view raw text
BETWEEN RACES I By Oscar Otis Puente Hearings Reach Climax Racing Board Has Absolute Power Horses Aid Wildlife in State Wagering Drops State Revenue Up UpHOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD PARK Inglewood Calif June 1 Hearings on the application of the Puente race course people for a permit to build a mile course to be styled Veterans Park will again be heard to ¬ morrow by the Califor niaHorseRacing Board The board is finally going into a ses ¬ sion concerning a new race course armed with a long awaited opinion of the Attorney Gen ¬ erals office of the state of California de ¬ fining the term public interest as applied to the powers of the board in the granting or denial of a license to Puente The con ¬ clusion is summarized as follows Public interest as used in Section 194805 Busi ¬ ness and Professional Code is merely the criterion established by the Legislature whereby the Horse Racing Board must de ¬ termine as a question of fact whether or not any new race track shall be established at ascertain place taking into considera ¬ tion whether said proposed track would sub ¬ serve the purpose of the horse racing act or be detrimental thereto The public re ¬ ferred to is the public which may be af ¬ fected by the establishment of a track at a certain place The interest involved must be actual and would include the needs present facilities available benefits which might be derived and detriments which might be suffered sufferedA A A Kenneth Lynch of the State Attorneys office then goes into great length to an alyze the conclusion a conclusion which could radically alter the present racing set ¬ up in Southern California by the addition of a third track in the Greater Los Angeles area Inasmuch as the law limits racing in the Los Angeles sector to 100 days plus a few for charity the effect of a new track would be to cut both Santa Anita and Holly ¬ wood from the present 50 days plus five for charity to 33 days each The law clearly places the responsibility for the licensing of any new tracks after July 1 1941 in the hands of the Board and requires the Board to determine that conducting horse racing at any new locale will subserve the pur ¬ poses of the horse racing act By enactment of the horse racing act it has been deter ¬ mined that horse racing is in the public interest Therefore the question is nar ¬ rowed down to whether horse racing at a particular place is in the public interest Lynch cites the opinion that public interest is not narrowed down as the interest of a particular locality the public interest in this case being the state of California as a whole Incidentally Attorney Lynch also gave the opinion that the Southern Califor ¬ nia Symphony Association and the Greater Los Angeles Plans Inc are not qualified to receive a share of the profits realized from the charity days at Santa Anita Park The opinion reversed a former one oneAddition Addition to the states share of racing of the breakage over 27000000 at any given meeting has sustained state revenues to even a bit more than last year despite a general decline in parimutuel revenue a decline denied so far this year only at Bay Meadows A fiscal report of the racing board shows in 307 days ofracing a total of 292907246 passed through the tote re ¬ sulting in net revenue to the state of 16 38519728 Adding in the license fees of 1773650 the grand total reaches 16402 93378 While the fairs and expositions fund allotment of racing revenue remains at a sizable 11716289 of this figure the newest gainer from horse racing is the Wildlife Restoration Fund which as of the moment has 288697028 of an allowable maximum of 3000000 3000000It It might be only fair to point out in this respect that great central areas which do not face competition stand a better chance of absorbing punishing taxation than do areas which have competition A fan in California to attend metropolitan racing on the grand scale other than in his own state would have to travel as far as Chi cago a mere matter of a little over 2000 miles But where you toss in a lot of tracks in different states as in the JerseyMary ¬ landDelaware sector that 1 or 2 per cent centmore more can reach terrifying proportions A Acheck check made at Garden State indicated that roughly 20 per cent c Je people peopleI I wagered about 80 per cent of the money
