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AUSTRALIAN TURFS PATRIOTIC RECORD DEL MONTE, Cal., February 20. W. C. Harper, a member of the Victoria Racing Club, under whose auspices the famous Melbourne Cup Is run, is on a visit to the fashionable Hotel del Monte. Harper points with pride to the patriotic record made by racing men and turf followers during the war. All the receipts above the actual expenses and the necessary funds to keep up the tracks were turned over to the patriotic fund and the red cross, and Harper declares that :i sum totaling several millions of dollars was realized. "The government realized the benefits derived from the thoroughbred blood in the cavalry and artillery horses and racing was encouraged, rather than cutailed." explains Harper. "The response with which the racing men made to the call of the government for men and money was the cause of many compliments being paid. As a result, racing is more popular in Australia now than ever before. "Crowds in excess of 134,000 persons have seen the running of bur Melbourne Cup, so that you can gain some sort of an idea of the magnitude of the" sport with Australians."
