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BETWEEN RACES BELMONT PARK, Elmont, L. I., N. Y., May 21. Wayne S. Dinsmore, secretary of the Horse and Mule Association, called to bring us up to date on the blacksmith situation. His revelations included the fact that the school for platers already had nrnTinn itcolf in a friol run of. t.np Michigan State College. So far, the school has graduated 17 horseshoers and, without exception, all have made good. The course at Michigan State is for 12 weeks, and is intensive. The instructors are a competent veterinarian and one of Americas outstanding farriers, John Ma-callen, who, so Dinsmore tells me, has a "warehouse" full of trophies won in competitive contests. The Horse and Mule Association, sponsors of the Michigan course, hope to duplicate the school at Cornell, Rutgers and at the California Polytechnic College at San Luis Obispo. "We have received requests for horseshoers from all over America," says Dinsmore, "and there is definitely a career awaiting an ambitious and capable young man. We figure the horse and mule population of America at over 10,000,000. All of these horses are not shod, of course, but quite a percentage are, and there are less than 5,000 shoers to do the work. While a 12-week course may appear to be a trifle short to learn blacksmithing, we have grounded the 17 men graduated thus far in the fundamentals, and they are fitted to go on from there and make good." AAA Horses and People: One pf the more dramatic stories of the Experimental Handicap has come to light. It appears that one of the wounded veterans brought to the races as a guest of the New York track managements had been wounded at Bastogne, and took an extreme fancy to the horse of that name. ... He had saved up some 00, gave it to the nurse, and asked that the whole "roll" be placed on Bastognes nose and, that if the horse won, the profits be used to finance their marriage, the Horseshoers School Proves Huge Success Bastogne Great Aid to Romance of Vet Dream Stable Area a Belmont Prospect Sunken Roadways Project of Future proposal going with the wager. Bastogne rewarded with an 8.30 pay-off and, so far as we can find out, the wedding bells rang. . . . The connections of Concordian are toying with the thought of sending him to the West Coast for Hollywood Park stake racing. ... So far as we can ascertain, Seabiscuit will be the first American horse honored by having two life-sized statues erected in his honor. One long-has been a fixture of the Santa Anita paddock and the other will be placed over his grave at the Charles Howard ranch near Willits, Calif. . . . Arnold M. Grant, chairman of the board of the Del Mar Turf Club, is recuperating from an appendectomy at a New York hospital. . . . William B. Finnegan, trainer for WalterP. Chrysler, will campaign a division of his stable at Delaware this summer. . . . Horatio Luro, famed importer of fine Argentine racing stock, is eagerly awaiting arrival of his "second papers," which will carry the status of "full citizen" of this country. AAA Neil Boyle, track superintendent of the vast Belmont area, has some flossy plans in the offing for perhaps 1950, or as soon before as the CPA restrictions are lifted and building materials become freely available. It was our privilege this morning to ride over the entire property with Boyle, and here are some of the items in store; items which will go a long way toward making Belmont ideal for horsemen. Let it be said beforehand that the improvements will not be done overnight, but eventually they will be complete. All barns will be rebuilt with concrete apartment at either end for trainers and their help. These apartments will include all facilities, will be "By OSCAR OTIS two stories high and have full basement where water-heating plants, etc., will be installed. The stable area will be completely rewired to allow the unlimited use of electrical appliances, from a kitchen range to a radio. All barns will be fireproofed, and the grounds will be beautified to make the area the equal or superior to any American park. AAA The Belmont stable area is so vast that of necessity one must use an automobile to "get around." While the new plan has not as yet been officially broached to the management, Boyle believes that the ideal stable area will find the roads for automobile traffic sunken and with frequent overpasses for horses. By keeping the stables elevated, so to speak, and the roadways depressed, there could never be any confusion or interference between machine and horse, and the horses, by being on the upper level, would obtain full advantage of the sunshine and kindly weather. AAA One improvement that will be made as soon as CPA restrictions are removed will be to "sink" the straw or refuse receptacles which are adjacent to every barn at every track. We have noted just about every system in our travels, ranging from just mere straw piles on the ground outside the barns to elaborately built "corrals." But the idea of sinking them is something new to the writer. The benefits are many. By digging pits to the depth of about five feet, the refuse can be covered until the wagon arrives to haul it away, thus keeping down the incidence of flies. The unsightly and often untidy appearance of the stable area disappears. Moreover, it is more convenient and easier to fill, and also easier for the clean-up crew to remove. These sunken receptacles are a minor part in the overall plan to convert the stable area into the ideal, park-like surroundings we have mentioned. The items we have mentioned are but a few of the more striking among many.
