view raw text
v - BETWEEN RACES * «c« ore HOLLYWOOD PARK, Inglewood, Calif., June 24. — A race board meeting of the California commission usually qualifies as something special, because turf "brass" has a habit of attending every one, and the corridors outside the hearing room provide an ideal discussion forum for most every topic under the sun and enables a reporter to get up to date on the status of the racing industry. Last Mondays meeting in Los Angeles was no exception, with some conclusions obvious. The first, and most important, was that the present format of Tacing in California has jelled, and will stay "as is" with only minor changes for some years to come. This was indicated by the boards refusal to grant a permit for a new California track, a quarter horse operation at Palm Springs, and the flat denial of a hint by Golden Gate Fields that it would like to open this fall the day the State Fair closed. "There will be no overlap between any Northern California track .and the State Fair," remarked chairman Dwight Murphy, which means that Northern California fall dates hereafter will be predicated upon where Labor Day falls on the calendar. The State Fair gears its season to the spot occupied in the season by Labor Day. Golden Gate Fields officials pointed out that the state, charity, horsemen, and others associated with racing, "lost" a considerable sum by the shortening of the Northern fall season, when Labor Day is late, but in this case, the money angles were deemed secondary to the tradition that the State Fair, now over 100 years old, runs unopposed. AAA • There is little doubt that the 4-3-2.7 formula as a floor for purse distribution will become a part of the California racing code within a month, which has led to an unusual situation. Many members of the HBPA say this formula m California Racing Set-Up Said Stabilized Board, to Adopt New Distribution Formula Differences of Opinion in HBPA Apparent Don Frankel Introduces a Therapy Machine is acceptable to them on the two big tracks — Santa Anita ana xiuuywiwa — out tiiau uiey waui luuie nuui wie uuier four tracks, i. e., the Tanforan formula, or approximately 40 per cent. This has led to a curious situation whereby the horsemen want a larger share from the tracks least able to pay, and would give Santa Anita and Hollywood an advantageous position, earning-wise, in comparison to the smaller tracks. Mrs. H. C. Morton, who made it plain she spoke only for herself, rationalized this by saying the horsemen recognized that the two big tracks used considerable funds to make improvements and keep their tracks modern, certainly a factor in the tremendous popular appeal of both Santa Anita and Hollywood Park. However, this is overlooking the item that all other tracks in the state have made or will make major improvements to their plants, including a millior-dollar development program for Del Mar, a rented property, once certain legal technicalities are straightened out. Be that as it may, Mrs. Morton, a member of the HBPA board of directors, reveals that there is a wide difference of opinion among members of the board, and that a great many HBPA people think that now that substantial gains have been won, the bitterness of. recent months should be forgetten and more friendly relationship with managements instituted. C. Ray Robinson, chairman of the HBPA purse committee, doesnt feel that way about it, however, for after the board meeting, he issued a statement bitterly assailing Santa Anita, a hint that many in the HBPA believe that the originally announced objective, 40 per cent or else, has not been abandoned. However, taking the statements of Mrs. Morton and Robinson at their face values, it is quite clear that there exists a schism in the ranks of the board of directors, and which thinking will prevail can have a lot to do with the immediate future of the sport in California* AAA Santa Anita-did not detail its stakes program, except to say that it would offer purses based on the 4-3-2.7 - formula, and which, based on last winters handle, would approximate" purses of about ,000,000 for the 50 days, or 0,000 per "day. "Of this sum, about one-third, or a million dollars, would be earmarked in stakes, which we understand will be increased in number from the present 29 to 35 or more. This would place both Hollywood Park and Santa Anita not quite on a "stake-a-day program." One major change contemplated in the Anita program would be the delaying of the California Breeders Champion Stakes from its opening day or no later than the second day of the meeting running to later in the season and substituting a seven-furlong tune-up for th home-breds as the inaugural feature. Each of these stakes would have 5,000 in added money, in effect doubling the incentive for the top-ranking group of California two-year-olds. The Champion would, under the new conditions, appeal to the newly turned crop of three. This marks a change of policy in Santa Anita homebred thinking, for the previous idea has been to emphasize open competition and which some still think is the best incentive for improving the homebred. AAA Don Frankel and associates have unveiled a new method of equine therapy in a machine known as the "electro-wrap heat therapy," and after a preliminary trial by five of Californias best-known trainers, the device is Continued on Page Thirty-Nine BETWEEN RACES I By OSCAR OTIS" Continued from Page Forty-Eight now in mass production and is available to all horse people. "The electro-wrap heat treatment is particularly advantageous .where a horses ailment is of such a nature as to require continued treatment without interruption of normal training," explains Frankel. "It is a new way of utilizing sound medical principles without some of the disadvantages encountered with the use of "blisters and firing irons It has cut down considerable on the recovery time of horses who have been fired." AAA Al Rogell, the well-known film director and long-time horse owner, thought up the idea for the application of heat without some of the drawbacks of a blister and the irons when he saw a horse, who had been fired, "cheat the cradle." He turned his ideas over to a scientific group, and the electro-wrap was designed as the answer. Frankel tried it on-some of his own horses, became so enthused he formed a company to develop and distribute it, which is the background of the machine as now used by some leading trainers here. The instrument is a precision one, and finds its use principally in reducing and relieving fillings, enlarged joints, trains, sprains, bruises and congestion. Certain medicants have been approved for use with the wrap. One of its big advantages is that it does no harm to the outer skin, creates no scurf. While coastal in scope at the moment, the company plans on eventual national distribution. Frankel, who dispersed his stock last winter at Pomona, is out of the thoroughbred ownership business at the moment, but he is a regular race patron and has lost none of his love for the sport, and we personally would not be surprised if he were "back" as an-*owner in another year or so.
