view raw text
KENTUCKY RACING AND POLITICS State Racing Commission Considered To Bo Too Well Intrenched for Latonia Folks Lexington Ky July 11 Returning horsemen bring gossip that certain politicians who have a proprietor interest in the Latonla race track have publicly declared that the stand of the State Rac ¬ ing Commission against the reinstatement of book makers will be met with a movement for the repeal of the law by which the commission was created when the general assembly convenes in December 1909 1909The The probabilities are that when these politicians have felt the pulse of the people and absorbed the sentiment of the state press on the question they will forget that they ever entertained any such no tlon The State Racing Commission was a target for attack by the framers of the republican state platform last fall but when the heat of the cam ¬ paign was reached and the sentiment In favor of the law and the body it created was felt by the party leaders the party orators forgot the exist ¬ ence of that particular plank and ceased to mention it itSince Since then the acts of the State Racing Commis ¬ sion have been of a character unassailable save by certain greedy track owners few enough to be counted on the fingers of one hand The strongest card yet played by the commission in its effort to purify the sport of racing in Kentucky was the pas ¬ sage of the rule against bookmaking and it is as near to a certainty as can be that that card will lay as played as long as the commission is consti ¬ tuted as at present Likewise it can be said with assurance that should the successors of the present commission each of the members of which has yet two years to serve attempt to rescind the rule i they will hear the voice of the people in forbidding protest protestMr Mr Cella and his partners may as well make up their minds to this fact and if they are not satisfied with modest returns on their investments in Ken ¬ tucky race tracks they would do well to sell out The methods of the man whose trail is dotted with closed race tracks and state laws against betting will not be longer tolerated in Kentucky KentuckyWhen When the tracks in this state resume racing it will be under the direction of officials appointed by the State Racing Commission and responsible to the commission There is an urgent demand that the track owners be deprived pf the right to name the officials which they have enjoyed to the detriment in some instances of the sport and to the subsi ¬ dizing of horsemen and jockeys to the personal uses of men who have made fortunes through the control of the tracks tracksApplications Applications for dates for fall meetings have not been made as yet and none will be made until prolably about the middle of August The presump ¬ tion however is that Lexington will want to be ¬ gin about September 15 and run ten days to be followed by fifteen days at Louisville and the same number at Latonia The threat of the Latonia peo ¬ ple to keep that track closed unless the books are reinstated need not be taken too seriously seriouslyEncouraging Encouraging letters come from Kentucklans who are in the east and within the past week there has come from New Orleans information which has made the situation in Louisiana considerably brighter Neither is it thought to be beyond the range of possibilities that the Chicago tracks will reopen next year yearG G D Wilson O H Chenault and George Graddy have returned from New York where their yearlings were sold last Monday They were greatly disap ¬ pointed in the prices obtained and now are of the opinion that they made a mistake in not holding off until fall as they had Intended after the announce ¬ ment of the passage of the HartAgnew law Ed ¬ ward Corrlgan on the other hand expressed himself as satisfied with the average of 140 obtained for his yearlings though he thought that one or two in his lot should have brought about three times as much as they did Mr Corrigan has a deal on for the disposal of all of the yearlings remaining at the farm save three and with another party he is ne ¬ gotiating for the sale of fifteen mares at an aver ¬ age of about 150 per head It is his Intention to ship the majority of his mares In carload lots to certain points Jin the south and sell them off to dealers The best of the mares will probably be sold here by auction in the fall None of them can be disposed of before weaning time timeOther Other breeders among them C D Chenault are considering a plan to ship a trainload of marcs into Mexico and sell them by auction The past three or four years L Blum a Mexican buyer has made a good profit by coming here each spring and fall and picking up cheap mares and geldings and selling them privately in his country countrySome Some other breeders are figuring on Texas Colo ¬ rado Montana and the Dakotas as affording a fair market for mares and it should not be surprising if a number of shipments are made to those states next fall fallThe The plan of raising mules from some of the mares that will be retained for stud purposes when racing conditions are righted as it is confidently expected that they will be within the next three or five years Is being seriously discussed by many of the breed ¬ ers who will continue in the business businessDr Dr EdW Hagyard the veterinary surgeon who decided to quit his practice because of the untoward legislation in New York and Louisiana left here Thursday afternoon with his family for Hamilton Montana He will remain there a short while and then establish his new home In Spokane He says he is done with the horse business and will devote his time and energies to the development of coal mines minesFifteen Fifteen shares of the stock in the Kentucky Rac ¬ ing Association were put on the market a few days ago by Alar Samuelson and they were bought by E B Ellis a local man of means and enterprise who is Identified with the Lexington Water Works Company and the Home Construction Company In his early days Ellis was a man of figures on the race tracks of the country but abandoned such em ¬ ployment nearly a quarter of a century ago and settled down to business and has made a fortune
