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Venezuelan Taking In Delaware Sport Says Caracas Racing Staged On Saturdays, Sundays Only; Cant Compare With U.S.A. DELAWARE PARK, Stanton, Del., June 6. — Paying their first visit to Delaware Park, Otto Lieberman, one of the founders of the Caracas Jockey Club in Venezuela, and Mrs. Lieberman, praised American tracks, horses and racing in general. Lieberman, a breeder and still a member of the Caracas Jockey Club, has made numerous visits to this country over the years and visited at various times Belmont Park, Hialeah, Saratoga and Pimlico. Asked how the track in Caracas compares with Delaware Park, the Venezuelan sportsman smiled and replied: "Our track cannot compare with yours. It would be like comparing a buggy to a railroad car. It is a beautiful race course you have here." Lieberman was interested in the unusual width of Delaware Parks front and back-stretches — 100 feet. "Our stretch is only 60 feet wide," he said. "It is, like this, a one-mile track and is government-owned.1 It is the only track in Venezuela. We have racing only on Saturdays and Sundays, with 10-race cards, and get crowds of 12,000 to 15,000. Our grandstand was imported from England in 1894, a new one at the time. We have no electrical tote board, but we do have from America such things as two electrical starting gates, one for training and one for racing, the photo finish camera and electrical timer." Have Quinella Form of Wagering "We have a form of betting at our thoroughbred meetings which your American dog tracks have. You call it the quinella. We call it the mutual. You try to pick the first two horses to finish in a race. You win if your selections finish either one-two or two-one, just so they are the first two." The Liebermans came to the United States on May 19 and plan to take the Mauretania to England next Thursday. They are stopping in Baltimore and while there are having physical check-ups at-Johns Hopkins. "Havent been feeling quite, up to snuff," Lieberman explained, rubbing a bothersome left shoulder. Asked to compare, horses in his country with ours, Lieberman said: "Generally speaking, your top horses like Citation, Hill Prince, Middleground, and others, are 60 to 70 pounds better than our best. Our best horses would fit in your American- stakes of, say, up to 0,000 value, but hot in the really rich ones. "On the other hand, we do not race as low grade horses as you do over here at the smaller tracks. There are no opportunities for claiming horses so low in price. By that, I mean ours are mostly of the middle to top class variety. Our lowest class claiming race horses would run in your ,000-6,000 claiming price brackets." Lieberman has made a study of U. S. thoroughbreds and records, not only by personal observation, but through our turf publications. He has nine broodmares at home, of which seven have foals and two are "expecting." Several years ago in Caracas he purchased two four-year-old American fillies whom he relates, he later bredto two Argentine stallions he owned. Each had a filly and Lieberman plans to sell them at a government" auction next season.
