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jm_|yHi B E T W E E N RACES *y oscar om HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., May 23.— Alfred C. Paul is a Maryland breeder, a factor in the Horsemens Benevolent and Protective Association and, in private business, operator of a stenographic service which records and transcribes the the testimony testimony at at most most Washington Washington jm_|yHi the the testimony testimony at at most most Washington Washington hearings, including those of Congressional committees. Paul has his finger on the Washington pulse, and has observed that much of the headache in the proposal before the House Ways and Means Committee of a tax law that would virtually wipe out breeding and seriously hamper the racing industry, need not have happened if racing, as a national sport, had proper representation in Washington. Paul cites that the proposal to stamp breeding farms as "hobby farms" came to the attention of the Ways and Means Committee unheralded and that, until after the deliberations were well under way, racing had no spokesman to present its side of the picture and point out how destructive the tax proposal is and that it would eliminate more revenue, by far, than it would bring in. Paul points out that when tax laws are under consideration which affect a certain industry, that industry is usually given a chance to be heard. Not so in racing, for the simple reason that racing had no one there in Washington, who either was apprised of the situation, or could speak for the industry as a whole. Paul is not advocating a racing lobby in Washington, but he does point out that more than 600 trade associations do have representation there and these associations, at least, can raise the alarm and submit statistical data for the legislators consideration when occasion arises. Need Cited for National Turf Spokesman Paul Discusses Proposed Farm Tax Law Nelson Dunstan Prophet Whom Few Heeded Maryland Production Shows Major Increase "Back in 1925," says Paul, "the Treasury Department, or, more correctly, the Collector of Internal Revenue, decided that he would tax the raising of show horses in a manner similar to this hobby farm law which would have limited losses in a given year to ,000. A show horse breeder took this matter to court, contending that the breeding of show horses was a business, not a hobby. The breeder was upheld by the U. S. Tax Court, the Court of Appeals and, finally, by the U. S. Supreme Court. In this case, the burden of proof was on the Government. But in the hobby farm proposal before the Ways and Means Committee, the burden of proof is shifted to the breeder, which at once forces him into the position of having to show a preponderance of proof that his farm is conducted as a business and not a hobby, one which he might not be able to maintain unless he spent large sums of money. Paul went on to point out that not only is the tax law unfair but that racing, in his opinion, did not start the fight against it early enough, simply because racing was not informed in time of the danger and because it had no national spokesman. Actually, the first most turf people and breeders knew about the proposed change in the tax law was when an outline of the treasury proposal to the House Ways and Means Committee was published in the Wall StreetTournal. Nelson Dunstan, our colleague on this paper, has long advocated a turf congress and all that the term implies, and while a majority of folks agree that he is right, few have heeded his advice and set out to organize such a congress. A few let petty jealousy stand in their way and were either apathetic or actively against it. In any event, the voice of Dunstan was as in the wilderness. Once the "hobby farm" tax proposal peril was realized, however, the entire industry became aroused, and the cry went up from all sectors in the nation, "Where is our voice in Washington?" Actually, racing has a voice in Washington, several of them, in fact, but none to speak with the authority of the entire industry. Spencer J. Drayton, executive secretary of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations, has done yeoman work, and so has Jack Denis, president of the National Association of Thoroughbred Breeders. Others have done their part, some, like the New Jersey Thoroughbred Breeders Association, quietly, but none the less effectively. Still, the fact that most of the voting in the House Ways and Means Committee to "do pass" a bill which, in the words of Paul, would bring slow strangulation to the turf industry, racing as well as breeding, was by representatives of states which have no racing, Iowa and Georgia, to name but two. Paul had another idea worth passing along. That is that racing, legalized by vote of the people in states where it prevails, should not adopt an apologetic attitude. A more positive and vigorous approach, rather than the negative, defensive one, seems to him the more desirable. He has a point. AAA Horses and People: Some 375 hpmebreds have been •registered iir Maryland in 1951, as against a mere 270 in Continued on Page Thirty BETWEEN RACES I By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Forty 1950, a marked increase. If the annual yearling show at the old Pimlico clubhouse may be taken as a criterion, there also has been a marked improvement in quality. . . And speaking of foals, The Jockey Club registered 8,700 last year, and expects to issue papers for slightly more than 9,000 this year. . .It is understood that Mrs. W. L. Brann will continue to breed thoroughbreds, but will sell the yearlings at auction this fall. . .It seems like jubilee year for the Saratoga Sales Company. "Gallons" of horses who sold cheaply have become tops, or among the tops, of the nation. AAA Nick Saegmuller, secretary of the Virginia Breeders Association, has completed a brief history of the horse generally and the thoroughbred, particularly, in the Old Dominion State, the research going back to 1607. Saegmuller, incidentally, has a compass in his car, and when some breeder, whom he is visiting for the first time, tells him he lives "three miles north of Main-town," he takes the first road north from that village, goes three miles and then starts to ask questions. "It has saved me 20,000 miles of driving in the last 10 years," says Saegmuller. . .That the champion of the Maryland yearling show, as judged by Lou Doherty of Elmendorf, was a sister to Knockdown, was good news to Judge Melville Church III., the Rixeyville breeder where Knockdown holds court ... Scientists at the University of Kentucky estimate they get only about 10 per cent of the dead foals in the state for autopsy and pathological tests. "If it were 100 per cent," remarked one, "we might approach more closely our goal of finding out more about virus abortion."
