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NEW ORLEANS TURF MECCA ! 1 Horsemen and Racing Enthusiasts Arrive in Large Numbers. Visits to the Fair Grounds and Jefferson Park Reveal Many Transformations . i NEW ORLEANS. La.. November 7. With official announcement tlmt .Francis Nelson, the well-known anil capable Canadian racing official, would be a member of Jefferson Parks official family and serve at that course as one of the stewards this coming winter, the racing stage for this point la completely set, and It will be a case of marking time until the bugle calls the field to the post in the inaugural dash on Thanksgiving day. The Crescent City at present carries the earmarks of a race meeting in progress, for horsemen and devotees of the "sport from different parts of the country are abundantly in evidence everywhere and every train is adding a liberal quota. The same applies to horses, and each train from east or south lias two or more express cars of racers. Stop notices have been sent to many owners who had designs on either the Jefferson Park or Fair Grounds as campaingir.g points this winter to refrain from shipping because cf lack of stable space, but some have disregarded the rioticeVarid"aretaklng achanee on finding accommodations of some sort for their horses and caretakers. The reconstructed Fair Grounds will have accommodations for 1,270 horses when the stables now under construction are completed. The Jefferson Park track lias accommodations for 550 horses. This insures over 1,500 horses for the racing this winter, entirely too many, but should be beneficial to the extent that it will insure contests by the better grade of horses, providing the secretaries of the two racing associations frame their racing programs with that end in view. A visit to both courses reveals that both plants have beneficial transformations. The Fair Grounds particularly is an entirely altered plant and unrecognizable by former visitors. Its modernization is thorough, and nothing has been overlooked that will tend to make for improvement in the sport and the comfort of the racing patrons as well as the horsemen and army of employes. Every stable came in for attention and was brought up to a 100 per cent standard of serviceableness. The approaches to the stables as well as the ground foundation of each stable was raised to a height that would assure occupants of each stall safety from overflows in case of severe weather Veins repetition of the last two years. The drainage around each stable- is also of the most approved modern style, with individual water mains in each stable. Horsemen were amared with the perfect stabling facilities and voiced their pleasure at this arrangement. The track likewise shows the radical change brought in it, and the heavy layer of top dressing, as well as the excavation of the former bad places, has given to the going more resilience and will eliminate the prospect of a icontinuity of mud racing, even if the weather is bad. The Fair Grounds new track lias stood up surprisingly well after the recent hard rains. IMPROVEMENTS AT JEFFERSON PARK. But if the Fair Grounds track is a source of wonder to the horsemen, the Jefferson Park track is more so. During the summer track superintendent Rulprieh has been diligently at work remedying former defects, and the application of 15,000 yards of river sand seeuis to have solved the problem of that course, .for the going, now thoroughly mixed with the former substance, shows solidity and springiness and it now looks as if there will be more miles run under 1:40 than there will be miles over that figure, and in case of inclement weather thp track will dry fast because of the improved drainage. A postponement of racing at this track, like occurred last year, because of the flooded condition of the course and grounds is now an impossibility. The drainage is now perfect. At present roadways are under course of construction, and when the gravel and cinders are distributed around the Jefferson 1arU stable approaches the owners stabling at that course will be as comfortably quartered as those at the Fair Grounds. Activity is the order at both tracks and the arrivals of horsemen steady. Many of the more pretentious establishments which will take part in the winter racing are already here and include A. O. Blakeley with 15, M. J. Murphy with 14, C. Buxton with 10, A. B. Spreckels witli 28; Blackford and Vestal witli 24, S. A. Clopton with 18, W. C. Clancy witli 11. M. Goldblatt witli 11, C. Hawk with 11, E. W. Moore 7, O. Kogers, R. McKecver, J. II. McDonald, G. Peterson, H. T. Batchelor, E. B. Bradley, A. L. Kirby, Knebelkamp and Hower-ton and many others. Preliminary racing arrangements are being looked after by Jos. A. Murphy, J. B. Campbell and M. N. McFarlan, officials who will serve during the winter, and who are here for the present. Jos. Murphy will soon leave to officiate at Bowie before returning to Jefferson Park after the close of that meeting.
