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ACQUIRES JUAREZ HORSES TIJUANA MEETING GAINS NEW IMPETUS IN ARRIVALS FROM THE CLOSED TRACK. Why the Juarez Venture Failed — Magnificence of Its Plant — Manager Winn Hopeful of Prosperous Resumption. By J. R. Jeffery. San Diego, Cal.. February 3. — The triteness of the time honored axiom that it is indeed an ill wind that blows no good is strikingly exemplified in connection with the ubr»pt termination of the Juarez meeting. In this instance it is the Lower California Jockey Clubs race meeting at Tijuana that is the principal ben-ficiary. Manager Coff-roth has been fairly flooded with applications for stall room for stables that have been racing at Juarez and is doing his utmost to provide accommodations for all who may desire to come here to finish out the season. The influx of the Juarez horses, horsemen and followers of the sport, will add new spirit to the racing at Tijuana and will give the meeting an added impetus, at a time when it was already on the up-grade. I here is little doubt that the Tijuana meeting will be extended beyond the period of 100 racing days which Managar Coffrolh promised the horsemen. The probabilities are that it will continue well into April, and perhaps longer, making it well worth ones while to journey here from far distant points, even with the meeting as far advanced as it is. Impressions from Visit to Juarez. The writer recently made a brief visit to Juarez and it was not surprising to him that it became advisable to suspend racing at that point. The wonder was that manager Winn and his associates in the Jockey Club Juarez, should have had the temerity and courage to continue the meeting as long as they did in the face of disheartening obstacles. Inquestionably the meeting would not have been carried so far ai it was. but for the earnest desire of manager Winn to give the pari-mutuel system of betting a fair trial at the Mexican course. That the betting failed to attain a volume sufficient to place the racing on a self-sustaining basis, does not signify that the same system will not do so at some future time, when normal conditions are restored in Mexico. In fact, it is said that at times this season the volume of speculation in the mutucls at Juarez ran in excess of the amount of business transacted by the bookmakers in the Juarez ring under much more favorable conditions. In spPe of the feet that the so-called Bowie system of conducting the betting created much dissatisfaction at the outset, the writer has it. on the best of authority that after a change was made to the Kentucky system, the volume of betting gained steadily until it closely approached the point where the clubs commissions fell but litle short of meeting the daily expenses. Then a protracted spell of unfavorable weather came along and gave the racing a setback from which it had not recovered, when the an toward incident arose which influenced manager Winn to call a halt for this season at least. Chief among the reasons why the Juarez meeting was not a success this winter was its failure to attract the usual amount of patronage from various parts of the luited States. Had the people of El Paso patronized the racing as freely as in previous winters, tin- meeting might have been carried to a successful termination without the assistance of the visitors, who in previous years made Juarez their winter headquarters. But the people of El Paso failed to enthuse over the racing this season and a goodly proportion of them were too busily engaged in making money out of the activities incidental to the presence of 1ucle Sams soldiers in tin- vicinity to even give a thought to sport, and still more of them evinced a decided disinclination to cross the Rio Crande. for fear of becoming involved in Mexican troubles. 1irtess one has been on the ground, it is not easy to appreciate just how tense the feeling is along the border and. in view of the circumstances, it would not be at all surprising, should the management of the Jockey Club Juarez decide to keep the gates of the track closed until normal conditions shall have been restored in Mexico. Believes in Future of Juarez. Manager Winn, in conversation with the writer, expressed the confident belief, based upon this sea -oils experience, that with normal conditions prevailing, a thoroughly successful meeting could be vonducted at Juarez with the pari-mutuels as the medium for speculation. It may therefore be expected that when the proper time arrives, another effort will be made with that end in view. It would indeed be a tragedy should necessity compel the complete abandoment of the Juarez racing plant, representing as it does an investment of some half-million dollars. Only those who have seen it can form any idea of its magnificence, tin? substantial character of its structure and equipment and its thorough adaptation in every way to the purpose for which it was created. There is a. disposition on the part of s-me critics to question the wisdom of building such a pretentious plant at such a point, but it must be remembered that when manager Winn conceived the idea of establishing winter racing at Juarez and constructed the plant in 1909. it was impossible to foresee that Mexico was to be disrupted by revolution after revolution. Moreover, it appeared at that time as if Juarez was about to monopolize the winter racing field, and but for the subsequent development of other winter racing centers, the plant, magnificent though it is in all respects, might not today be adequate for the purpose for which it was intended. .1. F. Clifford plans to leave for the east with jockey Morys towards the sad of February. Morvs is nude.- contract to report to J. C. Milam at Lexington March 1 and Clifford will assist in getting sonic of the Milam horses ready for racing. Morys has ridden only infrequently here, but is in the pink of condition.. H. W. Hoag. who made an excellent showing here this season with the sprinter Kid Nelson, up to the time of his acquisition by Q. Alexandra out of a selling race, has taken over the useful plater Pullux to train for E. G. Soule, for whom he trained a pretentious string in the days when racing was at its zenith at Oakland. Mr. Soule is by far the most extensive operator in tlie Tijuana betting ring nowadays, and is the despair of the layers on account of his consistent habit of picking the winners.
