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GREAT MEXICAN RACING PLANS. San Francisco, Cal., December 21. About the most interesting thing heard iii the gossip of turf affairs here this week is the news of a big race track proniotion In the City of Mexico. From what the owners and breeders at Emeryville, Oakland, hear concerning the. matter, a first-class racing plant, costing upward of "00,000 and equipped in the most modern style, will be erected in the Mexican capital within the next eighteen months. Moreover, a jockey club having jurisdiction and government over thoroughbred racing by virtue of special legislation toward that end will direct the racing bn the new course and upon other courses which it is thought will naturally spring into existence In the City of Mexico and neighboring cities In the course of time. Capitalists, foremost in commercial and social circles in the ancient cltv, are ahead of both the new race tracks and the proposed jockey club. The intention Is to place the Mexican turf upon the same plane and status as racing is found in New York and under the French Jockey Club on the Parisian courses. The men behind the idea of creating a turf for Mexico desire racing for the social and sporting attributes behind. Strange as it, may seem, the project is not being urged because of the financial possibilities of the scheme. Not a dollar of stock is to bo bartered in this country. However, a determined effort will be made to bring an adequate number, of liorses, owners, jockeys and officials from the United States to properly set in motion the machinery of the big project. While there lias been no great fanfare about the tiling, the fact that earnest and substantial measures had been already taken toward launching racing in the great empire to the south or us was learned this week during the visit here of Francis do Carrerro, the noted ranch king and timber limit proprietor of Guadegallpb, Mexico. , Carrerro, though a young man, is a millionaire several times over. Five years ago he was a student at the University of California aud a noted baseball layer. He is a member of the New California Jockey Club and the Westchester Racing Association of New York. Though unable to give any details, the young Mexican confirmed the correctness of the facts in the main above related. It is thought racing will bo inaugurated in Mexico on a first-class basis about January 1, 1909. Betting will he under governmental supervision, as in France, wliilo it Is planned to give purses and overnight handicap values of sufficient caliber to attract liorses and horsemen who participate in midwinter racing from as far north as New York. It Is now possible to ship from New York to the City of Mexico well within a fortnight and at little greater cost than the rail transportation to "New Orleans, La. The ideal winter climate, the population and the wealthy class of citizens necessary to support a high-grade turf are to be found in the City of Mexico. While there has boon a sort of desultory splash of running racing there for three years past, with a lot of culls from the American turf contesting for 00 purses, racing has never been considered on a pretentious basis before the present time.
