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EMPIRE CITY TRACK IS NOT READY, j Much Work Will Have to Be Done Before! a Running Meeting Can Be Held. New York, July ".James Ruder and those interested Willi him in tin Empire City Association are having a meeting tonight to formulate plans for racing in August and it is expected that some announcement will be made tomorrow. There is much work to be done before the Kmpire City track can be made ready for a running meeting such as is proposed by Mr. Ruder and his associates. While the track proper has been kept in fair condition in order to accommodate the Road Drivers Club, the members of which have used it for matinee racing, the surroundings may be said to have gone to seed. Everything looks ragged, the grandstand and fences being badly in need of paint and a general furbishing up, while the park surrounding the track and the infield shows the evidences of neglect and lack of attention. The clubhouse is the only feature of the track appointments that seems to lie at all presentable just now. The stabling is- in fair, condition, and little work would be required to make the barns habitable and the surroundings pleasant. All told, there are accommodations for about 450 horses, and plans for new barns, which can be built quickly, have already been made. The track would, of course, have to be done over completely, as it is as hard as an asphalt pavement after all the trotting and automobiling that has been done over it. The hard track was one of the great objections raised against the plant at the only running meeting ever held there. Several horses broke down, Cliarentus, for one, never racing after beating Imp in a record journey for one mile and a furlong. It would be necessary to cut the track up deep and put on a new top dressing. While it is possible, of course, to have the course in fairly presentable condition by the second week in August, it will require a lot of hustling. Except for the fact that the grandstand is so situated that the sun shines directly into it after the middle of the afternoon, the plant is rather an a tractive one, at least in the surroundings. The track itself may not be of the very best as the turns are very sharp, hut the stretches are long and the track is of fairly good width. The one great drawback, naturally, would be transportation. While Mr. Ruder has said that arrangements could easily be made for a spur from the New York Central to the course, this would be impossible, of course, for this season. It would be necessary, therefore, to depend entirely, on the trolley service. The Yonkers avenue cars run from the 155th street viaduct, where they connect with the elevated or with the Eighth avenue surface cars direct to the track. This is a double track line and special race cars ought to make good time. Rut trolley service for n racetrack has never been satisfactory. Then there is the single trolley road which runs by the track and connects with the New York Central at Mount Vernon.
