Tijuana Racing Well Patronized.: Attendance Larger at Present than Any Previous Time during Season Plans for next Year., Daily Racing Form, 1917-03-25

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TIJUANA RACING WELL PATRONIZED. Attendance Larger at Present Than Any Previous Time During Season — Plans for Next Year. By J. R. Jeff cry. San Deigo. CaL, March 21.— It is notable that, after having been in progress for over one hundred days. the racing is being better patronized just now than at any previous time during the season. In fact, the Sunday just past saw the biggest crowd of the meet ing at the coarse. The grandstand, lawns and betting ring wan so congested that somebody suggested to Manager Coffroth that, if things go on as they have began, it will not be long before hi will be called upon to provide additional accommodations for patrons of his track, commodious though it i-. Mr. Coffroth naturally is highly elated over the manner in which racing at Tijuana is growing in popularity by leaps and beaads. He has let it be known that the financial showing of the track during the first hundred days of the present meeting represents a fifty per cent improvement over the inaugural meeting of last year and that a corresponding gain next winter will place the track on a par with tile splendid record made by the popular Santa Anita course near I.os Angeles, when racing was in its heyday in California. It b Mr. off roths ambition to excel Santa Anitas showing next winter and. to that end. he will devote al! his energy and ability. His -login for next winter is better racing and an open betting ring. None realizes more than he the disadvantages under which the present meeting has been placed by the necessity of conducting it with the adjunct of a semi-syndicated betting ring. Ihe wonder is that the meeting has pros pored as it has under the circumstances. Mr. Coffroth is also fully cognizant of the fact that there has been criticism of the racing itself, at times, and it was for the purpose of throwing all possible safeguards around the apart tiiat he iias recently been casting about for ways and means of strengthening his staff of officials for next winter, of which his unsuccessful effort to obtain the services of Judge Joseph A. Murphy is a significant example. Fashionable Folks Are Patrons. Since the opening of tic club house, erected upon the iniative of Walter H. Dapee, ninny members of the Coronado Beach smart set have taken up racing as one of their diversions and the club house has beesaae quite a rendezvous for fashionable gatherings. The club is a decidedly exclusive affair, conducted on the most approved lines and bids fair to become an important adjunct of the raring at Tijuana. Mr. Dapee is the moving spirit in the direction of the clubs functions, and. enthusiast i -sportsman that he is. takes keen delight ill bringing the pleasures of racing to the attention of his large circle of friends. The upper branch of the California legislature, by a rata of 28 to .". has passed a bill prohibiting the publication by newspapers or any other agency, of form charts and other racing information. It is expected that the house will follow the example of the senate shortly and that Oovernor Stephens will sign the bill. In the event that the law stands the test of the cflurts. of which doubt is entertained in some quarters, the Tijuana track will be alfected to the extent that it will be necessary to confine the printing and sale of form charts of the raciag to the Mexican side of the international boundary. There is considerable mystery as to just who was the beneficiary of the mild "killing" made oer the recent victory of Boadsaaater, which horse tog ther wth his owner. A. C. Donahue, and Jockey 11. Ca - vanailgh. who had the mount 011 the occasions when the horse ran unplaced, was promptly suspended by the judges immediately after he won. Mr. Donahue and his local connections protest that they failed to profit in the slightest degree from wagering on the horse. In fact, there is reason for believing that they did not expect the horse to win. The general supposition was that Thomas H. Kyan. who formerly owned Ihe horse and sold him to Mr. Donahue re ccntly engineered the killing. A decade or so ago Mr. Kyan and hi- connections wire the terror of the layers under similar circumstances, but he has not been active of late. He spent some time here recently and denartiil for I.os Angeles a few days before ltoadniastir won hi-i now notable victory. Those Who were closest to him while here, express doubt that it was his . peraUass that resulted in a substantial amount of "come bail:" commissions from the east, making their appearance in the Tijuana betting ring and lorcing the horses odds from 30 to 1 down to 10 to 1. TheiC was some little local supixirt for the horse after the foreign commissions were placed on the part of those who make a practice of following such supposedly "smart" money. Some Items of Track Talk. J. F. Clifford, who in his day has dart japed many a useful Jockey, is now making the engagements of jockey It. Harrington, who has been riding right well here. Jockey Boxes* Tro.-.l T. who has ridden with marked success here, has taken his departure for New Tort to fill his contract with the stable of I. A. Clark. His brother Kidley. who made his eagageateata here, went along. Miss i:ie,,,i.,,a Sears, noted Beaten horsewoman, who is rialtiag at Coronado Beach, has been a frequent visitor at the Tijuana track of lite. She is keenly interested in horses and has extracted much enjoyment from the racing. Jockey W. Kelaay wil! go from hire to Kentucky with the stable of Marshall Br**. J. I., laul. Who usually races in the east, will remain in the west this season if the Kcno-Denver-Alan circuit materialises. Harry tuna, who recently severed his coiinei tion with the BrOBX Stable, of which he was the active manager for a considerable period, is plan ning a trip to the New Tart tracks for the coming summer. He has not riattsi the east in seviral year-.


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Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800