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INCREASED POPULARITY v . Great Outdoor Sport of Earing Gains Many New Friends. i e t Prospects of Building Tracts at Chicago anil t Newport Show Trend of Public Opinion Warning Sounded. C : P c in other columns of this issue there is g published a statement of plans which, ac- o cording to the Daily Racing Form, are practically completed for a great recreation ground in Chicago, on which there will be a mile and half track for the full Derby uis- j v tance, as well as a mile track. j C The experiment that was made of resum- j c ing racing at tiro Hawthorne track was g so successful that, according to the an-1 1 nouncement of those interested in restoring racing at Chicago, a track costing a million ! and a half dollars, conveniently located, will be built, and racing will be resumed on a scale commensurate with the great population of Chicago and the present popularity of that sport. It is also announced, with an air of authority, that plans are being made for the construction of a race track at Newport, Rhode Island, and that among those ready to back it socially and financially are former Governor Bemkman, Arthur Curtiss James, John Nicholas Brown, "William Post, Kirk Biddic and Suffcrin Tailer. If racing is established at Newport under the patronage of this group or men mere is complete assurance that it will be conducted on a high plane and that an earnest effort will be made to have the Newport track occupy something of the same position in American racing that Ascot does in English racing. It may be possible that next next year, or in the near future, there will such a meeting held at Newport as is now heid at Ascot, where nothing but stakes are run and the greatest horses of the year compete during a brief but brilliant meeting that is the climax of the. racing season in England. 1 It is a far cry from Guttenberg and Glou- cester and the merry-go-rounds that operated under the misnomer of race tracks around St. Louis to such tracks as are forecast in the announcement from Chicago ana as may be built at Newport, if the plans of those who seek to establish racing there are car- , ried to completion. It marks something of the difference in the present status of racing as compared with its status ten or fifteen" years ago that there is even the possibility of racing being established at Newport and such a track as is described built in Chicago. That change has ; been brought about, primarily, by driving from the turf the evil forces that were in control of Gloucester and Guttenberg and thej St. Louis merry-go-rounds and of tracks at other points, and through the constant effort to put racing on a higher-plane and restore it to its position as a sport, instead of merely ; a method by which money might be gained. : Those who can remember the conditions in 1 Kentucky fifteen years ago, when it was feared that the Kentucky Association would j be cut lip for lots, and when Latonia was known as Death Valley, instead of Beautiful Latonia, must appreciate the great change. There is still much to do to make racing entirely safe. As there are in every voca- j tion, among every class lawyers, physicians, 1 bankers, merchants, even ministers some evil men, so there are now and will always be in the racing game some crooks and some men who have no conception of racing save , to make money from it, and every effort "must be continuously exerted to prevent such! i men from controlling or giving color to racing I and doing it incalculable damage. It is no more just to condemn all racing men because of the occasional crcok than it I I is to condemn all lawyers because of the oc- j I casional shyster, or all physicians because , of the occasional faker, or all ministers be-J I cause of the occasional hypocrite. But it is . essential that the racing authorities, who have despotic power, should drive from the turf every person whose presence is inimical, 1 to the turf. This is so well recognized thatj under the rules of racing it is not necessary to bring a man to trial in court as it is to disbar a lawyer to have nim ruled from the turf. The stewards have complete power to rule from the race track any man, it matters not wlro he may be. that indulges in vicious practices or exerts a baleful influence on others. As Kentucky marked the way for the re-, sumption cf racing through the creation of the State Racing Commission, the use of the pari-mutuel machines and Uio increase in stakes and purses, so it should lead the way in more vigorous discipline of the jockeys and higher and sterner morale among the owners and trainers. It is impossible to calculate or to express in dollars the financial benefit that has already come to Kentucky through the improvement in racing, or the greater benefit that will come if racing- continues to increase in popularity, and plans for such tracks as are contemplated at Chicago and Newport are made concrete facts. Lexington Herald. a
