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BELMONT PARK NOT TO CHANGE HANDS Major Eclmont Will Not Sell and Mr. Widener Docs Not Want to Buy. . NEW YORK, N. Y., October 31. Belmont Park is not to be sold. Major August Belmont declares that the course is not for sale, and Mr. Joseph E. Widener. the rumored buyer, says that he has made no offer for Belmont Park and does not want it. The fable which spread fast is charged to the propaganda of horsemen who would like to have the course changed from a left to a right-handed track. Mr. Widener declared that he is not seeking any interest in the track and is not trying to induce any one else to purchase stock in it. He said that he had carefully inspected the plant with a view of making suggestions to the directors for its improvement. It was also learned that Mr. Widener had never made an offer for the Queens County Jockey Club, which owns the Aqueduct course. Several months ago an offer was made for this plant, but it was made by A. K. Macomber and not Mr. Widener. James Shevlin, the president, and the other stockholders, say that they had no intention of selling. Mr. Belmont believes that running to the left is the better way, but he is willing to give way to popular demand for a change if he linds that this demand is really popular and not the product of a certain professional element. To make the change it would be necessary to move the steel grandstand, the clubhouse and the field stand to the other side of the course, and even if this were possible the railroad would furnish a problem which would prove herculean. Mr. Belmont contends, as he always has, that a great thoroughbred should run on any kind of a course and in any direction; up hill and down hill, around turns and straightaway, and it is his sincere belief .that running the "wrong" way, as it is called, at Belmont Park tends to produce better thoroughbreds than if they ran the right way at all tracks. He said that a thoroughbred is easily schooled, and if the trainers would devote a little more time to schooling them at Belmont Park fewer horses would "run out."
