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DADE PARK M UNIQUE Peculiarly Situated on North Bank of Ohio River, but in Kentucky. largest Race Course in Blue Grass State 3roileled After the Famous Saratoga Track. "Men may come and men may go, but Ill move aceording to my whims," appears to be the philosophy of the Ohio River. As a result, citizens of Evansville, Ind., who believe in their state law prohibiting betting on horse races have awakened in surprise to find a thoroughly modern track, a mile and an eighth, just outside the city gates on the north bank of the Ohio River but in Kentucky. The track is named for A. B. Dade, veteran starter, formerly of the New York Jockey Clubs second circuit and now starter on the Kentucky circuit and the New Orleans Fair Grounds. Unique interest is attached to the building Of the Dade track, winch opened October 17 with a five-day Grand Circuit trotting meeting. It is the largest track in Kentucky and is built on the Indiana side of the river on a formerly disputed piece of rich bottom land recently decided by the United States Supreme Court to be Kentucky property, despite the fact that elsewhere tetween the two states Indiana resides entirely upon the north and Kentucky on the south. Indiana laws prohibit horse racing, yet the track is within fifteen minutes ride of the heart of Evansville, an Indiana city of 90,000 people. When the federal government granted its state charter it was stipulated that the low water mark of the Ohio River should serve as the northern boundary. Doubtless the writers of the charter considered the river as sure a dividing line as Great Britain and France consider the English Channel. However, the river was not such a sure thing I as they anticipated. The Ohio has during the I years changed its course, swerving some distance to the south into the interior of Ken-j tucky. The question, therefore, arose as to whether the old low water mark or the new low water mark of the river marked the end of Kentucky and the beginning of Indiana. The Supreme Court held in favor of the original bed of the stream, allowing 215 acres of rich, fertile and ideally level Kentucky land on the north bank of the river at the very door of one of Indianas most i important southern cities, where race mect-I ing crowds may be ably provided for and the harvest from another states activity reaped even more easily than does Cincinnati draw from Latonias crowds. Evansville is near the center of population of the country, and Dade Park will draw from a fifty-mile radius of 7uO,000 and a ten-hour radius of 20,000,000 inhabitants. Dade Park track is the largest in Kentucky, the state of race tracks. It is larger than Louisvilles ; larger than Lexington and larger than Latonia. At the grandstand the Dade Park track is 100 feet wide, providing thus for large-sized fields. At the backstretch it reduces only to S6 feet, whereas Latonia at its broadest is but 75 feet. Dade Park is modeled after the Saratoga track; it is, in fact, an exact reproduction, but is the only track in the country provided with Continued on eighth page. I , ; i : DADE PARK THE UNIQUE Continued from first page. all concrete, asbestos roofed stables. The steel and concrete grandstand will seat 4,500 people. The paddocks are steel and concrete. Doubtless it will seem strange to Ken-tuckians to cross the Ohio River in order to attend a race in their own state, and the Hoosiers may feel a bit odd in staying onl their side of the river to attend what their statutes forbid, but for some whims of a river there is no accounting. When the Kentucky right to the Dade Park territory was gained another disad-j vantage immediately sprang up. Every spring, when the floods were heavy this otherwise ideal acreage was covered by the Ohio out of its banks and ironically enough "into its former bank like a snake crawling back intoj a discarded skin." As a preventive of this annoying situation the 215 acres have been inclosed by a levee fifty feet high, compared to those at New Orleans and above any high water mark of the river, on record. SCENERY PLEASING TO EYE. Although the track itself is built upon flat land and surrounded by equally flat Indiana land, gentle Kentucky hills rise across the river and the scenery in general is far from unpleasing to the eye. This is the first race track to be built in western Kentucky. Horses are not bred in this part of the state, but the soil is rich and peculiarly suited to tobacco, corn and wheat. The Illinois Central Railway will have a station at the track and horses may be shipped directly from Dade Park to the southern tracks without unloading. Evansville is interlaced with in-terurban lines connected with near-by towns, including Henderson, Ky., the native town of A. B. Dade. Backers of the Dade Park track are practically all Kentuckians, including Bradley Wilson, manager and owner of the Devonshire Park at Windsor, OnL Both he and Dade are well known in eastern racing circles. A. B. Dade was starter for the Canadian Racing Associations for fourteen years. He started in Maryland, then went to the second circuit of the New York Jockey Club which included Buffalo, Salem, N. H., Providence, R. I., and Baltimore, Md. for some years. He also started in the old days for metropolitan tracks, including Brighton Beach and Benning at Washington. For over a dozen years he has been starter at the Fair Grounds, New Orleans, and for the past five years has done the starting on Kentucky j tracks. Cincinnati Enquirer. ! . I j , I j . . ; : : . t
