranged for light and air, though there is meager protection in case of inclement weather. It has a Uat roor, reached by a broad stairway from one end, which enables those who might care to do so to see the races from the roof. There seems to be a well-defined doubt whether this pavilion will be extensively used during the inaugural meeting. The strong fight which the New England Breeders Club was forced to put up to maintain the rights granted them by legislative action is too well known to need recalling, and the question of having open speculation on the races has caused the officials of the club no little concern. While the poolrooms of New York have virtually been forced to adopt the English system of city betting by settling on starting prices, it will be no surprise if the English track system is put iuto effect at Rockingham Park that is to say, that those who wish to lay the odds will have no fixed place of business, but will be among the crowd, the wagers being purely personal transactions. Directly back of the clubhouse is an open paddock, high and dry, and twenty yards from the back is a row of stalls for use during the races. The office building and jockey room is at the end of the paddock and up to date in every respect. The detail most pleasing to horsemen is that of the stabling accommodations. The stables, with room for several hundred horses, are arranged in a double row, with a wide avenue between. The barns are built on the most approved plans and are on the highest ground in the Immediate neighborhood, insuring IHenty orair" auand rfreedom from dampness. Com-inodious houses for the attendants are arranged for each stable. There is much to be accomplished before the completion of the course, but little heavy work remains. A large force of carpenters, who have been at work on the stands, were laid off Saturday, their labors having come to an end. The only signs of life Sunday were the painters, who defied the elements by, putting the finishing touches on the inside of the clubhouse. Very little outside painting remains to be done, aud the buildings will present a pretty appearauce in the club colors drab aud green. Superintendent Meyers will, however, find plenty of work for his large force of men in clearing away the debris, laying brick walks aud attending to other odds aud ends. It is impossible to say that everything will lie complete by Thursday of next week, but the plant will be nearer to completion than Belmont Park was when first thrown open to the public. This covers every item except the steeplechase course, and it will be impossible to give jumping races at the coming meeting. Announcement to this effect has been made. I can see no reason why the flat racing should not lie highly successful from the start. The stakes have filled well, and there will be more horses of good class here than one would expect. The winners of the four important handicaps already run at New York are on the eligible list for the various stakes, aud the developments of the curreiit week may show the Suburban winner as in the same class. Roseben, winner of tin? Carter; Merry Lark, winner of the Excelsior; Grapple, winner of the Metropolitan, aud Tokalon, winner of the Brooklyn, are all candidates for the ,000 New England Handicap, the opening days feature, and for various other events, and a majority of them will be on hand. Salem, where the track is located, is a typical New England country village. It has a half dozen shops and a hotel, a trolley line through the main thorougiifare, with a signboard warning "To Stop, Look and Listen" at intersecting streets, and the new track is very much a part of the village.. The straight course extends to within a dozen yards of the main street, and the back veranda of the hotel is on a direct line with the start of races run the full distance of the chute. Whatever opposition to the track may have arisen in other parts of the state, Salem Is very much iu favor of it. Already it has brought a lot of money to the quiet little village. One man who owned the plot of ground about the main entrance had offered his farm for ,500, but got 5,000 for it from the builders of the track. Salem is far removed from the zone of New Hampshire farms abandoned by the rising generation because of the narrow life and the lack of opportunity. It is in the midst of a good farming community and the unmistakable stamp of New England thrift is apparent on all sides. It is very accessible. The railroad company promises trains from Union Station in Boston to the track iu forty-five minutes, and there should be no difficulty iu adhering to this schedule, as local trains cover the distance in an hour aud a quarter, making a dozen or more stops. Lawrence, a city of 90,000 inhabitants, is only thirty minutes away by the trolley, and there are many good sized cities and towns aud many summer resorts -within a short trolly ride of the track. The New England Breeders Club has built a course that is a credit to the turf in every way. It only remains to be seen whether the hitherto impregnable barrier of New England prejudice can be penetrated and Rockingham Park be classed as a monument to the greatest sport on earth, or whether it must stand as a mausoleum of the vaunted ambitions and extravagant hopes of its promoters.
