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! TO OPPOSE PURSE INCREASE PROPOSALS. Toronto and Montreal Half -Mile Tracks Not in Favor of 00 Purses. While the Canadian committee of the Thoroughbred Horse Association, at a meeting in Montreal this week, passed ■ resolution favoring the adoption of pari -inutile! machines at all independent tracks, and purses of not less than 00 on the half-milers, Montreal half-mile track managers are not inclined to accept this as the final dictum to the horsemen. So far as Montreal is concerned, all the tracks will have pari-mutnels, this betas practically forced by the provincial legislation. It was announced yesterday thathe Hachmeister machines, in use at the Canadian Racing Associations tracks, will be installed at Delorimier for the meeting which opens the Montreal season. But the increase in the purses is not likely to he brought about without some opposition. It is felt by the managements of the tracks that the introduction 06 machines on the half-mile tracks is largely an experiment, and that an increase of purses might have disastrous results. Opposition from Toronto Half-Milers. Both the introduction of pari-mntuels and the increase in parses may meet with opposition from the Toronto half milers, where it was supi oseilly the intention to operate the syndicate rings again this season. "Quite apart from the reconimeiid.it ions of the executive of the Thoroughbred Horse Association decided on at the meeting in Montreal this week, the outlook for the half-mile race courses in Canada was far from reassuring for those interested in these enterprises." says the Toronto Olobe. "The action of the Quebec government in excluding the syndicate rings from further operation, and imposing further restrictions on the free hand with which the Moiitnal public had been exploited, formed a serious obstacle to their activities in that province: so serious, in fact, that several of them were practically put out of business. On top of this situation the rei|iiirement that purses must be of a minimum value of 00 constitutes for all but one of them practically the last straw, and that one is now for sal-. Even Syndicate Ring Not Profitable. "The syndicate ring survives at the two half-mile tracks in Ontario, but even with this powerful advantage, it was well-known that they had about paaaed the period when they could lie made profitable. The steady increase in their necessary expenses had not been counterbalanced by an increased business. On the contrary. Hie paddle patronage and investments have shown a continual decline, and there is not the slightest ground for anticipation that their palmy days will ever return. The action of the horsemen, therefore, means a threatening addition to difficulties that were already grave and numerous enough. It is not to ! .• expected, though, that they will succumb without a further struggle. They will, no doubt, find some ground for hope in the fait that no member of the committee races on the half-mile tracks, and that the bulk of the material for racing at the twice -arounds is not iu the stables of the membership of the Association. If they cannot live up to the re-i|Uircments oi the organized horsemen, they can hardly be supported by what they can rally around them of the open shop element, and the coming season will produce some interesting developments, most of which will inure to the welfare of the turf. "It is indicaiive of the growing importance of the eastern turf that the executive committee of the Canadian division of the Thoroughbred Horse Association meets in Montreal, and that the chairman, secretary and two of the four other members are easterners."
