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Committee Recommends Fixed Dates for Tracks California Senate Body Opposes Third Los Angeles County Oval SACRAMENTO, Calif.. May 19.— In a unanimous report of the California State Senate committee on Horse Racing, headed by Senator Ralph Swing, thoroughbred racing was highly commended for the manner in which it is being conducted and for its important contribution to the states welfare. While highly praising the present members of the California Horse Racing Board, chairman Loyd Wright and members, Dwight Murphy and Nion R. Tucker, as men of high standing, seeking to promote honest and well-regulated racing, and who have never abused their powers, the report deplored the arbitrary powers which the present laws grant the racing board and proposed certain changes. Prominent among these is the matter of dates. The board may now fix dates and the number of racing days at all tracks irrespective of the wishes of the track operators and thus "may penalize its enemies and reward its friends," the report states. The huge investments of the tracks and the large returns to the state make this a "big business for California which should not be pushed around by an arbitrary commission," the document adds. As an alternative, the committee recommends definite and permanently fixed dates for all tracks, "not subject to the whim of the board." The report also sugested that a full-time board might be advantageous and such a body should be appointed from groups interested in racing, the members thereof subject to Senate confirmation. The committee was unanimous in the opinion that two tracks in Los Angeles county are sufficient and that another track there would be detrimental to the public interest, as well as to racing. Reasonably long meetings at present tracks are necessary from a racing standpoint and to insure the state-needed revenue, the report adds, pointing out that five days less racing in Santa Anitas recent meeting cost the state 53,476 in revenue. A five-day cut from each of the other tracks would cost the state ,953,954 in 1947, it was stated. Along this line it was recommended that no. change be made in the present mutuel "take." On the subject of charity days, the committee stated that unless present Federal rulings are reversed, they will practically destroy the purposes for which charity day racing is conducted. Senator Swings bill, already passed by the Senate, is designed to overcome the effects of these rulings which take away via the income tax nearly two-thirds of the proceeds of charity days.
