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HALF-MILERS WILL NOT MEET DEMANDS. The recommendations of the executive committee of the Canadian branch of the Thoroughbred Horse Association with regard to the amount of purses and the system of betting at the half-mile tracks have not found much favor with non-members of the association, but the executive committee does not speak or act for these. It appears that some of the owners, who had most fault to find with the conditions at the twice-aroumls. are the most pronounced in opposition now to the plans meant to accomplish the things these owners claimed were necessary. For the present there is no reason to anticipate that the demands on the half-mile tracks in Ontario will be met. They could not be expected to assume additional obligations and expenditures when the state of uncertainty surrounding their outlook is such as it is. The provincial government is seeking a basis for increasing taxation, and the experience of last season was hardly a profitable one for them, so that it would require but a comparatively small addition to the burden to make it beyond their capacity to handle successfully. The horse owners, therefore, will have to be content to mark time, so far as these new demands are concerned, until the track managers al the lialf-milers can see further ahead than their present limit of vision. —Toronto Globe.
