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Canadian Topics TopicsBy By FRANK ARMSTRONG Ontarios Long Season Under Way Orpen Sanguine on Years Outlook Quality of Racing Better Than Ever EverTORONTO TORONTO Ont May 1 Fred Orpen generalissimo of a thriving turf empire better known as the Orpen race tracks was sanqume on tne pros ¬ pects of a successful 1954 season in Ontario but refrained from an out and out prediction Orpen opened the local turf at Dufferin Park today the earliest opening in the history of racing hereabouts The curtain raiser marked the most ex ¬ tended schedule 165 days through Novem ¬ ber 9 without letup He considered it rather pointless for a race track operator to sug ¬ gest that this or any other racing season would be the greatest ever with respect to financial return Said he The vagaries of weather conditions are to be corlsidered And at the moment there is an unemploy ¬ ment situation in our sector which might possibly reduce mutuel handles and with only these two points an opinionated fore ¬ cast seems useless Orpen however did not hesitate with an opinion that the qual ¬ ity of racing on the Ontario circuit would be better than ever everThe The new scale of graduated purses said Orpen is designed to attract a better grade of horses and I believe it will serve its purpose toward the im ¬ provement of competition At this early date there are many newcomers in quar ¬ ters at our tracks most stables with horses to fit every condition in the book Our claiming races ranging from 1500 to 6000 may possibly provide the best racing ever for an earlyseason meeting at Dufferin And the allowance races and handicaps should be well supported supportedThere There are two 5000 handicaps sched ¬ uled for the 18day meeting at the half miler and Orpen didnt forget to remark You might term it an innovation for Dufferin Park to offer races of this value at an early spring meet We must agree that the outlook is bright for the best racing in years at the bandbox park which has been described as the track that makes money faster than the Canadian mint There has been some pressure on Orpen to schedule races of five furlongs but he will not subscribe to the idea even though inclement weather and rough racing strips have in some measure retarded training Orpen explained Experience has taught us through mutuel handles that our pa ¬ trons do not favor the fivefurlong dashes and furthermore they are more hazardous for riders and horses Well stay with seven furlongs furlongsOntario Ontario government reduced the tax on betting by one per cent for the cur ¬ rent season The reduction accrues to patrons of the iron men while the racing associations retain 9 per cent as in the past The overall tax of 16 per cent is excessive in our opinion With in ¬ creased purses and myriad expenditures of track operation race tracks are en ¬ titled to the allotted share of the take but it occurs to us that the partner with no financial risk or responsibility exacts a high fee Race track operators hereabouts welcomed the slight reduc ¬ tion for no other reason than the thought that it was a break for the wagering talent talentFred Fred Orpen hesitated to offer an opinion on what effect the reduction might have on total handles but he opined that there would be a reflection in the best interest of patrons on show prices and that ad ¬ herents to show betting might reap a greater reward Of course everyone knows that payoff from straight to show decline sharply because of taxation Orpen says the relief will be evident in the show pools moreso than in straight and place placeRacing Racing secretary Anthony Simms is in accord with the Orpen theory that com ¬ petition on Ontario tracks will be ap ¬ pealing to the customers this year Any racing secretary observing stall applica ¬ tions and registrations in the confines of his innersanctum has an appreciation of the presence of newcomers and their horses from various race tracks Writing race conditions is no sinecure regardless of the potential draw but the situation is eased to an extent when a colony is augmented by new names of a variety which might be eligible for any race in the book Currenty the thoroughbred census on Toronto tracks numbers ap ¬ proximately 1000 and thus there should be no shortage of entries regardless of the type of race raceIf If we may hazard a guess between lines of conversation with Simms he is not par t i Continued en Page FortyFive Canadian TopicsBy Topics By FRANK ARMSTRONG Continued from Page Four Fourticularly ticularly favorable to the restricted con ¬ ditions as applied to the property of a Canadian owner or to the more restricted conditions of owned by Ontario residents However these conditions have been writ ¬ ten for races since track operators ap ¬ proved the proposal of the HBPA in this sector Simms approves the graduated purse scale also proposed by the HBPA It provides an opportunity to write a higher book and theres nothing a racing secretary prefers more unless its a triple deadheat in a handicap Seems that Simms with his preliminaries completed is viewing the season through rosetinted glasses at least with relation to the com ¬ petitive stage We can only hope that his hopes will be realized
