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BETWEEN RACES By 0SCAR om HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., June 20. — Californias horse racing board meets in Los Angeles Monday morning to allot dates for 1954, but we understand that both Del Mar and Santa Anita stakes and purse schedules will be presented for official approval, which in turn will tend to precipitate what might be termed "spirited discussion." Presiding at the meeting will be board chairman Dwight W. Murphy, whose resignation as a commissioner was recently accepted by the Governor, but it is understood that so much pressure is being brought to bear on Murphy that he probably will reconsider his decision and remain on the board. The /California Senate, for instance, passed a unanimous resolution asking the man to continue to serve — an unprecedented action for a legislative body. Murphy, as we reported in this column a few weeks ago, has been deeply hurt by the personal abuse directed his way, but once he announced his resignation, most everybody woke up to the fact that he had been doing a good job under almost impossible circumstances, and now many of those who were hurling the barbs have joined the ranks of those asking him to stay on the commission. It is just our guess that the commission may allot 1954 dates in accordance with the recent suggestion of a Senate interim committee, by weeks rather than by specific days. The tracks could then do what they wished with the weeks. If so, both Santa Anita and Hollywood Park would have an opportunity to race 55 days instead of the current 50, or rather 45, plus five for charity. The legal maximum is 50 days plus five. With their 10 weeks, both tracks could race six days a week for five weeks. Five days a week with the other five. AAA What Ihe purse situation will be at both Del Mar and Dates, Purses on Race Commission Agenda Del Marf fiBPA Near Agreement Dollar Wise Ray Robinson Tells Views on Horse Values Says Disputes Highlighted Turf Integrity Santa Anita is not clear at this writing, but two things seem clear. One, that Santa Anita no doubt will make an offer on purses that will be at once dramatic and stupendous, as they say in Hollywood, while Del Mar has offered a formula of 4-3-2.8 which is considerably better, percentage wise, than the 4-3-2.65 plan under which Hollywood Park is operating. Some horsemen are in favor of accepting the Del Mar offer and did accept unofficially, but others say that nothing less than 40 per cent will be satisfactory, and that while this figure was not "won" at Hollywood Park, the acceptance of the lesser formula at the Inglewood plant represented merely a losing skirmish in the 40 per cent campaign. Speculation as to the Santa Anita outlook on purses is rather keen, and, if it is as important as some people seem to think, the program there will be outstanding in American racing annals and once again will make Arcadia highly competitive with Florida tracks for the attraction of the nations best known horses. AAA N C. Ray Robinson, the Merced attorney and chairman of the HBPA purse committee, ofers the following observations, which he says are his own, but consideration of which he feels might help crystalize thinking on purses, especially in California. Says Robinson: "The increase in purses has created, in my opinion, a basic change in the California horse breeders and horse owners situation which, for some reason or other, has never been appreciated by many horsemen and, so far as I know, has not been commented upon by the turf writers. My analysis of the situation is simply this: A horse, just as a share of stock or a bond, a house or a farm, should legitimately be valued on a basis of what it will produce. In view of the fact that the California horsemen for 23 years have been receiving at best about 75 per cent of what they should have been receiving in purses i.e., 30 per cent instead of 40 per cent , the value of their horses has been accordingly depreciated, and now that the minimum and other purses have been increased, it is hard for many horsemen, as well as the newspapermen, to appreciate that what was formerly a ,500 horse is no longer a ,500 horse, but now becomes a ,000 horse because he is able to produce that much more. AAA "To make myself clearer on the subject, it is the same as if the dividends on a share of stock were increased by 25 per cent, the market value of the stock would naturally rise accordingly, and no one would any longer refer to the stock as being worth only what it was formerly worth. Taking into consideration that one of the main justifications for the establishment of pari-mutuel wagering was to improve and create the breeding of horses in California, we immediately see that the increase in purses is inseparably tied into the picture. This increase in the value of running horses will be reflected in the values of yearlings, and all along the line. Still a second important public relations aspect of the controversy that has existed between the tracks and the HBPA, and it has received only slight mention, is the fact that if there has ever been any doubt in the mind of the public as to the honesty and integrity of horse racing in California, the present controversy should demonstrate to them that horsemen, insofar as they are part of the picture, must live or die Continued on Page Forty-Three BETWEEN RACES By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Four upon the basis of the return they receive in the form of purses, Any thought or suggestion of collusion must be ocmpletely I dispelled if, in fact, AAA any ever existed." This corner feels that Robinson is eminently correct in his. assumption that purses fundamentally create thoroughbred values, and that earning potential creates the basic price of a given thoroughbred, although sentiment and desire to own a good horse on the part of many individuals are factors in establishing price. At Hollywood Park, the uplift in values came in such a dramatic fashion that no one could miss the point. But as to the correct purse formula, as measured by tracks share of the dollars, there is still a great dispute putting the honesty of racing into bold outline, it had never occurred to this corner to doubt the honesty of the racing in the first place. We feel that the great growth of racing in the last decade has been solely due to widespread public confidence, and which is translated into broad public acceptance of the sport. While many ingredients have gone into making this happy circumstance a fact, we believe the major ones have been the TRA, the TRPB, and a growing sense of deep responsibility to the public on the part of the overwhelming number of licensed owners, trainers, and jockeys throughout the nation. If the purse disputes helped highlight this, it was one good straw in an otherwise unfortunate wind. And we also are impressed that the horsemen seem to be doing some solid thinking on many turf subjects, even though they do not always see eye to eye with manage- I ment on some problems. I
