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BETWEEN RACES I By Oscar Otis Alibhai Sire of Eleven Colt Foals Jockeys Move to Police Own Ranks Speculation Joy to Fitzgerald Record Crowd Handled Smoothly SmoothlyHOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOOD PARK Inglewood Calif June 5 Horses and People Louis B Mayers Alibhai sired 11 weanling colts this season at the Ferris Farm before a filly ar ¬ rived The filly is from Bel Amour hence a full sister to the stakes winning Cover Up When final tabulations are in it is expected that colts will predominate nearly two to one Inci ¬ dentally the Louis B Mayer organization is toying with the idea of holding the auction of stallions and broodmares at the farm rather than in the Los Angeles metropoli ¬ tan area Sounds like an excellent idea Caliente is the newest entrant in the West Coast floral and decorative sweep ¬ stakes General manager Walter Marty has planted palm trees all around the outerrail has planted flowers along the inner rail and plans now are to make an infield hollow near the head of the stretch into a lake Caliente probably will be ¬ come the first track to our knowledge to step beyond its own area in the matter of improvements In recent years a score or more of farm houses have been buijt on the rolling hills which form the Caliente back drop The track plans to paint these for free with white walls and red roofs to match the barn area and add a picturesque tone as far as the eye can canreach reach The most important decision reached at the recent board of directors meeting in New York of the Jockeys Guild was to place greater emphasis on policing its own ranks The jockeys realize that if one of their membersgets into trouble it reflects against all and if they can eliminate troublemakers before serious situations de ¬ velop it would be all to the benefit of the profession in general One of the most drastic steps taken at the meeting was ex ¬ pulsion from the Guild of jockeys Tommy Mansor and Billy Floyd Mansor and Floyd were set down by the Phoenix stewards for 60 days during the last winter and more severe action was not taken pending a more complete study of the affair by the Guild heads Whether this will mean the end of their riding careers on recognized tracks is not known At the moment both are in good standing but the action of the Guild speaks for itself Eddie Plesa who did a bit of time in Los Angeles on misde ¬ meanor charges also was dropped from Guild membership Application of Andy LoTurco for reinstatement in the Guild was tabled for a matter of six months but in the case of LoTurco it might be explained that the item of membership is a personal affair between himself and the Guild and has nothing to do with the integrity of his riding The case of Wendell Eads did not come before the Guild policy makers From the foregoing it would appear that the Guild is not going to uphold its members when in the wrong If policing of their own ranks is as effective as hoped for sus ¬ pensions by the stewards for serious wrong ¬ doing will become fewer and fewer A A AThe The recent win of the 65000 yearling purchase Speculation gave a moment of triumph for E L Woody Fitzgerald veteran trainer for Norman W Church Speculation proved a surprise winner of the Will Rogers Handicap for both owner Church and trainer Fitzgerald rather fan ¬ cied the chances of his stablemate Royal Chance Fitzgerald has taken a lot of good natured kidding about tho purchase for some time He was bidding at the sales while Church remained in California Each night Fitzgerald would phone and fill in The Boss with highlights of the days events And each night Church would ask who made the top bids The night of the Speculation purchase Fitzgerald informed him that a son of Mahmoud brought 65 000 And who in the world would pay a sum like that for a yearling11 queried Church You did answered Fitzgerald Following a moment of stunned silence the receiver was hung up Church has been kidding Fitzgerald about the incident ever since but following the Will Rogers Church expressed himself as pleased with the buy if Speculation will go on and there seems little doubt that he should be able to travel a distance In any event Fitz ¬ gerald was finally able to do a bit of kid ¬ ding on his own account The Memorial Day crowd of more than 72000 a new Hollywood Park record was handled without discomfort thanks to the foresight of Jack Mackenzie The general manager of Hollywood reasoned that if play were to fall off in line with the national trend the best course was to pro ¬ vide facilities so that more folks could see the races The capacity of Hollywood was greatly enlarged A year ago it would have been physically impossible to put 70000 people into the track much less provide parking for them Hence the parking area was expanded along with the grandstand and clubhouse facilities On the holiday the infield of the training track was pressed into service as a parking lot Since racing resumed here following the war a spot check has disclosed a steady drop in average number of people to a car At the peak the average was just under four It has dropped to 26 Hence more parking space is needed to accomodate the same number of fans Parking problems on the West Coast are more acute than anywhere else in the nation Only one track Bay Meadows has any train service About 95 per cent of the patrons at Hollywood come by automobile or special busses
