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** • , ggg- Call OandlSdays Hollywood ProgrdmhsiBoycott Continues Track Says Jt Will Cancel t Meeting If £jftriejs ifltf?, GARDEN STATE PARK, £aftiden, N. J., May 127— Eugene Monr%Wtesi-dent of Garden State Park aijtTan-foran race tracks, jtoday isHerithe following statement: . •■■• "I have today advised:!*. Raftlobm* son, attorney fWrfhe CaliforfTvi sion of the HBPA/that in ordPWHie, helpful in affecting a settlenuMjftrf trie controversy at Hollywood Park££pM* foran will release HBPA of its cromiiitf/ ment to apply refcoactively Pmandjfy foran, any monies/. tn£f would pTOtMr, by reason of a seX?Unttnt aetjgolly- wood." jr-wv *Q HOLLYWOOD PARnglewooJjjandifv, May 12. — The bitter purse disputeeTweeft the Hollywood Turf -Club and trApfcse-mens Benevolent and. Protective ; Association today forced postponement "awTpos-sible cancellation of-the "av wtWf5 which was to have "Begun- this" aiWnoon. Announcement to this. effect wastfJttKa* 11:15 oclock this morning by JlCR* F. Mackenzie, Hollywoods director of lacing, when for the seconds-day horsemen fflfused to enter a sufficient? number, of Ifibwugh-breds to fill a program. — * * ***" Unless horsemen .reojueSt" it, .Hollywood will make no further ttbrt to assefrfble a racing program until Fridandy* morning and if at that time the track -fj*unabig-tb fill a card for Saturday the*.entfrB/meeting will be called off, according to ■ the management. The announcement wjjfch Mackenzie made over the public address system in the stable area this morning follows: , Mackenzies Announcement* * ,..r - ■ "Attention all horsemen :~s. "The races for tomorrow have failed to fill and there, of courser-will snot- be any racing tomorrow. The entry booth wille-main closed until Friday- morning, .-urss the horsemen request us io open it prior to that time. In any event we wilr %i-deavor to obtain sufficient entries on Friday morning to fill Saturdays .races. - We. 1 urge all owners and trainers- to fill Satdr- : days races so the race meeting w~ilFsfe#t. , However, if on Friday morning. - the" r*t ands for Saturday fail to fill, Hohywo»d«Tujpf- ] Club will be compelled to* elose «down. t j entire plant on Monday, including aHrrain-ing facilities. 4" i "Hollywood Turf Club will/of jcourse* rie happy to proceed with the- taking of*e* ] tries and running of the races -at -any time, ■ if the disagreement is settlbpj£_ — * * Board Calling EmergeneyMeetThg The action deferring the , Hollywood : opening and the threat andat-j£ VQi force 1 the cancellation of thepaJtra;|jaeeting, ! which will have far-reamn13845jphcations, ; may bring the authority of the governors office into the picture faxaand the. state is : such a big shareholder in Californias racing. In fact, it was announced here today that Dwight Murphy, chairman, is calling an emergencsy meeting of the California : Horse Racing Board in an attempt to Continued Ojfr+ge Tn*and Cancel Todays Hollywood Park Card As HBPAs Entry Boycott Continues Track Says It Will Cancel Meeting If Entries Fail to Fill for Saturdays Races Continued from Page One mediate the differences between track management and the horsemen. It was the general feeling among horsemen that they would welcome the racing boards assistance in the controversy. The bone of contention between the disputing factions is purses. Hollywood has committed itself to a distribution of ,600,000 which is the highest in the history of racing for a single meeting. The HBPA has held out for a flat 40 per cent of the tracks share of the pari-mutuel handle. The horsemen contend that based on an anticipated handle of 00,000,000 for the 50 days the tracks purse shedule falls short of the 40 per cent they want. The determination of Hollywood to stand pat on its purse program was reaffirmed at a board of directors meeting here late yesterday. The horsemen, on their part, Sunday night voted once more to stick to their original demand of 40 per cent of the tracks portion of the handle. Hollywood Park feels it fulfilled the obligations of the license granted it by the Racing Board by opening the entry boxes Monday and this morning. The entries were kept open for 10 hours Monday but only 38 were received. Up until the time Mackenzie made his announcement this morning only 41 horses were entered. Although the HBPA has presented an unexpectedly united front up to this point, not all the members want to hold out indefinitely. One responsible trainer, who for obvious reasons would rather not be identified, asserted that he has left the decision to race or not to race strictly up to those who own the horses in his care. He said ► that he was advised to "stand for a couple of days and see what happens." There were numerous conferences this morning in the stable area and in one of them the suggestion was made that the horsemen meet again and conduct a poll by secret ballot to determine their attitude in the present dispute. Up until now they have given their opinions by standing vote. Another proposal was that the horsemen I appoint a new committee, excluding those , who up to this point have taken such an I . . active part in the negotiations, to meet with Hollywood officials in an effort to break the deadlock. Among those who conferred today among p themselves and with representatives of the ; track were E. B. Johnston, Tom Peppers, Jimmy Jones, H. L. Daniels, Willie Molter, R. H. Daniel, Mrs. H. C. Morton, W. W. Naylor and