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ST. LOUIS PUBLIC WILLING TO PAY For Pleasure of Seeing Good Horse Race That Is Idea Behind Maxwelton Meeting. Joseph A. Murphy is satisfied that there are" a sufficient number of people in and around St. Louis willing to pay .50 at the gate to see a good horse race to make a ten-day meeting profitable, or at least self-supporting. Thats the fundamental idea behind the Maxwelton meeting. There will be no betting ring, but that doesnt mean that it will he a betless meeting. Its taken for granted that people will go to the track and bet among themselves, same as they do on baseball, elections. !tc. But there will be no bookmakers and auction pool hawkers, paying big money to the track, for the privilege of catering to the speculatively inclined. Professional gamblers killed the goose in Missouri. Twenty years ago this state legalized bookmaking. The bookies reciprocated by running a good thing into the ground. Professional turf gamblers claim that the betting rings supported the tracks. Murphy contends that organized betting killed the. sport. "A good horse race is the grandest spectacle in the world, says Murphy. "It isnt necessary to have a bet down to become interested in a neck-and-neck struggle between three or four thoroughbreds. Lord Kosebery, who owned the biggest racing stable in England in his day, never wagered a dollar on a horse race. Half the great crowds that turned, out for the St. Louis Derby, Saratoga Futurity and the Brooklyn Handicap never went near the betting ring. Maxwelton is not opening for the man who must have a betting ticket in his hand to display interest in a good horse race. We believe the sport can be made profitable without bookmakers, etc." St. Louis Republic.
