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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan Greentree Park on Long Island That New Track on Jersey Side Bigger Courses Will Be Needed Old Saratoga a Problem Child NEW YORK, N. Y.. April 6. The New York season opens Saturday, and it is a safe bet it will be the debut of one of the biggest, if not the biggest, year in Americas racing history. We believe we are conservative in saying the State of New York will realize 5,-000,000 or more in taxation. There is plenty of talk that, with the exception of Belmont Park, the Metropolitan tracks will not be big enough to hold the growing throngs, in fact, just last night. Bill Coram, famous New York columnist, devoted his entire column to the project of a new track to be named "Greentree Park," in honor of Mrs. Payne Whitney, the "first lady of the turf." No one could be more deserving of the honor than the charming lady, who has carried on with a brand of sportsmanship that has pointed her out time and time again. We have no doubt this track will be built immediately after the war, but we fail to see how Bill, who, by his own word, has been working on the project for five years, can possibly say: "This is the solution to the saving of Saratoga." If a track operates in Zone One down state* it will naturally conflict with Saratoga, which is in Zone Two. Saratoga will hardly have the best of that. Many changes in racing will come immediately after the war. Even surer than a track at the Flushing Airport on Long Island is one across the Forty-Second Street tunnel, on the Jersey side. At the moment, the New Jersey track is in the "dream" stage. But the "dreamers" are active responsible business men who do things in a big way. Their plans for this track are breath-taking, for they intend to make it the last word in size, beauty and appointments. We happen to know this, for the reason that we sat in on many occasions when the discussions were taking place. We do not know who is actually behind the Long Island project, but it is safe to say that they, too, will be people of the highest standing. As much as we believe that the New Jersey group have a natural in their setting, so is the Long Island spot a "natural." Flushing Airport, as it stands today, will need considerable beautifying. They can take care of that alright, bus the point is that it can be reached by subway, by the Long Island Railroad, and it is on a main highway, with plenty of busses passing it. It looks like a head heat as to ; which selected the best location. Saratoga is the problem child of the post-war setup. Nothing would please this writer more than to hear Governor Dewey ask that no other track operate in New York State while the Saratoga meeting is being held. But common sense tells us that the governor is not likely to do so, for he is naturally interested in the State revenue and knows that the Albany coffers will be much richer by the staging of a meeting downstate. There is another angle to it. Not many years ago. at a Jamaica luncheon, Herbert Bayard Swope very frankly said that there was a rivalry between New York and New Jersey, and that when the Jer-seyites built a track in close proximity to New York City, self protec-tion would require that a meeting be held downstate to combat it. If racings popularity continues in the I j years ahead, there is no doubt larger I tracks will be necessary. No one realizes this more than the managements of Ja-, maica, Aqueduct and Empire City. Belmont Park will remain as it is, and it ; should, for we doubt if any new track in 1 1 New York or New Jersey could be more beautiful or stage finer meetings than that at Elmont. Once the Long Island track was built, the three smaller tracks in the i Metropolitan area could use it until such time as they revamped their present properties, or worked out plans for building new ones. There is some agitation to have all New York tracks carry on their meetings at one course. We hope that i never comes about! Any more than we would want to see the day when ; -all the butcher shops were on one I street and all the* groceries on another, or all the people named i "Jones" lived in one village and those named "Smith" in another. Racing people like a switch from track to track and any consolidation of all i meetings would be just another step r in a sport that already has too many t gadgets that tend to make all races look alike.
