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Santa Anita, Five Other Major Tracks In California Granted Dates for 1954 Formal License for 50-Day * Meet, Dec. 26-March 26, Issued at Board Session By OSCAR OTIS LOS ANGELES, Calif., June 23.— An application for a quarter horse track at Palm Springs was refused, Santa Anitas dates for next winter were approved, and notice was served that in the future, the so-called 4-3-2.7 formula on Californias major tracks will be the basis for purse distribution, were the highlightts of a race board meeting which lasted most of Monday at the boards downtown offices. Commissioners Dwight "Murphy, chairman, and Jack H. Sattler were sitting in the session, commissioner Fred W. Pabst being reported quite ill in Palo Alto Hospital. The application refusal for the Palm Springs group, which had planned to stage a quarter horse meeting in the late fall or early spring, came as a surprise. While the chairman made no comment, the only reason for the turndown legaly could have been that the proponents of the track failed to show the construction and operation of a new track was in the public interest. The vote was split, 2-1, hence it was obvious that in this important matter, commissioner Murphy carried the proxy of commissioner Pabst. The board granted dates for 1954 for the six major California thoroughbred tracks, but reserved decision on final dates for Western Harness spring and fall meetings, the Los Alamitos quarter horse meeting, and the California Harness Racing Association a mixed meet, standard-bred and quarter horses until a few minor adjustments could be worked out. At first, only Santa Anita and Bay Meadows dates were granted, but the commission, in executive session, apparently decided that the other tracks would stand on the dates originally proposed. The schedule: Santa Anita Park, December 26-March 6, 50 days 10 v*eeks. - Bay Meadows, March 9 -May 8, 45 days nine weeks . Hollywood Park, May 14-July 24, 50 days 10 weeks. Del Mai-, July 28-September 11, 40 days six and one-half weeks . Tanforan, September 14-October 30, 41 days seven weeks. Golden Gate Fields, November 2-Decem-ber 18, 41 days seven weeks. For informative purposes only, the proposed dates for the other meetings were listed as follows and, while they may be changed, they will no doubt stand substantially as follows: Western Harness Spring, March 13-April 10, 21 days four weeks. Los Alamitos, April 17-May 8, 16 days three weeks. California Harness Association, May 11-June 19, 30 days six weeks. Western Harness Fall, October 9 -November 13, 26 days five weeks. At the end of the session, the "horsemens situation" in California seemed to have cleared considerably, for all six major tracks voiced their approval, or at least no objection, to the 4-3-2.7 formula. It is thouhgt the formula will be written into the California Racing Code at the next meeting of the board in about a month, and in the meantime, the board is inviting suggestions on this plan, in writing, from any interested party. Mrs. H. C. Morton, an owner, and speaking unofficially, said in her opinion, most horsemen would accept the 4-3-2.7 formula at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita, the two big tracks, but probably would ask for the "Tanforan formula," which approximates 40 per cent at the smaller tracks, Tanforan, Del Mar, Bay Meadows and Golden Gate. The managements of these four tracks went on record as stating flatly that one formula, should be adopted for all tracks, and that to hold them to a higher formula than f Santa Anita and Hollywood would be fording a burden to pay on the tracks least able to afford it. The matter will be decided at that next board meeting late in July. It also was apparent at the meeting that the board of directors of the HBPA are not seeing eye to eye these days. The only horsemen in attendance were Mrs. Morton and trainer Willie Molter. It was understood that C. Ray Robinson, chairman of the HBPA purse committee, had refused to attend and that he and Mrs. Morton did not agree on certain basic matters. Robinson, attorney for the California division of the HBPA, later said in a statement that the horsemen would not be satisfied with the minimum 4-3-2.7 formula at Santa Anita and that Santa Anita would have to bring its percentage of purses in accordance to "take" up to the national average. Del Mars stake and purse program, based on a formula of 4-3-2.8, one point higher than the board minimum, was approved, but, as yet, no formal acceptance of this program has been forthcoming from the HBPA. Santa Anita, incidentally, which had announced approximately ,000,000 in purses for its 50-day "meeting, was granted its formal license for the coming winter season. Business proceeded rapidly, with Claire Douglas, acting secretary of the board, expediting the proceedings with an efficiency which astonished the people who regularly attend these proceedings. In addition to the above, the board did the following: 1— Tabled a proposed change in the Daily Double rules. 2 — Asked for and received assurances there would be a technical change in the background of the pictures used by the photo chart for greater clarity in rare types of close finishes. 