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Here and There on the Turf i Swope Sees Jersey Danger Asks Mutuels as Well as Books BooksBurke Burke Confident of Havre Suc ¬ cess cessChute Chute Finishes Irk Public Herbert Bayard Swope chairman of the New York State Racing Commission makes definite statement in favor of establish ¬ ing parimutuel betting in New York He infers that his colleagues in the commission John Sloan and John Hay Whitney are with him in this demand for the state legislature to pass the resolution providing the oppor ¬ tunity for the public to vote on a constitu ¬ tional amendment permitting this form of wagering Swope does not speak in favor of parlmutuels as a better mode of betting than bookmaking nor vice versa for which he is wise but he does indicate his belief and in very certain terms that New Yorks tracks must have parimutuels if they are to compete with New Jersey having the same method of wagering New Jerseys house of representatives is expected to act on a mutuel bill within the next few days New Yorks commission chairman would have parimutucls without disturbing the present form In other words Swope would like to see the same condition prevailing on the metropolitan tracks as is the case in CpntiHuefl on ninth pasre HERE AND THERE ON THE TURF Continued from second page England mutuels and bookmakers side by side the totalizator to care for the wants of the twodollar players and the layers to ac ¬ commodate those with greater amounts to bet In this the commissioner sees the chance for New York racing to eat its cake and yet to have it too The writer has not the qualifications to make a prediction of what kind of condition would occur with the mutuels and books both operating but he has spoken with many veteran racing men and several have advanced the opinion that the layers would suffer very little if at all by competition with the mechanical method It is their belief that the stimulus to be gained by the introduction of the totalizator would have ah encouraging effect on the bookmakers business because that system would bring many more patrons to the tracks and enough of these would be con ¬ verted to the practice of accepting estab ¬ lished odds to offset any players who might give up the books for the mutuels For the past several years English racing fans have had the opportunity of wagering either in the totalizator or with the books and the latter have not suffered it is said Swope may have hit on the solution of New York racings problems as they relate to competi ¬ tion from New Jersey JerseyIf If New York is to have parimutuel bet ¬ ting the takeout must be very low certain ¬ ly no more than five per cent By main ¬ tenance of a cash gate the metropolitan tracks would not need a large cot from the mutuels such as Is the case with most of the tracks in the country The volume will be heavy enough for a small take to add sufficient revenue for the associations to raise their stakes and purses to a point in ¬ suring presence of the better horses What ¬ ever may be the amount of the take neces ¬ sary to cover the states taxation should de ¬ termine the total cut as the tracks should be satisfied with three per cent no more This would amount to an average daily rev ¬ enue of 12000 with the betting averaging 400000 daily which seems a conservative estimate As much income may be expected from the gate giving the track the oppor ¬ tunity to operate profitably even though its stakes and purses averaged 12000 daily Edward Burke general manager of Havre de Grace does not believe the change in the New York schedule will hurt the fall meeting at the Harford course which will be held during the last two weeks of Sep ¬ tember Formerly Belmont Park raced dur ¬ ing the first two weeks of that month and many large stables shipped to Maryland at its conclusion but now with the fall session at the Nassau course moved back to the first two weeks in October the more prominent establishments may not be so keen about moving south so soon However Burke is isquite quite confident Havre jie Grace will have a full complement of good horses in spite of the new arrangement and that the candi ¬ dates for stakes will be shipped to the Har ¬ ford course as their engagements come up Laurel which runs through the month of October probably will be the chief sufferer by the change in New York dates datesThat That part of the public which locates in the Belmont Park grandstand just opposite the finish of races down the Widener course never has been able to agree consistently with the judges on results of such events Hardly a person in that section of the stand thought that Delphinium had beaten White Cockade in last Saturdays running of the National Stallion Stakes believing the lat ¬ ter had won by at least a head It has been suggested that the large pole on the inside be replaced by wide board painted white but with a black stripe denoting the finish ¬ ing point so that the judges may be able to draw a finer sight with the slim iron rod located at the finishing point on the outer rail But with the public on one side and the judges on the other perfect satisfaction can never be attained until either the Wid ¬ ener course has been abandoned or the photo finishing apparatus has been Installed The latter Is infallible
