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! j j | I | j : ! : ! • j , : 1 . ■ | 1 I I , j j j j I I | ; i ! I j | , I I j | j i | BELMONT PARK FIRST ■ New Improvements to Make It Worlds Most Beautiful Track. ♦ President J. E. Widener Planning Important Changes — Will Add New Buildings. • NEW YORK. N. Y.. April C— Belmont Park, the home of the Westchester Racing Association, has been pronounced the most beautiful racing plant in the United States, but president .Joseph E. Widener is sanguine that the claim can be extended to embrace the universe when the improvements now under way at the Newmarket of America are completed. Two years ago the Westchester directorate entrusted the work of still further improving Belmont Park, which had already cost ,-000.000, to the Philadelphia sportsman, whose artistic taste is generally recognized. The public will have an opportunity to determine how well he has fulfilled the trust confided in him by his associates when the spring meeting of the Westchester Racing Association opens on Friday, May 22. It would be difficult to sense which of the many adjuncts to the beauty and completeness of Belmont Park will be most appreciated by the public. The most noticeable, however, to the casual observer is the new administration building, which has been erected on the site of the former offices at the edge of the paddock. This structure, which is of iron and cement, is most artistic in design, having a front of more than ninety feet and being one story in height. SOMF NOTEWORTHY FFATlttES. Noteworthy features of the facade, which is chaste in design, are rampant horses above the main doorway, which is flanked with a pair of stone urns resting on ornamental pedestals. This door leads to the weighing room, which has a fireplace and doors at either end to the jockeys quarters and thq offices of the secretary of the association. A railing makes a division, behind which the scales will be located. The weighing will as of old b. done in public, after which the riders will retire to their own room, which is most spacious with an abundance of light and air from eleven windows, extending to the ceiling. When an owner or trainer wants to talk to a jockey, the rider will be summoned to the weighing room. Such rooms are a feature of foreign courses, and the walls of that at Belmont Park will be hung with racing prints, paintings and photographs, many of which will, no doubt, be donated by racing folk. The office of the entry clerk will be at the track side end of the building. Ad-j .lining it will be that of the secretary. The jockeys room will have three double tiers of metal lockers seventy-eight in all. Each locker will be two feet square and have accommodations for saddles and clothing. These lockers will be clear of the cement floor which can be flushed with a hose. Be-j tween each row of lockers benches will be located and these will have iron uprights at either end, carrying a rod upon which the colors of the various owners will be displayed. Adjoining the jockeys quarters are the toilets and showers, splendidly equipped. There is also a retiring room with cots, upon which a rider, fatigued by the exertions of a race, weak from reducing or ill from any cause, may rest. FILLY FQIIPPFI HOSPITAL. At the back of the administration building will be a fully equipped hospital for the care of riders who may be injured. This will be complete in every detail, even to a supply of hot water. The ambulance will bring its patients to a rear door, avoiding the crowd that gathers on such occasions. The administration building will be surrounded by an iron fence, similar to that in front of the lawns defining the enclosure. It will be fifty feet from the facade and twenty feet from the ends of the structure. The area thus confined will be covered with bluestor.e. Entrance will be through a gate leading from the walk to the track, and it is planned, beginning with the c iming meeting, to have the horses ;|fter each race parade to this enclosure, where the jockeys will make their weight. Mr. Widener announced on Frid ty list that the owners of the winners of the Belmont Stakes and Coaching Club American Oaks at the spring meeting and the Futurity and Jockey Club Gold Cup in the Autumn will be asked to meet their horses at the track and lead them to the weighing en-el isure. This has been a most popular eus-tom on English and French courses these many years on the occasion of great races and its adoption here would add to the pleasure of the sport. Some objections have been made to the use of the weighing enclosure. It has been argued that time will be lost in hoisting the official board, but this will be obviated by the use of a telephone direct to the stewards stand. Continued on twelfth p.ife. BELMONT PARK FIRST Continued from first page. In order that those who go to the paddocks to see the horses unsaddled may have all the details in connection with the ensuing race. Mr. Widener has ordered a duplicate of the ornamental jockey and numter board in use at Longchamps. Fred Hoey has i sent over a drawing to work on and on the opening day the new board will be found installed in the center of the span above the doorway at the back of the stand leading to the enclosure. It will be on a level with the mezzanine floor, from which it will be operated, and will furnish the post positions as well as the names of the riders. What has been accomplished in the enclosure beneath the stand will appeal to the women patrons to an extraordinary degree. It will indeed be a sordid male who will fail to be touched by the aesthetic beauty and appeal of the entire area. Approaching the enclosure from the paddock, the former barren array of brick work is found to be transformed through the installation of huge plate glass windows, fully occupying the former openings into which the wind and rain