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FREEHOLD RACING PROMISE Adding a Steeplechase Course to the Property of Great Interest. Ambitions Plans Arc Being Made for a Renewal of the Successful Season of Last Year. NEW. YORK, N. Y., March 2G. Last August and the last week of last August there were not a few of the horsemen who deserted Saratoga for a meeting that was conducted by the Freehold Driving Association at Freehold, N. J. It was just a five-day meeting, but it was worth-while racing and it was held over one of the best half-mile: courses to be found in the country. That was the beginning of what promises to be "an annual affair by the Freehold j Driving Association, and already the plans have been laid for a much more ambitious renewal of the racing this year. For several years Freehold had a reputation for its little trotting meetings, but last year Joseph L. Donahay and other sportsmen associated with him obtained control of the association and decided that while the name of the association would be re- tained the thoijpughbrcd horse would be the attraction. To that end there were various improvements made in the track. A commodious grand stand was constructed, a paddock built and modern stables constructed to take care of the horses. It was a five-day meeting and met with such instant success that there remains no doubt of the future of Freehold as a delightful part of the thoroughbred map. The meeting was operated under the rules of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association and many of the members of that governing body lent it their valuable aid. Heartened by that initial success Mr. Donahay and his associates have branched out for the second meeting, which will be held this year, probably in August, and to that end a steeplechase course is being constructed to add cross-country racing to the entertainment. For that purpose the association acquired forty acres of adjoining property and the course itself is being laid out by W. A. Gorman, who was superintendent of old Morris Park, and who was largely responsible for beautiful Belmont Park. This steeplechase field will be up to regulation and with it as a part of the course it becomes possible for the Freehold Association to at once come under the sanction of the National Steeplechase and Hunt Association instead of merely racing under the rules of the governing body. The Freehold racing appeals strongly to the followers of the amateur end of the sport and thc addition of stceplechasing means much to these sportsmen.. In addition to the racing, which is naturally the principal object of the Freehold Association, it has other strong appeals to the sportsmen of New Jersey. When the additional forty acres were added to the property it gave possession of seventy acres in all and one of the sportiest golf courses in the country has been constructed at a considerable expenditure. Still another sport is added by the laying out of a baseball diamond and athletic field in the infield of the race track, and altogether there is no more delightful sporting ground to be found anywhere. Freehold is easy of access from both j Philadelphia and New York, while the various New Jersey coast resorts all the way to Atlantic City are readily reached by magnificent automobile roads. This makes : the location of the track ideal and with its other advantages it is sure to go on to a tremendous popularity. . Sunday Mr. Donahay and Mortimer F. Lynch were hosts to a number of newspaper men and other friends who looked the course over and it was the unanimous verdict that Freehold has a sporting property in its race course and its golf course that cannot fail to be tremendously popular.
