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MONTREALS RACE COURSE. ENGINEER BI6EL0W SAYS PLANT WILL BE COMPLETED IN OCTOBER. Top Dressing Is Being Put . On Steel for Grand stand Arrives Description of-the New Track Bright Outlook, for Racing. Montreal, Que., August 22. The plant of the Montreal Jockey Club, which is Bearing completion, will be a distinct addition to American racetrack equipment and, if properly managed, as It doubtless will be, It will do well. The tract of land on which the new track has been laid out embraces something more than 100 acres. It lies about five miles southwest of the business center of the city. The Canadian Pacific Railroads tracks and an excellent trolley line will run into sidings and loops behind the grandstand. Thus it will be easy of access and, as the plans are drawn, large crowds can be handled with expedition and comfort. The Canadian White Company has the contract for the construction of the plant and the work is in charge of "Babe" Bigelow, a western man who recently graduated as a civil engineer from Ann Arbor, Michigan, and who Is well known among college men. He is a handsome, genial young giant and is "on to his job." He has about. 200 men and forty teams at work grading and erecting. The track is an oval of one mile and an eighth. It has two chutes, one for the mile races and one for races at seven-eighths of a mile. Inside there Is to be a steeplechase course shaped like the saddle bags courses of the old days. Work on this, how-ever; has not been begun. About seven-eighths of the work on the main track has been done. It is wide and beautifully drained. A top .dressing of. three inches of loam and sand is now being: spread . The posts have all been set, but the inside, rails and pickets for the outer fenee have not been put on. Work on the- grandstand has not begun, but the location Is graded and it will have a perfect outlook. The structure is to be of wood and steel, the Idea followed at Union Park. The first consignment of steel is just being delivered. As one sits in the stand, facing the track, the betting ring will be at the left. It is to be a commodious, well ventilated structure and is about one-fourth completed. The paddock, which is large and roomy and about seven-eighths finished, Is at the right of the grandstand and next beyond the paddock is the .clubhouse, on which about . two-thirds of the work has been done. Ten stables of thirty stalls each have been finished and others are In course of construction. .. . Mr. Bigelow says; the- track will be ready by September 15 and that the buildings will all be In condition for use early In October. If this be the case, it is likely that the Montreal Hunt Club will-hold a short meeting- in the fall. Before it was known that the steel for the grandstand would be so long delayed In shipment, the" Hunt Club was-planning a meeting about September 20. It was well that the Montreal Jockey Club, abandoned the notion of holding its inaugural meeting-this coming fall, for under rushed work, even had. .they been 1 able to get the steel, the plant would hardly have been In satisfactory condition. As it Is, it will be as good as the best when completed. Montreal is ripe for racing and the people are liberal In mind and purse. There are good local-people In the Montreal Jockey Club and much healthy local Interest is already manifest. The city will stand two meetings of twenty days; each during the year, one In the early summer and the other In the fall. Beyond this there would seem to be danger. It would be Inadvisable to attempt more. It would be well If the meetings were even shorter. The things to be feared here are agitation growing out of prolonged activity and legislation against the invasion of American gamblers and their methods. John Ryan and John Boden are directing the work and they will have much to say in the management of the plant and the conduct of the meetings. They have a thorough knowledge of the conditions and it is not to be presumed that they will jeopardize a bright prospect by permitting the presence of undesirable people or the foisting of distasteful methods. So far there is no cloud in sight and it is to be hoped that the sky will remain clear.
