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OLD TIMERS AT BLUE BONNETS The Montreal Gazette made the following com ¬ ment a few days ago agoThe The cosmopolitan nature of racing brings to mind Montreal men once prominent as track own ¬ ers horse owners etc men who at sometime In their lives played leading parts in the daily conduct of firstclass racing plants One of the best known of these is George Rose who has been making book at Blue Bonnets lie was never here before this season aud expressed unbounded praise not only at the grandeur of the course but at its first class frictionless management In his day Mr Rose was a heavy stockholder and director in two of the finest tracks ever built the now disused Ascot Park and the Santa Anita or Arcadia course both at Ix s Angeles the former in the city limits the latter on the late Lucky Baldwins property These two courses will never be forgotten by those who were fortunate enough to have ever been at them Another former track owner now here is Frank Fowler who built the Newport Ky track in con ¬ junction with Sol Sharpe It was in competition with the Latonlii aud Oakley tracks at Cincinnati and with racing at one or the other of the three tracks every day for eight months of the year Hie town of Cincinnati was drained though it lias al ¬ ways been noted for the speculative tendencies of Us citizens The Oakley track could not keep np the competition and was the first to drop out New ¬ port struggled on for years The annual spring freshets more than once Hooded the track yet I ank Fowler with wonderful gamuiiess refused to declare off the races even though the horses were forced to run in water from the river in parts of the course Finally Newport went under as a race course but Fowler who is a highly edu ¬ cated man never lost his cheerfulness and his stories of old days on the turf and the freeand easy manner in wHiIch his onetime partners used his bankrolls convulsed his auditors frequently during the week Mr Fowler is a young man yet and the wheel of fortune may yet turn in his favor Thousands of his friends in various parts of the country sincerely hope so at any rate rateStill Still another notability in dally attendance at the Blue Bonnets races was the wellknown Botay wlio really originated n method of keeping tabs on the running horses which since has been amplified until now thu chart as known all over the land prevails as the most authentic and informing method of reporting the Incidents of a days racing Botay was once called Plunger Botay AAhether he was ever a plunger in the sense that Pittsburgh Phil was is not known but it is a fact that his original method of watching and memorizing incidents in a race enabled him to amass a fortune Pittsburgh Phil got many hints from Botay and he laid up more than two millions which however he did not live long enough to enjoy AV AAr Lyles who is well known in Montreal improved on Botays ideas and foV many years published a form book which was leased each day to bookmakers and players at live dollars a day The Incidents of each race were duly noted the entries Indexed and this excellent service was dirt cheap Gradually came Into use the dnily paper form charts and Lyles excellent form books could not long face the competition Botay seems cheerful enough these days and is glad to be able to still be a lookeron at the races here
