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BETWEEN RACES I By OSCAR OTIS Continued from Page Three for that reason provides funds to keep the course open the year round as a training center. We firmly believe that the track will step into metropolitan status, along with the state and Los Angeles County Fair, as soon as the new East Shore freeway is completed and which will bring Plesanton within a few minutes motoring time of downtown Oakland sans any traffic lights or intersections. Centennial Park has made a determined bid for better horses this summer and part of its appeal to mid-western stables is that it provides a fine stopping off place for folks considering racing in Las Vegas in the fall. Marylands Jimmy Ross will serve as the racing secretary. Denver racing is little short of fascinating for the visitor if for no other reason than the item that it is the only major track in America which is a melting pot for an Eastern and Western concept of racing. Denver draws a real cross section of the nation to its stable areas, and outfits from Chicago mingle freely with those from New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and even Kansas. Ross has carded three major stakes on the Centennial schedule, the 0,000 Rocky Mountain Handicap at a mile and a furlong, the ,500 Colorado Mile, and the ,500 Centennial Derby. The Centennial Derby originally was known as the Colorado Derby, but the name was changed in deference to a civic uprising in the little hamlet of Brush, a race course we have styled the "Belmont of the Bushes" and which had a Colorado Derby long before the advent of the Centennial. In any event, the Brush people claimed they had prior rights to a race called the Colorado Derby, so in deference to the wishes of the aroused Brush citizenry, Denver gave in gracefully and renamed its race the Centennial Derby. Centennial has gained some national attention as being the track with 40 directors, and while this situation still prevails, the direction of track affairs has been concentrated into an executive committee, the chairman of which is M. H. "Bud" Rob-ineau. Robineau also serves as general manager. Ivan Thomas, the director of racing, resigned his post as racing secretary at swank Arlington and Washington to accept that position with Centennial, his motivating factor being a desire to live in Denver. Indeed, the man who really put the present Centennial Park together, Marvin Millsap, created the course as a gesture of good will to his adopted state. Nor, in mentioning Denver, can we forget that three years ago, citizen and later President Dwight D. Eisenhower attended the races there will Mrs. Eisenhower, prior to his election to the presidency, spent much of his time in Colorado and we can say that for the person who likes to â– combine scenery, fishing, and national park with racing, Centennial, "where the mountains meet the plains" provides an ideal answer.
