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BUTLER ENTHUSIASTIC OVER JUAREZ Announces on His Return to New York that New Mexican Venture Is Prospering Nen York January 10 After an extended visit to I El Paso and the new race course at Juarez Mex in which he Is heavily interested James Butler has re ¬ turned home enthusiastic over the prospects of rac ¬ ing not only in Mexico but in this state Mr Butler made these statements in an interview interviewRacing Racing in Mexico particularly at Juarez has come to stay We started at Juarez the first of last December with many obstacles to overcome but the new track which is one of the finest in North America is actually paying expenses Matt Whin J G Follansbee W H Kraft Senor Terrazas and other gentlemen with whom I became associated In this venture deserve praise for the way they have toiled to make Juarez racing successful successfulIt It was something of an undertaking to start out witli a sport new to the Mexicans and citizens of Kl Paso but Wiun and his friends went ahead and built a wonderful track The going was at first heavy and fast time was out of the question but the track improved so rapidly that only the other day a mile was run in 139 and a fraction There arc nearly COO horses stable r at Juarez and their owners and trainers are n happy lot They did not expect such favorable conditions when they went there but now that the permanency of the venture is assured they are very enthusiastic enthusiasticWhile While it cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars to get the plant in shipshape for racing it was necessary to complete the clubhouse and other buildings so we subscribed L0000 more to carry out these plans The present meeting will extend until well into March and next winter we will be ¬ gin another long session under more favorable auspices The trolley road has only just been car ¬ ried to the gates of the track and new cars have been put on so that for a nickel you can go from the heart of El Paso to the grandstand In twenty minutes This is going to help a lot during the rest of the present meeting meetingThe The business men of El Paso by the way arc enthusiastic over racing and what it Is going to do for that thriving city They were greatly annoyed some time ago when professional reformers told a congressional committee that there was intense op ¬ position to racing at Juarez and they promptly sent a petition signed by several thousand citizens to Washington asking that no action be taken El Paso is a business center and is rapidly growing I had not been then for many years and I was sur ¬ prised at the progress made It is a big railroad town and very much up to date dateThe The Juarez track management in order to edu ¬ cate people up to the intricacies of racing and bet ¬ ting gave out hundreds of complimentary badges The expenses of the track are comparatively light There are no detectives and special policemen to pay and other items of expense incurred by the Now York tracks are omitted The erratic weather which compelled the track to shut down in December hurt the business some and not a little money was lost but the deficit will be more than covered before the meeting ends In spite of the counter attractions at Jacksonville Tampa and Oakland this winter Juarez will survive and you can say that before very long all the leading horsemen will turn to Mexico for winter racing racingI I have just purchased the property located at the corner of Jerome and Yonkers avenues and will In ¬ clude it in the Empire track enclosure Tho pad ¬ dock will be enlarged and many improvements will be made so that the track will be one of the best on the metropolitan circuit We will offer stakes of the usual values and we will Uo all in our power to meet the demands of the racing public and the horse ¬ men menYes Yes I intend to race a stable of horses here this season I have named some highly tried twoyear olds for some of the leading stakes but I have not as yet engaged a trainer E R Bradley and his trainer W Hurley bought the young horses for me last year but that was simply to help me get some good ones I think racing in New York State this year will be extremely popular and I know that I am not alone in this opinion Racing for that mat ¬ ter is bound to come back in other parts of the country for people are beginning to realize that the sport is not harmful