beat mercilessly in stormy weather. Window-boxes that will soon be gay with flowers make a pleasing contrast with the ruddy brick in which the windows are framed. Once past the threshold, the eye is challenged by a scheme of beaut iflcation unmatched in any place of outdoor amusement. The rows of pillars of brick and cement for the iirst four feet are topped by a wooden trellis of exquisite design, painted a delicate shade of green. The bodies of the pillars are paitited yellow, forming a striking contrast through the overlying wooden tracery, which is as delicate as lace work. Alternate rows of these pillars have extensions on all four sides, where trellis begins and on these flower boxes will be placed. The ceiling is of the same delicately tinted trellis and the entire scheme gives an impression of spaciousness and beauty, that must be snen to be appreciated. The floor of this entire area is to be of marble in two foot squares of yellow and black design, with divisions etched in brass wire. ItOAD FOR LIB MEMBERS. Club members arriving by motor car will reach the entrance at the upper end of the stand by way of newly made bluestone covered road, which curves gracefully through a tasteful planting of dwarf pine, rhododendrons and flowering shrubs that have transformed what was a rather empty space into one of the beauty spots of the course. Kntering the enclosure, patrons will find a choice of two ornamental stairways leading to the boxes above. Looking from this door, which is flanked on either side by concrete walks, leading to the paddock or to the course, the vista is one of great beauty. Flower beds will fill the border between these walks and the end of the grandstand proper, which will be painted to resemble Caen stone and will be vine and flower clad in a season or two. It has always been one of Mr. Wideners chief concerns that the women patrons at Belmont Park should be well cared for. A room for The Jockey Club and the Westchester Directorate were also considered a necessity, besides toilet accommodations for men patrons that would be in keeping with the other accessories at the plant. For this purpose the entire space at the end of the stand not taken up for the entrance was set aside. The womens retiring room and toilets and the chamber devoted to The Jockey Club will be the last word in refined elegance. The entire wall of the womens retiring room, which is 20 by 32 feet, will be panelled in mirrors, and the furniture and rugs will be in harmony with this detail. The plumbing here, as elsewhere is of nickel, and every toilet accessory will be available. There will also be a buffet exclusively for women patrons near the front of the stand, where most of the openings have been closed with, cement painted a gray color to harmonize with the general surroundings. The club room will be thirty-two feet square. The wall dividing it from the womens quarters will also be mirror-paneled. A splendid hand-made French carpet, a gift from Mr. Widener. will cover the floor. The I furniture will be appropriate. Adjoining this room will be a chamber where an elevator may be taken to a glass house on the roof, where members of the Jockey Club and the Westchester directorate may view the races. The mens room will be on the race course side of the enclosure entrance. It will be complete in every detail, and adjoining it will be a stand where "Rosey" and "Jess " will check the glasses and overcoats of patrons, as they have done for nearly a generation in the past. TIRF AM FIELD LIB. The growth of the Turf and Field Club has not est aped Mr. Wideners attention and -up. rintendent Pels is installing fifteen new boxes, making a total of twenty-one for the | use of members of this popular organization. There will now b a total box equipment of ! 81 at Belmont Park. It was decided to in-erease the seating area of the Turf and Field reservation, and members will have the entire end of the stand. The upper promenade is to have apropriate furniture installed. All boxes are being freshly painted and the "B" on the front of each is being hign-lighted in gold. Flower boxes will i ornament the entire front of the enclosure, j These will be held in place by huge irons, made on the premises by superintendent Pels and his staff. The well being of the general public has not been lost sight of, as the public restau- I rant is finished in the same delicately painted trellis as the enclosure. A cafeteria I bar. U feet long, of red brick and cement! with a broad wooden top will enable Harry j Stevens to feed an army. Other bars used by Stevens are in keeping with this. They an rang.-d along the newly enelosed wall in! front of the stand. The former old bars and the freight elevator have been removed, giving a clear floor space beneath the stand. There are offices for caterer Stevens and his assistants and for John J. Cavanagh, the racing .tationer. that of the latter being a mat building witli ticket selling ace mmo-dations. it being part of Mr. Wideners plan to have an advanee sale on big occasions to avoid eonfusion. There is a counting room for the Pinkertons. comparable to that of a bank, and a commodious dressing room j for the men who police the course. All tin M buildings are of tile, painted gray. I while the woodwork of doors and beams is! stained a rich brown. I I A feature of tliis portion of the stand is the toilet aecimmodations. They are of porcelain and sanitary metal, and the plumbing throughout la nickel plated. The former toilet for men is held in reserve, but the wooden walls have I e.-n replaced by the gray-painted tile used everywhere so effectively. If the attendance at Helmont Park is not lacraaaad during the coming racing season, it will not be the fault of the Westchester Racing Association, which has furnished the public with a splendid racing program and a plant * f BaWlvaaai Leauty.
