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Belmont Park on Eve of New Era Golden Anniversary a Point In Time and of No Return Plans for Worlds Greatest 4 Track on Present Site Met By Skeptics Moyed by Fear By BOB HORWOOD BELMONT PARK, Elmont, L. I., N. Y., June 10. — Anniversaries are traditionally a time for celebration and this 50th anniversary meeting at Belmont Park, which opened its wrought-iron gates for the first time on May 4, 1905, is no exception. Anniversaries, however, are also a point in time, not to be confused with the "point of no return," at which one looks back to the beginning and surveys such progress as may have been made and also looks ahead in an effort to divine the "shape of things to come." This is more than ordinarily true of Belmont Park at this moment in its history. It would be foolish to ignore the widespread tone of skepticism, even in some quarters that should be considered well-informed, when the subject of a new Belmont Park is mentioned, a skepticism inherent in the rather unfortunate tag "dream track," that has been attached to The Jockey Club Plan. It would be equally foolish not to recognize that we have, indeed, almost reached the end of an era in New York racing, and are close to the eve of a new era in which Belmont Park will« BELMONT PARK scene showing statue of Man o War, winner of the 1920 Belmont Stakes. be converted into what will unquestionably be the greatest, not merely the largest racetrack the world has ever known. The skeptics for the most part seem to be motivated by fear, a fear that if they take The Jockey Club Plan on faith they will be building false hopes that will ultimately be dashed. This attitude, of course, has been nourished by a succession of evanescent projects, "blue print downs," such as the plans for a new Empire City as East-chester, a new Aqueduct and a new Jamaica, which have come forward in the past 10 years, then faded in the face of New Yorks meager 4 per cent allotment to the racing associations as their share of the pari-mutuel revenue. A glance backward in time to the years immediately fol- lowing the War Between the States, should reveal to anyone a continuity of purpose on the part of a group of devoted sportsmen that has been maintained to this day. The original Belmonts, Whitneys, Morrises, Keenes, Lorillards and others who organized the American Jockey Club and opened Jerome Park in 1867 have long •passed from the scene. Many were still active, guiding spirits when The Jockey Club was formed in 1894 and were the prime movers in the building of Morris Park the following year. When Belmont Park was opened 10 years later, many of the original nucleus of men who were de-Continued en Page Fifty -Seven Belmont Birthday Time of Reflection Plans for Worlds Greatest Track on Eve of New Era Motivates Fearsome Skeptics Continued irom Page Six termined to give New York the finest possible racing in what was then deemed the finest possible setting had been succeeded by their sons, or by other men, who were their descendants in spirit, if not in blood. The men forming th£ original committee sponsoring The Jockey Club Plan, chairman John W. Hanes, Harry P. Guggenheim and Christopher T. Chenery, with George D. Widener, chairman of The Jockey Club and president of the Westchester Racing Association Belmont Park, who serves as ex-officio are certainly descendants in spirit and animated by the same vital traditions as those sportsmen who first banded together almost 90 years ago. John Hay Whitney and James Cox Brady, who joined the original sponsors of The Jockey Club Plan are both* literally and figuratively heirs of the great tradition. It might be well to remember that Jerome Park, Morris Park and the present Belmont Park were all "dream tracks" when first proposed. They became realities, in the* face of obstacles that loomed quite as large in their day as those which confronted The Jockey Clubs special committee, only because a group of the most powerful industrialists and financiers in the United States also happened to be devoted to thoroughbred racing and breeding and determined that their home state of New York should be the leader in all phases of the great sport. This determine ation has never slackened, though for a long time it faced an apparently insuperable obstacle in the grossly inadequate share of the pari-mutuel revenue given the New York associations. Popular With Racing Public For the benefit of those who came in late. The Jockey Club plan, which it is believed will result in a new track by the fall of 1957 or spring of 1958, and may mean that this will be the last year of racing on the present track and before the present stands, has brought about the formation of the Greater New York Association, which plans to absorb the properties of Belmont Park, Jamaica, Aqueduct and Saratoga, construct a new super track at Belmont or Aqueduct and rebuild the stands at Saratoga. The Greater New York Association is a non-profit track financed by loans