C. L. Hirsch. Johnston was asked to engage a trainer . to replace C. T. Leavitt who several weeks ; , ago contrived to involve himself in a series of conflicting statements in which he [ alternately stated he would race and would not race at Hollywood Park pending settlement of the dispte. Leavitt is vice-president J Continued on Page Forty-Severn CancelTodays Hollywood Card as Boycott Continues , Track Says Meet to Be Called Off If Saturday Races Fail to Fill Continued from Page Three of the HBPA. Johnston said that as a matter of principal he refused to replace Leav-itt. Although the stable area and the racing offices there were alive with activity this morning there were no disorders. Horsemen proceeded with their training duties as they might prior to the opening of any meeting. The general feeling and hope on all sides was that the deadlock would be broken be- i fore the end of the week. Hollywood Parks opening-day program was canceled late Monday afternoon when the board of directors met and made that decision. The Horsemens boycott "was so i tight that only 38 horses passed the entry box, two for the 5,000 Premiere Handicap. The horsemen were jubilant in their reaction to the turn of events. Robert O. Read, national HBPA president, said "The horsemen are standing 100 per cent for 40 per cent," and C. Ray Robinson, attorney and spokesman for the California division, said: "The unity and cooperation of the horsemen as 3ures a new era in racing in California in which all elements must be respected. We hope that the current dispute will be compromised on the Tanforan formula." Six members of the HBPA did enter horses on the canceled opening day card. A Hollywood Park spokesman gave the tracks side of the situation, declaring the horsemen had pulled a double-cross play in signing agreements and giving a gentlemans word of honor to race before they were allotted stall space. The track has signatures of 86 owners agreeing to race in writing and oral agreements from the others, claimed racing secretary John Ma-luvius. Loss of 25,000 in Revenue Although it is estimated that the state of California loses 25,000 in revenue for each day Hollywood Park is "dark," Chairman Dwight Murphy did hot seem ready to treat the situation as an emergency one. Murphy again repeated what he told Daily Racing Form last Saturady, that the boards jurisdiction at Hollwood did not begin until the scheduled opening of the meeting. The chairman is in Sacramento today and will return to Los Angeles tomorrow. He added that he hopes the track and horsemen will still be able to get together and settle their differences without the boards intervention, but added "If it doesnt look good, I think I would ask the other board members to meet. It could be on Thursday or Friday." It was suggested by several sources that Murphy was giving the race now a cooling-off period without too much concern for the states revenue with the realization that Hollywood Park does not race on Mondays and a delay of a week or so could actually be made up by Monday racing during the meeting. Murphy, OConnor Confer Murphy also said that he had conferred with Deputy Attorney General William V. OConnor who had advised him that some members of the HBPA had violated rule 1981 of the California rules of racing. "Under this rule, and I dont think there is any doubt about it, the board has the power to suspend licenses, but I dont think it would be the proper procedure at this time." OConnor said his office was prepared to prosecute anyone who had inter -ferred with the normal opening and conduct of the legally licensed meeting, pointing out that the horsemen had failed to file the necessary 15 -day notice either to the track or the board of an unwillingness to go through with the meeting. He recommended that the board investigate to see who had violated the rule. Murphy said, "It is a little too early to say what the board will do. We will give them a reasonable length of time to see if they can settle it themselves. Im not taking the position now that the board should go in and start suspending owners and trainers." Although no public note has been taken of it, the purse snarl, according to observers, seems more hopeless of solving the negotiations than ever. They pointed to the quote of Eugene Mori, Tanforans president, from Garden State Park, in which he said, "My understanding was ihat if any lesser formula was agreed to with any other track in California, that same formula would apply retroactively at Tanforan. Such an agreement would put the horsemen in a position where they could not afford to settle for anything less than their 40 per cent demand and poses the question of what Mori will do if the board, through its offices, compromises the dispute at some figure less than 40 per cent. The 4-3-2.7 formula devised by chairman Murphy and at one time agreed to by the horsemen, but turned down by Hollywood Park, is less than the 40 per cent the horsemen are now demanding. "The field of difference between the two camps is now so wide you could play football on it," said one source close to the Hollywood Park scene, "And to expect them to negotiate their differences, which involve much more than purses as far as Hollywood is concerned, comes under the heading of naivete." It is reported that the jockeys Hollywood Park imported from the East, returned there, their expenses being paid by the HBPA. It was claimed there was a "misunderstanding" all the way around.
