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PROGRESS AT TANFORAN : Everything But Grandstand Is About Completed. Expect to Begin Meeting on February 22 No Misgivings Over Securing ricnty of Racing Material. SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., October 17. Tan-foran is ready for racing, with the exception of the grandstand, and construction of that important adjunct to the sport will begin in a short time. Secretary Howard Spreckels does not want to announce any particular date for the opening, but is hoping the first card may be run off Washingtons Birthday. Interest in the coming meeting is increasing by leaps and bounds and in the last analysis perhaps the failure to open as originally intended on Thanksgiving Day was really a blessing in disguise. The conditions here are similar to those in Chicago and the full reports of the doings at Hawthorne are of the utmost value to secretary Spreckels and Robert . F. Leighton, who is in charge of the racing. The selection of "Bob" Leighton as racing secretary has met with the approval of all horsemen of the discriminating sort. He is eminently qualified for the trying position, not only by reason of his knowledge of the fine points of the sport but through his intimate study of that fascinating background of racing the breeding of the thoroughbred. California and the West are essentially breeding centers and Tanforan will be conducted by the men of affairs at the head of the Pacific Coast Jockey Club for the benefit of the breeder as well as for the entertainment of the public. The ambitious program of president A. B. Spreckels, vice-president Rudolph Spreckels and the other officers of the directing organization called for just such a man as "Bob" Leighton, and they are to be congratulated on securing his services for the first meeting. The racing secretary said today he had no misgivings about getting a sufficient number of horses to amply fill six or seven races a day. The racing at Hawthorne has proved that racers of medium class can furnish sport filled with thrills, and that is what the people want. Leighton has been giving quite a bit of thought to the jockey problem, as he believes the "enticing" of capable pilots to Tanforan is a more pressing problem than securing horses. Assurances have been given by the owners of the larger stables that they will bring good riders along with their strings, so that more or less solves the difficulty. The racing secretary also plans to give apprentice boys every opportunity for development. He said today some of the Continued on twelfth page. PROGRESS AT TANFORAN Continued from first page. best riding at the recent meetings in Vancouver, where he was in charge, was done by apprentices. It is part of a scheme he is working out for each of the seven directors of the Jockey Club, all of whom will have horses engaged in the racing, to have two or three apprentices under contract. Superintendent A. M. Allen has worked hard on the race course itself and it is in condition for racing at the present time. The horses of J. W. Marchbank, owner of Heather Stock Farm, Contra Costa County, will probably be the first to gallop on the new-course, as they are on the way from New York. Inside the main course is a training track, and that also is in readiness. Even the steeplechase course of the figure eight formation in the infield has been completed. The "barns," with every modern improvement for the comfort and safety of the horses, were finished several weeks ago. The structures can accommodate 400 . breds.
