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HAWTHORNE TRACK PLANS a No Horses Permitted on Grounds Until Work Is Completed. ♦ Chute to Be Built at Three-Quarters Tost and Pcrm::n"tit Stall ;ate Installed — Cars in Assigning Stake Wales. Joseph A. Murphy, general manager of Hawthorne race track, spent Monday and - Tuesday in Chicago getting things under way for the Hawthorne meeting, which opens the last of July. The race track office was opened at SI East Congress Street, and the improvements at Hawthorne were carefully inspected. Judge Murphy also went over, with superintendent Miller, the applications for stable room and made a tentative adjustment. It was decided that no horses would be stabled at the grounds until early in July, so that there would be no interference with the work being done at the track. Applications have been received for over 1,900 horses and there will be some disappointments. The management has decided to notify at once those whom it is definitely decided cannot be placed, so they will be able to make arrangements at other places. The applications embrace practically all of the large establishments in the West and several of the pretentious eastern stables. Judge Murphy took up, with superintendent Miller, the question of building a new starting point at Hawthorne by building a chute at the three-quarters post. The track is square off there at present and a small amount of filling will give a new race of about six and a quarter furlongs with a straight run of over a quarter of a mile before a turn is reached. The chute will also be useful for schooling purposes. A permanent stall gate on the order of the one Marshall Cassidy built at Tijuana will be installed in the chut?, and practically all of the sprint races will be run over this course. A letter received at the Hawthorne office from secretary Joe McLennan yesterday brought the information that he was endeavoring to set the Hawthorne stakes so as not to conflict with any of the important stakes at Saratoga. In this way it is hoped to secure several eastern candidates for the Hawthorne Handicap. Judge Murphy was delighted to read the announcement that E. R. Bradley had decided to place his starting gate at all starting points at the Fair Grounds at New Orleans. "Reports of the Kentucky Derby, " said Judge Murphy, "state that Reigh Count, in addition to an injury before the race, was kicked at the post an ". that another starter was ruined by being kicked. Under the rules of racing, if Reigh Count had been injured so badly as to necessitate being excused, bets would have stood and the mere contemplation of what this would have meant with a throng of people unfamiliar with the rules of racing, should be sufficient to convince racing associations that the stall gate is an absolute necessity." «
