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Del Mar Postponement and Hollywood Cancellation of Meetings Announced War Production Schedule in Southern California Brings About Decision of Tracks TracksLOS LOS ANGELES Calif June 17 Hopes for a resumption of thoroughbred racing in the near future in Southern California faded with the announcement yesterday evening that the opening of the Del Mar meeting was postponed indefinitely it was scheduled to open June 1st for a run of 39 days and that the Hollywood Park session slated to get under way on August 25th and continue for 55 days was can ¬ celled celledW W F Tunney general manager and vicepresident of Del Mar issued the fol ¬ lowing statement statementThe The board of directors of the Del Mar Turf Club have voted to postpone tempor ¬ arily the opening of their racing meeting scheduled to start July 1st Delay in re ¬ conditioning the premises and other un ¬ avoidable circumstances necessitate the action Permission has been granted by the California Horse Racing Board to apply for racing dates when the above con ¬ ditions have been alleviated alleviatedThe The cancellation of the proposed Holly ¬ wood meeting was taken after a survey made by the Citizens Manpower Commit ¬ tee which disclosed that in Los Angeles exist special problems of manpower short ¬ ages labor turnover and congestion of housing and transportation facilities that might be further strained by opening the park at this time timeThe The Citizens Manpower Committee is an independent civic group composed mainly of businessmen which assists the War Manpower Commission Its chair ¬ man is Leroy Edwards who made it clear that racing itself was never under at ¬ tack by the Citizens Manpower Commis ¬ sion sionJack Jack Mackenzie general manager of the Hollywood Turf Club stated the position of his organization as follows followsThe The decision to open Hollywood Park was made after Gen Delos Emmons de ¬ clared racing permissible from the stand ¬ point of military security which was fol ¬ lowed by the approval of the state racing commission and the granting of dates Some of the considerations that influenced us were the hardships being suffered by Californias 50000000 horse breeding in ¬ dustry as a result of the stoppage of racing since the beginning of the war and the many charities who benefit from the racing season and who have urged us to resume resumeHowever However if the opening of Hollywood Park at this time will in any way impede or further encumber Los Angeles tremen dous war production schedule we feel ly put duty to dismiss all other considerations in behalf of the nations most urgent need
