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MUCH RACING PROSPERITY IN CANADA. Of snorts, racing alone has prospered in Canada during the disastrous year and it, if not equal to the Is-st, lms iu cases been as successful as ever, and even more so. The wagering has not. perhaps, Is-eu as brisk and heavy as it has been, but even iu that respect there has beeu but little falling off. Montreal has seen more of the sport than in any other year, has seen more of it than any other city iu Canada. In fact, the growth of racing in the Dominions metropolis has been wondrous. It Is not so many years since half a dozen places in Canada saw more of the sport. Old Blue Bonnets languished and died f r lack of supjiort. finally going over to the railways and bricks and mortar, the juggernauts of advancing time. Bel Air went practically the same way and for the same cause, and now there are no fewer than half a dozen tracks successfully doing business and giving in all eighty -four days racing in the year, as compared with forty-two in Toronto, fourteen each in Hamilton £ttawa. Fort Erie and Windsor. Prior to the pass-tug of the Miller bill, that extraordinary measure of reform, Hamilton. Fort Erie and Windsor gave more and Montreal and Toronto, there being no half-mile tracks worth speaking of, gave less. Since the adop-liou of the act, originally intended to be deadly, the half-milers have come into flourishing existence. In the west the sixty and ninety-days meetings at Victoria and Vancouver have come to an end, and sc far as the running races are concerned the sport has lioeu, thanks to the absence of the Winnipeg exhibition, more than ever of the bush order. In eastern Canada, however, as 1 have said, the quauii tlty has been over the average and the quality, on the whole, despite the absence of the Belmont aud Schorr cracks, fully equal to the standard. While none of the race meetings of the year have lieen ran at a loss, those at Windsor were undoubtedly the most successful. Judge Murphy ventured the opinion that the total attendance at the Royal City gatherings was nearly a quarter of n million, but as that would give an average of nearly 18.O0O for each of the fourteen days, it is undoubtedly an over-estimate. The patronage, however, was undoubtedly phenomenal. This was duo to the good times the close-by, in fact, the adjoining city m Detroit is enjoying, thanks largely to the development of the automobile industry. Then in -t range consonance with the expected state of ;i flairs, the niutuel machine, that was exacted to lie the death of the horse, iu one res| ect and in at least one locality is res|tousible for the animals greater prosperity. Detroit today is probably the most thriving city on this continent. In eonsequeuce of Windsors success, there has ! ecu talk of building a half-mile track there, but talking and acting are different things. Before a ir«ek can tie nperaUd a charter aud a license have to l c obtained and it has been officially announced that in Ontario at least n« more will be granted. Thus the talkers at the outset have found themselves ••alke l. and the Hendrie interests, which are in possession of the Windsor race course, will continue to nourish exceedingly. The plant and its charter are the inuat valuable in Canada, surpassing tioth the Woodbine at Toronto and Hamilton, the former o " which was until recently undoubtedly iu the lead. For; Erie, owing to ill luck in the matter of weather principallv. has unaccountably in some respects declined. The new Blue Bonnets has forged ahead iD iiopularitv. and Dorval aud Connaught Park are making headway — I am writing only of the mile tracks but it will lie a long time liefore any of them get ahead of Wiudsor. Detroit, jealous of the success of her Canadian neigbltor, may come to life but that is so dejK-ndent u|mhi state legislation that there is little immediate danger. Speaking of charters and licenses to race, it is interesting to note that there are only two charters at present in existence iu Ontario not in active operation These are held respectively by parti-s iu London Ont and Mr. Rottert Davies of Toronto, •ind were the last to be granted. Mr. Davies had an Idea of establishing a mile course on his property on the outskirts of Toronto, where, as it is. he has track on which his horses re a three-quarter-mile eeive their early preparation, but in the uncertainty of affairs and "noting the development of Hillcrest aud Dufferin Park he has refrained from definite •iction Another restraint has lieen the lack of street car connection. He has also lieen unwilling, in iniwarance even, to l e thought acting in opposition to the Ontario Jockey Club of which he was for-merlv vice-president aud in which he is still a stockholder Efforts hare been made to secure a transfer of the London charter, but altogether without success Thus there is little probabilit- of any further in Ontario and the increase of race meetings pros ,„ ,., the existing establishments at the moment £* exceedingly rosy.-H. P. Good in Montreal Mail.
