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START ISSUING OF LICENSES " j Secretary George Foster of Illinois Commission Prepares for Work. Eight Hundred Licenses and Fees for Coming Chicago Season, to Be Taken Care Of. - AURORA, 111., April 20 The final in portant task remaining before the Illinois racing season gets under way at Aurora a week from Friday that of licensing all horsemen who expect to campaign in the state begins tomorrow at the Fox Valley course. Secretary George Foster, who receives all license applications, is preparing for his most trying week of the year. He will have some 800 license blanks to fill out and a corresponding number of fees to account for, before the first field of horses is sent away at Aurora. The reason that the Aurora applications are so heavy in number, of course, is because Aurora is the track which opens the season. Horsemen coming to Chicago to campaign through the season at Hawthorne, Arlington Park, Washington Park and Lincoln Fields secure a license at Aurora in the spring that requires no further renewal. The Illinois commission is one of the most strict in America in point of licensing persons connected with actual racing. Not only must trainers and jockeys be licensed as is the case in virtually all states but apprentices, exercise boys, stable hands, blacksmiths and even valets must have permits. The commission is satisfied that this broad licensing policy has worked out very well in its two-year trial, and has no intention of making any changes in it. Since the formation of the National Association of Racing Commissioners, the ruling bodies of the sport in the various states have been able to keep a closer check upon applicants for licenses, and there is an available record of each ruling that has been entered against any horseman at any meeting in the country. In practice, of course, the decision upon most dubious cases is left to the stewards, and when three such veterans as the Aurora trio of Chris FitzGerald, T. C. Bradley and John T. Ireland are in the stand, examinations are rather thorough. The understanding is that this season it will be much more difficult to secure a trainers license in Illinois than it has been in former years. The previous requirement was that an applicant for a trainers license who had not previously been licensed needed the endorsement of two well-known trainers, and was likewise required to pass an examination in the technique of horse training. The expectation is that the requirements will be the same, but that the examination will be more comprehensive than in the past.
