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_ HBPA at Detroit Votes Strike Ban on Entries Turfmen to Take Action Today; Demand 7,500 Daily in Purses By DON FAIR Staff Correspondent DETROIT, Mich., June 20. — Horsemen, as represented by the Michigan division of the Horsemens Benevolent and Protective Association, voted overwhelmingly last night to call a strike at the Michigan Racing Association course. The drastic action was taken after members of the HBPA balloted 105 to 8 not to enter their horses Thursday for the Friday program at the Liviona plant. Turfmen are demanding that the daily purse distribution be increased to 7,500. Track officials said their organization could not meet such a request without losing money and countered with an offer of a daily increase of 00. This proposal was refused by the horsemen. At last nights session, which was called by Harry W. Lindy, Detroit chiropodist and recently elected vice-president of the Michigan section of the HBPA; president E. E. Dale Shaffer, executive vice-president George Haggerty, and general manager Robert Leavitt, of the Michigan Racing Association, were present at Lindys invitation. Criticizes MRA Management Lindy, whose wife is represented at the local track by two ordinary ,250 platers, Just-Made-It and Fenelane, spoke at the meeting for 55 minutes. He caustically criticized the MRA management, said it was too generous in its purse distribution in 1949 when it lost in the vicinity of 50,000, that the newly constructed course and plant encountered bad weather last spring when it failed to consult the horsemen before selecting its racing dates and that its officers "didnt know anything about running a race track." After the strike vote was passed, a committee of horsemen visited president Shaffer at the Michigan Racing Association offices and made a midnight concession. They agreed to pare their demands for a ,000 daily increase to a daily distribution of 7,500. Shaffer said he would take the matter up before the MRAs entire board of directors at a meeting next Monday. He also , Continued on Page Thirty-Nine HBPA at Detroit Votes Strike Ban on Entries Turfmen to Take Action Today; Demand 7,500 Daily in Purses Continued from Page One gave no assurance that the horsemens offer would be accepted. Meanwhile, however, the strike vote stands. Last nights developments followed a long series of wrangling such as that occurred at the Hazel Park track last year. Robert O. Read, of Columbus, Ohio, national president of the HBPA., told the horsemen to stand by their demand for a 7,500 distribution but at the same time reminded them that the State of Michigan was an interested party in the dispute. The state gets 5 per cent of the mutuel take while the track receives 6 per cent with the breaks being split evently between the commonwealth and the track operating organization. Vice-president Lindy, of the local section I of the HBPA, warned horsemen that if they violated the strike resolution by entering their horses for Friday they would be blacklisted and punished by the turfmens organization. A horsemens committee, composed of Lindy, Read, Mrs. Audrey Gabel, of Detroit; George C. White, of Nashville, Tenn., and Henry Forrest, of Louisville, Ky., sat in the midnight session with Shaffer, Haggarty and Leavitt, in an effort as Read stated, "to settle this thing now." The meeting, as pointed out previously, failed. In discussing the Michigan Racing Associations side of the purse dispute, Haggarty said, "We are being completely honest with you and we want to be fair." President Read, of the HBPA, urged the committee to arbitrate the dispute if possible. Michigan Racing Commissioner Frederick E. Harris stated this morning that he would stay out of the argument for I awhile. At Hazel Park last season, Harris brought horsemen and track officials together after a similar strike threat. "In the meantime the entry boxes are to remain open Thursday," said Shaffer, "and if enough entries are made our racing program will continue as scheduled."