3— Changed Rule 1707.1 pertaining to claiming. Under the revised rule, a horseman who loses his last horse via a claim will have up to 60 days after the close of the meeting at which he lost his last horse to exercise his free claim at the next track instead of only 30 days as formerly. 4 — Received an assurance from Santa Anita that the track would use a machine Continued on Page Forty-Four i Californias Six Major Tracks Get 1954 Dates - Santa Anita Issued License for 50-Day Meet; Dec. 26-March 2and Continued from Page Three- calculator to "back up" or double check its calculators. 5— Took no action on a request from D. H. Hickey of the "Standard-Bred Harness Review" regarding the definition of the term "breeder" as used in standard-bred circles. In this respect, the California definition differs from that of the U. S. Trotting Association. In California, a breeder is the owner of the mare at the time of foaling. In standard-breds, it is the owner of the mare at the time of mating Hickey contended that the present dual standard in California was confusing, especially in the keeping of recordsT He asked that the change in definition of the word breeder be made only for standard-breds. 6 — Made another plea to race track managements to see what they could do to reduce the number of "outs" or uncashed tickets, a plea made after noting an audit showed that 1,350.55 was due the state treasury for the last Santa Anita meeting, an average of more than ,000 per racing day which should have been returned to the public, but which now goes to the state. 7 — Tabled any action on a letter from the HBPA, signed by its secretary, John Beverly, telling the board that HBPA members would refuse to race at Bay Meadows on the same program with quarter horses. The letter stated the thoroughbred people would race on the same cards with, quarter folks only at the fairs. The board did send the letter to the Bay Meadows management for its perusal. "Johnny Beverly and Edward Friendly are not running Bay Meadows, and the law is clear on the racing," thundered Bill Hornblower of Bay Beadows in making his caustic comment on the matter to the board. 8— A spokesman for the Downtown Businessmens Association told the. board his group was opposed to any racing in Southern California in the month of December, prior to Christmas, and later, in executive session, the board denied a request from Western Harness Racing Association for this fall meet which will close as originally scheduled, December 5. The granting of the extra days would have been legal under a bill recently signed by the governor. 9— Announced that as of the 30th of this month, the state was going out of the "horse identification business" and mentioned that it would lease its equipment to Jay Tyson, Who probably will take over as horse identifier at major tracks. The equip- ment consists of voluminous files, pictures, records, etc. 10— Reiterated its stand that there would never be, as long as the present board had anything to say about it, an overlap in dates between a northern California track and the State Fair at Sacramento. The statement was made following a short but eloquent portrayal by Charles Coughlin, general manager of Golden Gate Fields, as to why some revision of dates in the state would be in the public interest and welfare. 11 — Continued the suspensions of trainer Loretta Hardy and her husband, quarter horse jockey Fred Hardy, until a full hearing on their case could be held at the next board meeting. The Hardys horse, Tidy Step, turned up with caffeine at the Bay Meadows meeting June 9. 12 — Took no action on the case of Michael Rizzo, who holds a temporary licensevas a trainer. This was a reconsideration of a case formerly heard and in which new evidence was introduced. 13 — Continued the suspension of L. V. Cornwell, who failed to appear for hearing. 14 — Denied the application of Joseph Ferrara for an exercise boys license. 15 — Continued the case of Michael Cos-tello, applicant for a grooms license, who did not appear. 16Denied the application of Michael M. Mitchell for an exercise boys license. 17 — Denieol the application for a grooms license of Glen Steele. 18 — Granted the application for exercise boys license to Robert Silva, former jockey who was ruled off in Arizona, but who was restored to good standing there on May 12 as an exercise boy but not as a jockey. 19 — Denied the application of George Leeds for a trainers license. 20 — Ratified a number of minor matters, including the stewards at the Del Marv meeting, appointment of Barry Whitehead as racing - secretary at Golden Gate Fields, etc. Among those attending the meeting were Carletori F. Burke, Gwynn Wilson and Bob Strub of Santa Anita, Jim Steward, Torre Brekke, and Bill Doherty of Hollywood Park, O. K. McKenney, Phil Cross, and Phil Klipstein of Del Mar, Ed Young and Charlie Coughlin of Golden Gate Fields, Fred Ryan of Tanforan, Bill Hornblower and Joe Cohen of Bay Meadows, D. Bernard Kearney of Western Harness, Frank Vessels of Los Alamitos, Ned Green of the State Fair, and Tevis Paine of the Los Angeles County Fair.
