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Here and There on the Turf Pimlicos Innovation. The Public and Racing. Race Track Promoters. Prospects in Illinois. The huge crowd that turned out Friday afternoon for the running cf the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico was a further vindication of the judgment shown by the Maryland Jockey Club in terminating the practice of offering its big stakes on Saturdays or holidays. The crowds that visit the Baltimore track on Saturdays always tax the capacity cf the plant anyway and the offering of a fitxure like the Preakness Stakes or the Dixie Handicap on a week end card merely results in attracting a great number of people who cannot be comfortably accommodated. Other week-day crowds, on the other hand, are normally far below ca pacity and the offering of the big event on a day which ordinarily is featureless naturally means a great increase in attendance and accordingly in revenue for that occasion. The Maryland Jockey Club is the first big racing association to attempt such an experi ment. The success of the innovation may result in bringing about similar changes at other tracks. Whether such a change, if adopted generally, would meet with public ap proval or not, remains to be seen. A great number of racing enthusiasts look forward fcr months to the running of a big race on a Saturday afternoon when they will be able to attend. If this race is run on an earlier week-day. when many of these enthusiasts will be unable to visit the track, a great number will be disappointed. From ths standpoint of the track management, whose duty it is to make each meeting as much of a financial success as possible, such a plan possesses many natural advantages. For the racing enthusiasts who are as well able to attend on an earlier week day as on a Saturday. The plan also has obvious advantages in that it reduces the congestion at the track and adds to the comfort of the spectators. But the man who wants to see the big stakes decided and yet cannot leave his business, except on Saturday afternoon, has a decided grievance when he is deprived of the opportunity. The racing public makes the sport possible and every racing association must satisfy its patrons if it is to be successful. Practically every track in the country has expended a great deal of money each year for improve ments designed to increase the comfort of the spectators. This is money well spent, as the associations have discovered people who visit a track and find every possible provision for their comfort, will naturally return oftener than if they find conditions not to their Lk ing. Consequently the expenditure of money for improvements to the plant is a good business move on the part of a racing association; in crea.s-d purees and larger stake valuer are also good business because they bring about letter racing and attract larger crowds in con sequence. But these matters are just as im portant to the turf from another standpoint. Racing is and must be primarily a sport. If it is commercialized to the point where a race track is just a great money making venture, the turf will fall into du repute and racing will gradually fall from its high position. Improve ments that will add to the comfort of the spectators and increased purses and stakes di~ tribution which will give horsemen a wider opportunity, are a means of absorbing surplus profits that will distribute the benefits more widely. The wild stories of huge profits in the field of race track promotion that are censtantly going the rounds are largely responsible for the presence in racing of a number of unscrupu lous promoters who know nothing cf the turf. The c men buy land, erect racing plants and attempt to put on race meetings purely as a business proposition. Some of them succeed in making money with their venturer, but few of them are doing anything fcr thp sport except to injure it in the eyes of the public at large. State regulation of racing is the only prac tical way to curb the operations of these promoters. In New York, Maryland and Ken I tucky, where State Racing Commissions are in control, it is not possible for any one to open up a race track and give meetings, except under the sanction of these bodies. The result is . that there is no epidemic of new tracks spring- I ing up everywhere in these states. For this reason, if for no other, those who 1 have the best interests of the spart at heart 1 will rejoice if the bill creating a state racing! commission in Illinois is finally passed by the legislature. This bill, sponsored by the Illinois Jockey Club, has already passed its second reading in the house and its friends are confident that it will be passed by both branches of the legislature. This measure legalizes pari mutuel betting and restricts the number of tracks according to population. It places the matter of licensing j j and supervising the operation of tracks in the hands of the state commission and precludes the possibility of such confusion and chaos in! Illinois as now rules in Ohio. If this bill is passed Chicago will jump almost at once into the position of prominence in the rLcing scheme, which that city occupied in the old days of Washington Park and the American Derby. It will be the largest population center in this country where pari- 1 mutuel wagering is allowed and racing of the highest class could be offered. The state commission, if one is created, will undoubtedly prevent too many tracks from entering the field. The Hawthorne track has a certain priority that should assure it tho right to operate, but it will be altogether in- ! adequate to accommodate the crowds that would turn out if the sport was fully legalized. The Illinois Jockey Club, of which Robert M. Sweitzer is president, has promised to rush its projected track at Homewood, 111., near Chicago, to completion, so that it will be ready for opening in the fall. Some work has air ready been done there, but work was suspended last fall. The plans of this organization are decidedly ambitious, and if they are carried out Chicago : will be assured of a racing plant in accord wits! its potential importance as a turf center. It J»"i too early yet to assume either the passage of the Mitchell bill, or the completion of the pro J jected plant, but the outlook appears favor- able for both.