from various banks. While it is under the trusteeship of The Jockey Club, the new association is actually under the control of the State Racing Commission, it was abrogating the rights of free enterprise to a degree that is un-American. These gentlemen and these who think along the same lines, overlook the fact that the State, since the legislation of racing has, through the licensing power of the racing commission always been the supreme power in New York racing. This became evident enough when Empire City, which had been operating profitably without a racetrack for 12 years, was denied a license last year. Actually, the racing commission can "for cause," deny a license to any existing racing association, and that cause can be a decision that the existing plant is. inadequate. It remained for such leaders of free enterprise as the Messrs. Hanes,, Guggenheim and Chenery to come up with the plan, which Mr. Widener declared offered the only hope for a much-needed future. While the proposed new Belmont Park is in many ways a logical successor to Jerome Park, Morris Park and the-present "Beautiful Belmont," there is one aspect of the project that indicates a significant change in viewpoint. So far as can be learned from contemporary accounts, Jerome Park and Morris Park, which did not go in for sheer bigness, were popular with the racing public of their day. That, however, was incidental, almost accidental. Belmont Park, on the other hand, has never been popular with the rank and file. In .the years before the establishment of the pari-mutuel and before the present tax structure added the "monied poor" to the "land poor," this was not too important. The truth is that Belmont Park was built to accommodate huge throngs, but no real consideration was given to making the races clearly visible to the anticipated throngs. The result was that the crowds of 80,000 anticipated by reporters on opening day in 1905 never materialized and Belmont Parks attendance has annually been below that at Jamaica, which has been under fire as being inadequate for many years. The public was welcomed to attend Belmont Park from its beginning, but the sportsmen who conceived the present track, and, it must be said, many of those who have maintained it in the past half century, had no conception of what the public asked of a racetrack. Accustomed to going to .the races in their chauf f eurdriven cars, If t 1 . ; «£|M HIS, ; J which let them out at the clubhouse gate, a few steps from their ideally situated boxes, from which they viewed the races through powerful binoculars, they did not, could not, know what the average racegoer went through during ah afternoon at Belmont Park. Some defenders of the huge mile and one-half oval and the Widener straightaway dismissed the complaints of the public with the remark that "anyone who can bet on the races can afford good binoculars." They forgot or did not consider, that the glass which will allow one to see through the back of another racegoer has not yet been invented. The firsf indication that the new Belmont will be a "peoples track" came with the announcement on October 9 last year that a new committee headed by Alfred G. Vanderbilt and including John C. Clark, Marshall -Cassidy and Harry F. Guggenheim, ex-officio, had been appointed to plan the physical structure of the track. That afternoon, Mr. Vanderbilt declared: "I feel that first we must contact all interested parties-and find out what kind of track they want. I would like to have a public opinion poll. I think we should talk to the jockeys, owners, trainers and the press. We sjiould get all ideas, sift them and then come up with a plan which incorporates the best. If we are going to build a new track, we should make it the best." None of these step have yet been taken. The fact is that many other moves had to be made, some of which have still not been completed, before the time is propitious for such a fact-finding program. The approval of the legislature had to be obtained, which it was only a month ago. The bills had to be signed by the Governor, which they were on May 2. The official approval of the state racing commission has to be obtained and cannot until the myriad details of finanping, including a price for the controlling stock in the local tracks. The new Belmont Park will be a nonprofit track so far as the operating association and its stockholders are concerned, jit has been objected that it will be a I profit-making organization for the banks which advance the money. But it will also provide profits in the form of vastly increased enjoyment for the vast anonymous throng of lovers of the thoroughbred sport, too many of whom have stayed away from the races they most wanted to see rather than subject themselves to the exhausting inconveniences and discomforts of a Belmont Day or a Futurity Day. And to the impatient it might be said that 1957 will be here much too soon for everyone on the shady side of 50, which means the majority of clubhouse patrons.
