view raw text
LOOKS GOOD FOR CHARLESTON. Conditions Especially Promising: for Successful Season of Sport at Palmetto Park. Charleston, S. C. October 24. Never before in the history of racing here has there been the same prospect for success as that confronting the Charleston Fair and Racing Association this season. The change of date for the opening is one important factor in this success and the fact that the meeting is to be under the control of local interests is another. By opening on the heels of racing at Norfolk the horsrs are within easy shipping distance and he horsemen will not have the same excuse for scattering to other mints. Horsemen who race their stables through the cold months, for the most part, can ill afford to be idle and the continuous circuit will be readily appreciated by them. The fact that the sport will be under local control is of vast importance to Charleston. The gentlemen who will control the, meeting are of known integrity and from the beginning they have laid plans for a season of sport that will attract the best horses and the most desirable sportsmen. Such a meeting is of vast benefit to any city, and with the appointment of otliclals of long standing to servi:, everything has been done to safeguard both the men who race their horses and those who patronize the sport. One desirable change that has been made by the association tlds season is the absolute divorcing of the management from the running of the races them-lves. The racing proper will be in the hands of expert oilicials, who, by long association with the Fport, have earned reputations that have caused them to he sought after by all of the best associations. The meeting has the official sanction of the Jockey Club and it 1ms been promised that several of the largo stables that usually confine their racing endeavors to the summer months will send on their horses. This is greatly desired, as it will make certain the attendance of horses of recognized class and with thorn naturally will come some of the best jockeys in the country. The climatic advantages of Charleston have had much to do with the determination of some of these stables to winter their horses here and the benefit that will ensue to the city can be readily realized. Each stable will average a man to each horse, and the inllux of these visitors for such a long period is sure to hare a most beneficial effect on all ehau-nels of trade. In the long seasons at New Orleans, the racing was a magnet that drew a greater number of wealthy visitors than the M aril I Gras celebrations and they were visitors who remained for the best part of "four months, while those comlug for the carnival remained, at most, a week. Since the racing has been abolished in the Louisi-aca city there has been various efforts to have it restored, and each effort has been Initiated by the hotel and business men of that city. They have felt the difference in trade, and should the qucstiou racing be one of local opinion, no doubt remains tliat New Orleans would have the thoroughbreds .larlc. Right now Charleston is the logical successor of,1 New Orleans for winter sport, and many of the local business men have a hearty appreciation of the trade benefits that are bound to result. With at last 7C0 horses here for the meeting, the handlers i f these thoroughbreds alone will make up a small armv of men. They all have to be housed, clothed and "fed. This, in itself, is an item that is well worth due consideration. The liorsenien, the world over, is proverbially a good spender, and it means tiie leaving of a vast sum of money In Charleston. The association lias been assured of the hearty support of the liorsemen and already the horses are arriving. Some of those who are now racing at Laurel Avlll ship direct to Palmetto Park and rest their horses until the season opens, aud others will come at the conclusion of the meeting of the Maryland Jockey Club at Pimlico, while, with the close of the season at Norfolk, there will be a general exodus to Charleston. Never before has the association had a like opportunity and every plan that has thus far been outlined has had for its object the bettering of the sport.
