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TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT Thoroughbred Association Com ¬ mittee Corrected by Secretary Havana Winter Boycott and Sec ¬ ond Track Methods of Re ¬ form Repudiated LEXINGTOX Ky July 16 It Is not true that the Thoroughbred Horse Association threatens either to combine with Cuban and other promoters and build another track near Oriental Park or to boy ¬ cott Browns track and raise a fund to keep horses from Oriental Park and sustain those horses and horsemen which would be kept idle by its embargo during the winter as was stated in an article writ ¬ ten by Frank II Brunell and printed in Daily Rac ¬ ing Form this morning said Thomas B Cromwell secretary of the Thoroughbred Horse Association AssociationThe The truth of the matter is that the directors of the Thoroughbred Horse Association at a meeting on Monday July 7 declined to become interested in a proposal to build another race track at Havana It was represented to the Thoroughbred Horse As ¬ sociation that the City of Havana had given a con ¬ cession to several Cuban gentlemen for an amuse ¬ ment park which was to include horse and auto racing The directors instructed the secretary to return the proposal with the statement that after thorough discussion the directotscame totho con clusion lliat one race track at Havana is sufficient to the best interest of the sport of racing and that it would be unwise to encourage the building of another track The directors have since had no meeting and president McDowell who went to New York to complete the negotiations for the transfer of the Havre de Grace track to the control of per ¬ sons who are more Interested in the salvation of racing for the sake of the horse and the sport he provides than for the money to be made out of it has communicated nothing to the Lexington office that would indicate that the association will be called upon to change its attitude as regards the Cuban situation situationTHOROUGHBRED THOROUGHBRED ASSOCIATIONS ATTITUDE ATTITUDEThe The Thoroughbred Horse Association is not buy ¬ ing nor building race tracks and there is no likeli ¬ hood that it soon will engage in such enterprise In the Havre de Grace matter the association mere ¬ ly was the option holder and aid to the successful conclusion of the deal which means a long step for the advancement of racing Acting for themselves a number of the members of the association have purchased stock in the Harford Agricultural and Breeders Association which owns the Havre de Grace track with the understanding that it will 1m operated on the plan which was proposed by Edward F Sims to the Kentucky Jockey Clubs organizers the rejection of which kept Sims out of the new ownership of the tracks in this state stateMr Mr Sims however is one of the aids in saving racing to Maryland he having taken the seat va ¬ cated by another who wanted stock dividends rather tlis n a distribution in purses and state purposes of the revenues above eight per cent per annum on the outstanding shares sharesWhatever Whatever the Thoroughbred Horse Association may do in the United States Cuba Canada or elsewhere will be with an eye singly to the improve ¬ ment of the thoroughbred horse and it may be de Jtended upon to take no step that is not for the public good In more than three years of its exist ¬ ence its progress has been wonderfully steady and clean and it has had to battle every foot of the way against promoters and track owners who regard the thoroughbred horse only as a tool for financial profit profitHOW HOW THE NEW YORK NEWS CAKE CAKEThe The above dispatch is authentic Cromwell wrote it himself But he was three days or so behind actual happenings He knows what the Thorough ¬ bred Horse Association has done but is a laggard as to what Major McDowell and John 0 Keene the accredited representatives of the organization have done or are doing in New YorX It is not likely that these gentlemen had Cromwells instructions The editor of Daily Racing Form was with them last Saturday and Sunday and what he wrote was a fair statement of the happenings during those days after long conversations with John O Keene Bradley Wilson Cromwells representative with ¬ out pay or expenses us he declared and H D Brown owner of the Havana race track At Sat ¬ urday niglits meeting both the building of a new Havana racing establishment and the boycott and winter sustenance fund for owners and horses kept from Havana by a Thoroughbred Horse Association edict were offered as panaceas for Havana racing roughage Major McDowell and John O Keene declared themselves against the new track scheme but favored the sustenance fund if the roughage was not cleared away awayThe The extremists at the Hotel Pennsylvania meeting including Cromwells representative Bradley Wilson Continued on MCMd page TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT TEAPOTContinued Continued from first page who is an extreme extremist rather favored the new track idea The editor of Daily Racing Form was offered the news in and about the meeting and sent that news in his report of an ugly situation Had Cromwell not been behind the news and If he did not assume too managerial an attitude for the organ ¬ ization of which he is an official he would not have half cocked over the report or written the above is not true matter He may have safely thought the report was not true but it would have been well for him to have known that the matter was not true before he sent it itAll All the other words in Cromwells dispatch above referring to Major McDowells mission and the purpose of the Thoroughbred Horse Association is merely obvious statement If Major McDowell is not capable of representing the association Cromwell is hardly his censor It Is our Idea that Major Mcl owefl represents the organization safely and sanely and that his attitude in New York was extremely well balanced and sensible So was that of Mr Keene The news was reported from New York as the news came up and there is not one word in the dispatch by the editor of Daily Racing Form that needs shade or change It was written after some thought and for the purposes of fair statement of the attitudes of both sides and after the new Havana course nego ¬ tiations had licen opened because of the niany com ¬ plaints by inomberM of tlie Thoroughbred Horse Association over past Havana conditions conditionsIhiily Ihiily Racing Form and its editor one of the early and continuous members of the Thoroughbred Horse Association believes that the organization can do more than it has done which Is much for racing It may be a little too insular may seek more for owners and breeders than for racing In general and may be unbalancing present racing because of looal eyes aud too limch attention to some sides of thoroughbred racing than others But thesw arc faults which tlinc ami the lireudtlrof considera ¬ tion coming out of broadened vision and khowledge Will correct It is a good organization arid will change many ohltlue practices and values that at presentso write rttsiionable
