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JEFFERSON FAIR ASSOCIATION PLANS GIVEN. Nothing but First -Class Meeting Contemplated — No Sunday Racing — No Boxing Arena. New York. March 14. — There has come from New Orleans a positive denial of the published plans of the new racing association that proposes giving a race mee ting in Jefferson Parish next fall anil winter. When the announcement was first te-le-graphed of the new association, a part of the plan proposed was the erection of an imme-nse ••prizefighting arena" in connection with the- track. The inference was that boxing would be conducted on the grounds as well as racing. Both A. Rouprich and D. J. Tortorich. moving spirits in the- new venture-, have denied most positively that they have any such plans and they have-also written that there will be no attempt to conduct Sunday racing. Quoting from Mr. Rouprichs letter, he says: "If the operation of Sunday racing and boxing at our proposed new Fair Grounds in Jefferson Parish really was the purpose of the Jefferson Fair Association, Incorporated, it would need to be condemned. But our corporation has not the slightest intention of conducting Sunday racing, asc will I. or the others who are he-avily interested, countenance Sunday racing. It is not our plan to build a boxing arena there, either, a misstatement which may have grown out of the fact that D. J. Tortorich. who is a stockholder, conducts boxing matches in New Orleans. "The racing proposition was not dise-ussed seriously until we saw that it would benefit our annual fair, which is ge-tting to be e|uite a big thing, just as racing of the Business Mens Racing Association made possible the National Live Stock and Farm Show, which was inaugurated this year. "There is an ordinance in New Orleans which prohibits racing at any other time than between January 1 and Mardi Gras. The purpose of this ordinance was to keep out fly-by-night racetracks and to prevent conflicting meets, which were threatened there. Next year, as you will find by consulting your almanac. Mardi Gras eosaea even earlier than this year, so rae-ing in Ne-w Orleans will be curtailed to just a little more than a month. Meeting Would Finance Fair. "This fact led us to believe that the thoroughbred sport in New Orleans would indeed be helped if we could run a short meeting, which would not only finance our fair, but would benefit the Business Mens Racing Association to the extent of assuring horsemen of a reasonably long meeting if they shipped their stables here. This year staled that horse-men take big chane-es on a short meeting em account of the weather. This year the weather proved to be bad for a considerable time, and not half of the horses at the Fair Grounds figured in the racing. "We discussed the matter with some- of the most prominent horseine-ii. and they agreed that a meeting that started he-re Thanksgiving Day and ran until the last of Dee-embi-r. there-by linking elates with the Business Mens Racing Association meeting, would tie a good thing for the sport prcividi-d it was conducted on the same plane- as the Fair Grounds meeting. "Now, if we conduct racing, we are going to conduct it in a thoroughly efficient manner, and we are going to do nothing to hurt the- sport. We will have no Sunday facing. We will have the best officials to be- secured and we will offer inducements sufficient to bring the best horses he-re. "We are not going into this thing as fly-by-night promoters. We are not men of that kind. Our Fair Association is subscribed to and endorsed by a large number of the" best citizens of Jefferson Parish and most of our stock will be bought by the parish citizens." Mr. Tortorich in his letter also denies that there will be any boxing at the new track. In part he writes: "I want to deny that there has been the slightest intention to conduct Sunday racing, to conduct boxing matches in connection with the fair or to conflict in any way with the Business Mens Racing Association. This latter association, in which I am a stockholder, can conduct racing only between January 1 and Mardi Gras. under a city ordinance. The Jefferson Association intends to conduct racing only between Thanksgiving Day aiid January 1. and it is not going into the- racing business primarily, but in order to finance the Jefferson Parish Fair. "The association is making an investment of 25,000. Ninety thousand dollars was paid for the- land. Do you think that reputable men would make an investment of this size if they thought they would injure or destroy racing?"
