view raw text
BETWEEN RACES ■ * osc« om HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., June 23.— La Mesa Park, at Raton, New Mexico, which opens its eighth annual racing season-on July 4, has announced it will go to five-way splits on its purses this summe?, will try out optional claiming, and is taking the unprecedented step of being a good neighbor to the bordering state of Colorado by carding a new Futurity which will be open to Colorado- as well as New Mexico- breds. By way of reciprocating, Denvers Centennial Park is offering a new stakes on its schedule, a two-year-old race to which New Mexico- as well as Colorado-breds will be eligible. This corner pays particular attention to New Mexico racing for a number of reasons, but among the main ones are the fact that the three New Mexico tracks, including ,~ Albuquerque and Ruidoso, show the largest per capital attendance of any tracks in the nation, considering population, and that the managements of these tracks always are willing to try an innovation, and some of the controversial items of racing have been given a trial there, and, once proven, have been adopted nationally. Others, of course, have been quietly discarded if the way facts worked out did not jibe with the theories advanced. All purses in New Mexico are based on a percentage of the pari-mutuel play, hence horses race for what interest they will command from the public, and if past records may be taken as a criterion, the purses grade themselves pretty much in accordance with the merits of the competitors. Moreover, New Mexico law provides that the part of the purses derived from the mutuels be distributed 60-30-10, so the fourth, and now the fifth awards, must come from the basis money offered by the association. AAA Minimum purses at La Mesa will be elevated this summer to 25, plus the usual five per cent of the handle, La Mesa Park Announces Fifth Purse Splits Hew Mexico Purses Based on Pari-Mutuels Patronage Comes From Vast Five-State Area Warners Views on Sizzling Racing Topics with no fourth money less than 5 and no fifth money Ipss than 0. In other words, the fifth horse will save his jockey fee. While" this may not seem like a lot of money as judged by Hollywood Park standards, everything is relative and La Mesa Park has found that the key to quality racing lies in purses, and moreover, in a reasonable balance between overnights and stakes and handicaps. In 25 days of racing, for instance, Raton is offering two true stakes races, two major handicaps, 11 intermediate handicaps, plus 17 features of handicap or allowance conditions, with money added by the association far over the minimum. That is 32 races in all for the 25 days which averages out better than a "stake a day" if we use the term stakes m its broad sense. La Mesa has its own landing strip for planes, both commercial, charter and private, certainly a feature which most major race tracks cannot boast, although in this respect, it is only fair to point out that every major track on the Pacific Coast, save Santa Anita, is easily available from a metropolitan airport, and Santa Anita is about an hour away. The other tracks are but a matter of minutes. AAA - - La Mesa also b a remarkable American race track because of the immense area it regards as its customer potential, said area embracing large parts of five states. To the east, it extends to Tulsa and Dodge City, Kansas; to the north to Cheyenne; south to El Paso, and west to Albuquerque. The track is given daily on-the-spot coverage by the Amarillo papers, and on Sundays, it usually draws considerable patronage from Denver. This appeal, enabling the track to draw people from far-away places, has given it a daily average handle of more than 00,000, which in a community of just under 10,000 is rather impressive. La Mesa also has maintained a yearly program of improvement, a substantial part of the profits of each season being set aside for building and modernization. The track has the motto, "We Grow as We Go," and the horsemen seem "quite aware that money spent in improvements and public comfort facilities is a vital factor in the season to season purse increases which they enjoy. It strikes us that anybody who doubts this public factor in relationship tb purses should first investigate the La Mesa story before reasoning that ALL money should go to purses, leaving none or little or nothing for track improvements. Personally, we have always held this principle to be part of the basic success of the three beautiful Southern California tracks, but at Raton, the relationship is more dramatic and easier to grasp. A A- A Speaking of the five-way purse splits, the subject is one on which westerners are divided,, and somewhat emphatically. Opionins both ways are most definite, with few allowing that a middle ground is possible. Harry Warner, noted Los Angeles turfman, and whose financial backing made the construction of Hollywood Park possible, tells us he is in favor of giving the little man in racing a break, and that he would pay back to all but the last two horses, i. e., in a 12-horse race pay 10 monies, in a 10-horse race eight monies, etc. "Racing is basically entertainment, explains Warner, "and"it seems foolish to me to require horsemen to pay for the privilege of putting on the show any more than we at the studio should ask all the actors but the star to work for nothing — and give the Continued on Page Thirty-Nine BETWEEN RACES 1 By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Forty-Eight star everything. After all, .even with Native Dancer, it takes other horses to make a horse race. What good would Native Dancer be to the American turf if there were nobody to race against him. Yet some horses have to pay- for the right to help create him and other horses like him, into stars. AAA "Nothing has burned me up more than a reference in the Horsemens Journal that Hollywood made the Westerner and Sunset into 00,000 races because I had horses that could win them. Actually, I have fought the 00,000 purses, and, if I am lucky enough to win either the Westerner or Sunset, I will have an announcement to make which may be of national interest.". Note: We presume the extra 0,000 will be given to. a charity, or to some worthwhile project for the general welfare of the turf industry, probably the latter. "I am well aware that there are people who will fail in any line of endeavor, including horse racing, but it still seems to me that asking people to pay to provide racing entertainment is not sound economics. As far as such payments cheapening the sport, I dont see how that could affect it adversely." Warner has long opposed 00,000 purses, and advocated greater rewards for the little man in racing.
