Juarez Racing Curtailed: Only Three Days of Sport Each Week of the Meeting, Daily Racing Form, 1917-01-22

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JUAREZ RACING CURTAILED ONLY THREE DAYS OF SPORT EACH WEEK OF THE MEETING. Manager Winns Statement of the Causes Which Induced the Jockey Club Juarez to Take This Radical Measure. El Paso. Tex., January 21. — The following state-mi-nt was given out last night by manager M. J. Winn: "He-ginning on Tuesday next, there will be but three days of rae-ing each we-e-k at the Jockey Club Juarez track, namely, on Tuesdays. Thursdays and Sundays. There are several reasons for making the change, chief of which is the scarcity of horses here. The fields recently have been small and of limited variety. Pretty much the same horses have been competing from day to day. meeting repeatedly in the same kinel of races, at the same distances and at practie-ally tin- same weights. They have done: remarkably well under the conditions and the racing has bei-n clean and formful. A greater percentage? of favorites have won at Juarez this season than ever known on any winter race track in Amerie-a. "But there is a limit to their endurance and the horses are beginning to show the effect of the every -day racing strain. The fields are getting lighter and the races more difficult to fill. Something had to be done to relieve the strain before it was too late and the alternate days plan was sensibly decided upon. "The disturbed conditions in Mexico have also affected the attendance somewhat this season and more timidity has been shown than heretofore. In pre-vious seasons the disturbances in the neighborhood of Juarez have been infinitely greater than during this winter, but the race track seemingly was unaffeetid by them. The attendance was always good. This season, however, the reports of revolutionary possibilities at Juarez have had their effect. There is no danger, of course, but all of the people could not be made to feel this assurance, despite the fact that in all of the- years of racing at Juarez, not a single patron of the sport has lie-en molested. "It is also possible that racing every day for a greater period than fifty or sixty days may be more- than a comparatively small community will patronize liberally. But is must be said for the Jockey Club that it has never whimpered. It has maintaine-el a high class meeting under many disadvantages. No othe-r organization of its kind in America would have opened a track in the face of the discouragements xvhich confronted the Jockey Club Juarez this season. But it has always kept its faith with the public and its promises with the horsemen. It lias always maintained its purse values and it has raced every day when trae-k and other conditions made it possible to do so. despite the fact that financial loss to it was inevitable. During the eight years of its existence, it has paid out to horsemen in stakes and purses more than two millions of dollars, all of which was distribute-d through the usual business community in general. "It has also installed, at considerable expense, the pari-miituel system of betting. One that is employed upon all of the big tracks in Kentucky, Maryland and Canada. A system that not only insures clean racing, but protects the public in the matter of odds. It is no longer the bookmaker but the public which makes the price, the result being that the holder of every winning mutuel ticket gets every penny to which lie is entitled. "The- alternate clay plan, as stated, will be put into effect at once, beginning Tuesday, with racking upon only three days a week ; tin- horses will be fresher, the- fields larger and contests subsequently more interesting. There will lie two ladies* days each week, as usual. Tuesdays and Thursdays."


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1910s/drf1917012201/drf1917012201_1_8
Local Identifier: drf1917012201_1_8
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800