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REFLECTIONS By CHALLENGER Bruno Pagliai Writes From Mexico New Race Track Under Construction Government Solidly Behind Venture Hope to Attract American Horses HOLLYWOOD Calif June 11 11Bruno Bruno Pagliai writes us from Mexico City that the race track to be established there is completed and that the construction of the grandstand and clubhouse with 10000 seats and a capacity for a throng of 50000 is now under way The opening of the track is planned for the first Sjunday in January One million and a half pesos has already been spent on the building which when completed will equal the best hippodromes in the world a hippodrome being the Latin equivalent to a sports arena including race tracks It is planned to have 400 booths or windows so that in three minutes after a race has been run every transaction may be completed and the player may devote his time to the next race To begin with there will be 600 individual stables and throughout the meeting there will be purses of at least 2500 pesos At the end of the season they will run the famous Mexican Derby which up to 1910 paid the winner 15000 pesos The new Mexican race track is to be called The Hippodrome of the Americas is located within the limits of Mexico City and has been approved by the president of the Republic Gen Manuel Avila Camacho who like his predecessor and namesake Don Manuel Gonzalez is a great lover of horses and one of the out ¬ standing polo players of the world The first horses will be imported from the United States but a certain number of stallions will be given to the Mexican government each year so that in from three to five years Mexicanbred horses will be competing against those brought over from the United States Mexican sportsmen plan to have represen ¬ tatives at the various yearling sales to be staged this year and the next few years and from all accounts are desirous of obtaining the most fashionable bloodlines procurable The race track itself will be run in accordance with the most modernized equipment in use in the United States The start of the race will be controlled electrically and at the finish the electric eye with a beam crossing the track will give the photograph finish now in general use in this country While there will be a jockey club and individual members will race horses there will be no house horses as was the custom in the older days of Mexico City racing It is the plan of Pagliai and his associates to conduct the racing on the highest possible plane and they have been assured by government officials and sportsmen that every effort will be made to secure the best horses possible for the opening meeting Just one incentive to horsemen is to transport horses to and from the border free of charge It is satisfying to Mexican selfesteem that in this project Mexicans will take part in a predominant proportion It is even said that an increase in the oats crop is already planned so that the horses brought from this country will be well cared for It is a known fact that in 1940 there has been a considerable increase in the tourist trade current through Mexican routes In the Mexican capital they feel certain that the introduction of this race course will be just one of the new avenues by which Americans will be more disposed to visit the country down under our California border When the presidents brother made his good will tour throughout the United States he spent a day at one of our New York tracks and at that time stated his country was not only keen for highclass horse racing but that Mexican officials had every hope it would attract American owners to what is often said to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world In Mexico they are already elated over the fact that our newspapers and magazines are recognizing the building of the new track and the bidding of Mexico City to American horse owners and tourists In the old days the Colonia Del Hippodroma drew thousands to the horse races and there is every reason to believe Pagliai states that the new course will draw even more patrons The history of racing in Mexico is rich in background Presentday race fans are familiar with the sport of Tijuana and later Agua Caliente the course which just over the border now operates the year around on Sundays and draws hundreds from Lower California Horse racing in Mexico however dates back to April 22 1883 when the president of the Republic Manuella Gonzalez was present to witness the gallant Mulatto win the first race ever run on Mexican soil It was then that the Jockey Club of Mexico was founded and with the opening of the new track in 1942 a new jockey club will come into being and on its board will be many of the most famous officials and sportsmen in Mexico The revolution of 1910 ended the Mexico City race track and thorough ¬ bred racing Reports out of Mexico City then said The horse breeders the farmers the grooms and even the stage coaches that carried the tourists were the losers From time to time attempts have been made to revive horse racing in the Mexican capital but it was with the taking of office of General Camacho that a group decided the time was right for a revival Paglaia has been inter ¬ ested in this project for the past two years and now has the enterprise well on its way to completion At one time in American racing when there was such a lull that Col Matt Winn and his associates opened a track at Juarez Mexico at which Pan Zareta Iron Mask and other horses made lasting records Later Jim Coffroth opened a track at Tijuana Adhere the first 100000 added stakes on this or any other continent was run It was known as the Coffroth Handicap the first running of which was won by a horse named Sasin that earned the comparative pittance of 4000 in the inaugural victory In 1931 the sevenyearold Mike Hall defeated The Choctaw and Plucky Play to earn 100000 In the following year the Australian wonder horse Phar Lap was the winner but in his year the race had been transferred to the swanky Agua Caliente course Whether the Mexico City track will ever operate a race comparable in value to the Agua Caliente Handicap is a question for the future They do however plan a revival of the Mexican Derby a race which means as much to the Mexicans as our own Kentucky Derby does to us From the architects plans this new plant will be one of the mosfe beautiful ever constructed on the North American continent
