view raw text
NEW ORLEANS JOCKEY CLUB PROPOSED. Organization of a Jockey Club to supervise racing in New Orleans is suggested by Joseph A. Murphy, presiding judge of the Business Mens Racing Association. "The New Orleans Jockey Club could "be composed of fifty representative business men of the city," Judge Murphy said. "This club would elect from its membership a board of seven stewards or directors. The board would be a court of appeals in all racing matters and have power to make racing rules, etc. It would be the directing body of the club. "To provide for the social side of racing, which to my mind is essential, the original club could create associate memberships, who would be elected by a membership committee or by the board of stewards. Whatever money was derived from dues could be used for the building and maintenance of a clubhouse on the grounds. The club would be the property of the Jockey Club, whose members by paying the regular admission at the gate, would be apart from the business organization itself. The class of people wh6m we have invited to New Orleans this winter should be. provided with some place where they can meet and be entertained by locnl society. I could turn over to them ,500 a year derived from license fees from trainers and jockeys for that purpose. Then, too, many of the better class of people locally, now not interested in racing, would go if they had a place where they could be exclusive. "Many local people liave spoken to me about the effect the curtailed season of racing will have on the sport. From the viewpoint of racing, it will be a benefit. All the horsemen know that I have turned reformer on the subject of long meetings. In many states that are about to once more welcome the thoroughbred I am urging short meetings. "At my home city of St. Louis I am urging fifteen days in the spring and the same in the fall. St. Louis is a pretty fair-sized village, too. Short meetings go with a vim and snap thai long ones cannot sustain." With the Jockey Club idea in view, it was decided to reinstate all persons under the ban of the association. The decision was reached after a. talk between Judge Murphy and J. B. Campbell, associate judge. The reinstatement order includes all individuals not under the ban of any recognized association. Mr. Campbell said horsemen and breeders regard the settlement of the racing controversy here as the beginning of a new era in racing. Judge Murphy will leave in a few days for a trip among the horsemen, winding up at Bowie, Md., where lie presides from November 15 to December 1. New Orleans Picayune.
