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REFLECTIONS I By Nelson Dunstan Horse Racing Popular Sport in Ontario Longden Refuses Fee From Jim Speers Firethorn Joins Canadian Stallion Ranks Taxes Endanger British Columbia Racing RacingNEW NEW YORK N Y May 26 26In In Canada horse racing is just as popular as it is in the United States France or England On the day before the run ¬ ning of the Kings Plate we went out to the Midway Farm of Frank Conklin which is located some 62 miles out of the city of Toronto In the party was Jim Speers who is the owner of the Whittier Park Stock Farm at Winnipeg and also Dan Kennedy who is a newcomer to the Canadian breeding ranks and also hails from Winnipeg Two years ago the conditions of the Kings Plate was changed so that any horse bred in Canada rather than those bred only in Ontario could be starters Needless to say there was some horsetalk but it was very obvious to us as these men talked that they would give their right arm and left leg to own a winner 01 Canada s greatest horse race As you know now Last Mark who is owned by Jim Fair was the ultimate winner and we cannot recall when the owner of a horse and the jockey were given such an ovation by some 50000 people Jim Fair is one of the most popular horsemen in Ontario and after the race Jim Speers owner of Lord Fairmond who was ridden to second place by Johnny Longden said Johnny put up a great ride on my horse but he agrees with me that the best horse was the winner After the race Speers asked Longden what he owed him for flying from California to New York and then to Toronto to ride Lord Fairmond and the great little jockey answered Only my ex ¬ penses we didnt win did we It was obvious that Speers was pleased but he said If Johnny wont settle with me his manager will willCanadian Canadian breeders have the same enthusiasm for turn ¬ ing out a top horse as you will find among the breeders in this country Their farms are laid out on practical lines Frank Conklin owner of the Midway Farm is somewhat of a newcomer to the breeding ranks but he already has an establishment that compares with many of the larger ones that are found in the Dominion A few months ago he purchased Firethorn twice the winner of The Jockey Club Gold Cup j nd we daresay that on racing performance and breeding he now has one of the bestknown stallions standing in Canada Firethorn is by Sun Briar out of Baton Rouge and last year one of his yearlings was sold by the Elmendorf Farm of Kentucky to Mrs Emil Denemark for 11000 Conklin has some 18 mares at his farm and the seven yearlings he will offer at the Canadian sales this season are a wellgrown sturdylooking lot that speaks well for breeding in On ¬ tario On the way back to town we stopped at the farm of Harry Giddings the man who has trained more Kings Plate winners than any other in the history of the race His farm is a small one but there we saw one of the fin ¬ est broodmares to be found anywhere in Shipaway a daughter of Marine and the dam of Misty Waters the filly who ran ninth in the Kings Plate on Monday MondayDuring During the last few years breeding in Canada has improved considerably but they can still use more highclass mares to say nothing of stallions than they have at present In Ontario there are many breeding farms and just one is the Trafalgar Farm of F G Darlington which besides 40 mares houses the stallion Flares Boswell and Chop Chop Another is the Park wood Stables Farm which is owned by the wellknown Cana ¬ dian R S McLaughlin and which has 20 mares and the stal ¬ lions Teddy Wrack and Fairaris Still another is the Riverdale Farm which is owned by the wellknown Canadian racing offi ¬ cial James Heffering which is of some 150 acres and besides the stallions Swift and Sure Blue Warrior and Blue Ice main ¬ tains 17 mares Breeding farms are to be found in the western part of Canada also and just one of those in the Winnipeg area is the Whittier Park Stock Farm of James Speers and where the stallions Gala Hour and Fairmond are now standing Gala Hour was once the property of Johnny Longden but last vear he sold this horse to Speers SpeersThere There is very little difference that we could see in the racing of Canada and that of this country The Kings Plate has all the significance to a Canadian that the Kentucky Derby has in this country While anywhere from 80000 to 100000 people now attend the Derby some 50000 turn put for the Kings Plate annually The en ¬ thusiasm throughout the day runs high at the Woodbine course and as the horses which compete in the Plate must be Canadianbreds there is keen rivalry among the breed ¬ ers of the Dominion to send forth the winner As in the United States the one menace to the sport is high taxa ¬ tion Recently there was some talk of a city tax on the tracks operating in Toronto but apparently realizing that this would endanger the sport they have wisely decided to forego it for the time being That does not hold good in other parts of Canada however and especially in British Columbia where the tax on mutuel play is already 22 per cent centOn On the morning of the Kings Pla e a disconcerting item appeared in a Toronto paper It read The Federal Govern ¬ ments withdrawal of the 5 per cent tax on the mutuel field wagering was nullified here to a great extent when the British Columbia Government immediately picked it up and added it to their present 7 per cent making their take now 12 per cent of which they intend rebating a portion to the racetrack opera ¬ tors This will make the total tax on horse racing 21 Vz per cent and according to Al Hardy general manager of the British Columbia Turf and Country Club Ltd the operators still need a better break to stay in business As we see it this is one of the most glaring the public be damned items that we have ever read and it would be much better if they called off racing In British Columbia entirely rather than subject the players to taxation that in the long run can only mean the throttling of the sport It is very doubtful if the racing public of British Columbia will support the sport when 27 V2 per cent is taken out of every dollar that they wager
