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NEW ORLEANS FAIR GROUNDS RACING. Announcement of the 3usincss Kens Racing Associations Program for Nest Winter. Detroit. Mich., August 20. At a conference held here in the past week between Dr. George A. Mac-Diarmid, president, and Jospeh A. Murphy manager of the racing department of the Business Mens Racing Association of Xew Orleans, tentative plans for the coming winter meeting were decided on. At a recent meeting of the board of directors it was decided to open December 10 and race until February 20. Mardi Gras day. This will make fifty-seven days of racing, the same period that was raced last season. The Kentucky racing season will close earlier than usual this year and, with Maryland closing December 1, horsemen will have ample time to ship and get settled before the opening date. The same policy that made last winters racing the greatest winter meeting ever held, will be strictly adhered to. In every possible way the burden of expense will be taken off the horsemen. There will be no charge for stall rent, no entrance fee to purses and no declaration from them. Horses may be scratched free to eight. Under that they may be excused by the judges and then for good causo only. The association will run no feed store and horsemen may buy where they please. No horses stabled outside the grounds will be permitted to race and in every department a strict censorship will be maintained by the officials in respect to those who participate in the racing. It lias been the policy of the association to purge the racing of those who might be considered undesirable and this policy will not be changed. Experience has shown that the way to have clean racing is to start with clean men. Herman Conkling will make all jockey engagements not provided for by written contract. This plan which drew some criticism at the start, was found to work to perfection and was a great protection to the racing. It placed the public on the same footing as the professional. At the close of the Canadian season, September 30. manager Murphy will go to New Orleans to take up with the directors the question of purses and stakes. While nothing definite has been decided on, it has been the policy of the association to deal liberally with the horsemen and purses have been voluntarily increased at each meeting. When the announcement is made the horsemen will have no cause for complaint. Mr. Murphy will also submit the same list of officials as last year, all of them men of international reputation. Their work was largely responsible for the phenomenal success of last winter. Mr. Murphy is already flooded with applications for stable room, many of the applications coming from people who do not, as a rule, race in the winter. The Fair Grounds is regarded by horsemen as the Saratoga of the south and has been lifted above what is generally known as a winter meeting.
