view raw text
Horsemens Strike Shuts Down Yonkers Raceway RacewayProgram Program Canceled When Tracks Final Purse Offer Is Refused RefusedYONKERS YONKERS N Y May 6 Yonkers Raceway was shut down tonight by a strike of horsemen who refused to accept the tracks final offer this morning in a long and bitter wrangle over a purse schedule for the 1954 season As of late this after ¬ noon it appeared doubtful that racing would be resumed Friday night since the track management said it needed time to formulate new proposals the ones already spurned by the horse owners having been tendered on the condition that there be no interruption of racing racingHowever However the racing secretarys office here was geared to arrange a racing pro ¬ gram for Friday night on just a few hours notice provided entries are filed by about noon tomorrow It was indicated that un ¬ less the Yonkers Trotting Association and the Standardbred Owners Association agree to new meetings and reconcile their differ ¬ ences by late Thursday the horsemen would have to go back to the existing purse schedule in order to race raceThe The hassle between the owners and Yonkers centers around the horsemens de ¬ mand for purses equal to 40 per cent of the tracks share of the mutuel handle The association has refused to go along with a percentage formula but instead has offered the SOA 2009000 for the entire 1954 sea ¬ son actually about 33 per cent of its share of the mutuel take The current purse schedule put into effect last Monday is at 30 per cent a 5 per cent increase over the program originally agreed upon and for which the horsemen raced up to last week weekIn In a mimeographed statement distributed to horsemen at the track this morning William H Cane president and general manager of Yonkers said that under its final offer an average of 23668 will be distributed for the remaining 70 nights of racing bringing the total purse schedule to about 500000 more than the original slate for this year He added There can be no better offer and will not be beCane Cane also said that 352750 already has been distributed in the 19 nights of racing conducted thus far this year with 1656 750 remaining for the balance of the sea ¬ son provided there is no interruption of racing racingYonkers Yonkers spokesmen would not say today whether this offer has now been withdrawn in view of the fact that the cancellation of Thursdays racing violates the no inter ruption clause It could not be determined what situation would develop if the SOA suddenly decides to accept the offer Yonk ¬ ers officials were noncommittal on that point today but it was generally believed the policy would be first to get the entries in the box and expedite the resumption of racing before working out the other details detailsEdward Edward P Dougherty head of the SOA was at the track this morning but did not confer with representatives of management Don Millar executive vicepresident of the United States Trotting Association is on the scene and is acting as intermediary be ¬ tween the SOA and Yonkers YonkersEarlier Earlier Cane declared in reply to the SOAs demand forthe 40per cent program that this is no time to fool around with trick formulas We are dealing with dollars and cents
