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BETWEEN RACES * ase« ore NEW YORK, N. Y., May 20.— Eugene Mori and his associates down at Garden State Park are not willing to make a specific commitment as to the success of its "Check-a-Seat" experiment, but we gathered during our recent pause in New Jersey that it was working out rather well and could be classed as an additional public service. Garden State, as you may know, installed t» 2,000 such seats in its grandstand area and an additional 500 in the clubhouse. The seats, of course, are free, but if one wishes to reserve it for the day and forestall arguments as to possession, he needs only to deposit two quarters and obtain a key. One quarter is returnable at the end of the day as a deposit on the key. The locks operate in much the same manner as those in luggage lockers in railway terminals. The track, you might *be interested to know, does not make any ptofit on the transaction. The company supplying the locking device does so on a rental basis. Thus far at Garden State there has not been a single argument over possession of a seat, and the public has taken rather kindly to the arrangement. There is nothing, of course, to prevent a citizen sending someone out at the time the gates are opened on a Saturday or holiday, for example, to buy seats for a party of, say, four or five. But little of this has been noted. But one discordant note was noted at Garden State. Spencer Draytons TRPB men, who do the pp--~ licing, nailed two ushers putting quarter-in themselves Check-A-Seat Plan Success in Jersey Decentralization Seen for Jockeys Guild Jersey Stakes Next Big Sophomore Event Atlantic City to Emphasize Sport on Turf and scalping the seats at a dollar per copy. The ushers were given a bx-isk heave-ho and that ended that, but quickly. The "Check-a-Seat" installation has not made any appreciable difference in the regular reserved seat sales. At the end of the fourteenth day of racing at the Garden State Park season, a decline of but 12 reserved seats was noted as against a comparable period last year. AAA Resignation of John P. "Pat" Kelley as secretary and general manager of the Jockeys Guild foreshadows a shift in policy in that organization. We understand the Guild will "decentralize," to some extent, its operation, and that three regional executives will operate, in effect, as a "board of directors," and that former president Sterling Young will devote more time to guild duties and act as the final guild authority and operate the national headquarters in New York. Bert Thompson, western field agent for the guild, was offered .the post resigned by Kelly, but declined because he did not wish to leave his California home. Thompson has done an outstanding job for the guild in the Far West, his scope of operations encompassing every track on the Pacific side of the Rockies. A A A Jerseys championship race of the spring, insofar as the sophomore division is concerned, is Garden States mile and a quarter event a week from tomorrow. The Jersey Stakes, as the Camden race is known, is expected to draw a smart field, but racing secretary Ty Shea will not begin tabbing his probable field until after the running of the Withers Mile at Belmont Park tomorrow. The Jersey is bound to fit in rather well with the plans of a number of trainers, coming two weeks after the Preakness and well in advance of the mile and a half Belmont Stakes, the latter being the last leg of the "Triple Crown." The Jersey always has proved popular with three-year-olds for the reason that its conditions are those of an allowance race, with the poundage scaling from a top of 126 down to 111. The latter is for non-Winners of ,500 or ,000 twice. We dont suppose any three -year-old race calling for allowances other than the standard accepted for sex could be called a true championship event, but we rather imagine that the sliding scale of weights adds to the prestige of the race and to its intrinsic merit as a contest. Past runnings of the Jersey would seem to bear this out, for its roster of winners includes Citation, Double Jay and Lucky Draw. Assault and Fervent finished second in the race, the former being beaten in 1946 by Mahout. This is the Continued on Page Forty-Three BETWEEN RACES I By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Forty-Four second running of the Jersey at its present value of 0,000. The stake was inaugurated in 1942 with the modest endowment of 0,000. A A - A It seems that August 11 is a long way off, but for officials of the Atlantic City race course that date is just around the corner. Executives of the popular "seaside" course are planning a series of moves to strengthen the competitive position of their track. One matter is the important one of purses, and some 3,000 will be added to the stake distribution as against last year. Included in this will be the inauguration of the Atlantic City mile and a quarter turf course stake with a value of 5,000. The sweepstakes over the grass will emphasize the importance attached by the Atlantic City people to races of this type. While they have proved their worth at Arlington . and Washington Parks, they have never become widespread in the East. Other important announcements from Atlantic City will be forthcoming from time to time now. AAA The HPBA has figured out the percentage of income from pari-mutuel-wagering as against total purse distribution for all American tracks. As might be expected, the leader last year was Keeneland, which paid to horsemen exactly. 100 per cent from their pari-mutuels. Naturally, it is obvious that Keeneland, with only one paid staff executive, operates from admissions. W. E. Charles, Jr., the HPBA man in the Jersey, Delaware and Maryland areas, informs us that his organization is keenly interested in purses geared to pari-mutuel income, and says that most horsemen would rather participate directly in the pools than race for a fixed sum. Under such a plan, the horsemen would automatically take a cut in purses if the general trend on the turf was downward, but in good times, at some tracks, their purses would be increased. For better or for worse, these .seems to be a growing movement in this direction, the most recent being noted in California, where the racing board has gone on record as approving purses only when such purses are based on ,a rather complicated formula based on pari-mutuel play.
