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SOME TRACKS HAVE LOST MONEY. The high cost of living is not confined in its effects to the individual, and this year these have been plainly visible in various localities in Canada ami elsewhere in connection with racing. The Kentucky tracks were carried along on a wave of enthusiasm born of early success under different conditions, ami translated into official requirements by the regulations of the State Racing Commission. Now it develops that the commissions rate of progress was a bit faster than can be maintained. Both Douglas Park and Churchill Downs operated their meetings this fall at a loss, and some reconsideration will be necessary by the commission in the matter of the expense involved in fixing the minimum purse at 00. AVhen the expense is greater than the revenue, or even when it is close to the income, race meetings are likely to be discontinued, ami the goose that laid the golden egg may very easily be killed. It is commonly understood that the half-mile tracks in Toronto have found this season that the margin was on the wrong side of the ledger. With an expense of over ,000 daily for two items alone, of license and purses, the cost of operation has now grown to a serious figure. And while expenses are steadily mounting, and will be even greater next year, the revenue of all syndicate-ring tracks in Canada is steadily decreasing. The amount of money handled at these places, both in Toronto and Montreal, is less at each meeting, and hereabouts does not reach such a sum as to make profitable meetings, even when the calculated thirty-five per cent is retained. The finish of the half-milers is inevitable, and will be brought about by the inability to make them paying concerns. As soon as it is clear that the public will no longer pay from thirty-five to fifty-five per cent for its sport, then the half-mile enterprises will close their gates. The hurry to get into the Windsor field with mile tracks and mutucl establishments is significant, since botli the new enterprises at that place are offsprings of syndicate-ring promotions. The attraction of -the abnormal prosperity of racing at that point, and the vision of the failure of the old-style of dealing, have resulted in the overcrowding of a field which may not long retain its present characteristics. It is not certain how long Detroit may retain its present undoubted position as the most prosperous community in North America, nor is it certain how long Detroit may have to depend on the sport that is offered across the river for its entertainment in the racing line. They have had the inutuel system in operation with great success and 1 popular approval at the big harness racing gather-Ings in Detroit this summer, and it is much more than a probability that next summer Avill see the gallopers in action over the same track. The conditions in that neighborhood may faTor the new enterprises on the Canadian side just now, but it is pretty clear that they had better "get theirs" in short order. Francis Nelson in Toronto Globe.
