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Detroit Play Up a Trifle Ancl Attendance Down Interpretation Hard to Figure In View of Current Conditions DETROIT RACE COURSE, Livonia, Mich., June 6. — Fourteen days of racing have been completed at this Michigan mile track, and the handle is up slightly and the attendance down slightly, comparing them to 1954 figures. Per capita wagering has nudged upward by a couple of dollars per person. Because of the threat of a massive automobile strike that has hovered over the Motor City for weeks, no one knows quite what interpretation to put on any local economic statistics. Many laborers have been working longer weeks — six and seven days — than at any time since World War n. This gives them more money in their pockets, but less time to spend it on afternoon recreation. They have been urged by the unions to keep something in the bank for possible strike days. Todays strike settlement and likply return to the normal work week theoretically could result in a spurt that would send the Detroit Race Course well above its 1954 figures during the next 42 racing days. Other statistics have a normal look. Jockeys Lois C. Cook and Robert L. Baird are one-two in the riding standings, as they were at the finish in both 1953 and 1954. Trainer Vester "Tennessee" Wright leads in his division, as he did a year ago. Marion H. VanBerg, Wrights usual rival for saddling most winners, is back in fifth place at the moment, but only four winners behind the leader after a slow start, in which he entered relatively few horses, compared to his normal tempo.
