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friend friend and and nationall nationally | , y, / %j that that year. year. Later, Later, on on California By Oscar Otis This Is the Life, Says Paul Lycan Refreshing Official Racing Approach Pleasanton Strip Way Ahead of Times PLEASANTON, Calif., June 26. — This corner was more than somewhat surprised to run into our old friend friend and and nationall nationally y known known trainer, trainer, Paul Paul Lycan, Lycan, rac- y known known trainer, trainer, Paul Paul Lycan, Lycan, rac- racing a 10-horse public stable here at the Alameda County air. "It beats battling Belmont? mused Lycan as he explained his set-up. "Just 31 years ago I was training in the East and breaking horses, and when I say 31 years, I refer to the crop I had at Binghampton for Willis Sharpe Kilmer, # group which included Reigh Count, Sun Beau, Sun Edwin and Sun Friar. Looking back, it was a pretty fair bunch of horses that came along coming coming to to California. California, I I had had some some that that year. year. Later, Later, on on coming coming to to California. California, I I had had some some of the top jobs, and I suppose the last good horse I I trained down at Hollywood and Santa Anita was Yankee Valor, although Call Bell was cut out to be a top horse, a real top horse. But of late years, Ive made Pleasanton my home, have a nice place near the track, and operate year round from the track. I break a large number of yearlings each year, and race some stock, but always on the fair circuit, with an occasional run over to the big wheel in San Francisco. But even if I train at Bay Meadows, Tanforan or Golden Gate, Im never far from home and can really lead a normal life, something that few big trainers in the country can do. For your top trainer is always just leaving for some place else, or just returning. I had my share of it and all it led to was a heart attack. No, youll never get into the big income tax brackets this way, but you can eat well, live well, and best of all, get a good sleep every night. You have all the pleasures of racing and its way of life minus almost all of the detriments such as constant travel and similar annoyances." Sport Flourishes in Alameda County The County of Alameda is one of the most remarkable in the nation in its common sense approach to horse racing, for instead of grabbing every last nickel that it can out of the Pleasanton track, it permits, and even encourages the management to pour back some -monies earned not only in capital improvements, of which some are consummated each year, but also in providing money to keep the track open on a year round basis. The county officials take the refreshingly honest attitude that by creating a year round center in the southern part of the county, well removed from the vast industrial areas near San Fran-cicso Bay, it is providing the Pleasanton area with a solid, year round income wfiich could be classed as an industry insofar as money put in circulation is concerned. Most of the horse folk who headquarter here, and there are a good many, are home owners and good " citizens in every respect. For those who dont own * property there are rentals available at reasonable prices, and it all adds up to the fact that Pleasanton is proud to know and be friends with- the horsemen among the citizenry. Pleasanton long ago had the answer to a track that is at once fast and safe. It was as much as 20 years ahead of the times in track surface theory, although the Pleasanton pioneers took no credit for any advancement in race track structure, composition, and maintenance. They just were fortunate* enough to have a wonderful natural setting to begin with, then refused to plow it up or cut it up because some people, who didnt, know any better or who hadnt been around, thought that a fast track was synonymous with an unsafe one. Pleasanton is a full mile course, drains rapidly, and hence is ideal in that it is not only glib but also weatherproof. Such is hot the case with all pasteboards some of which can get rugged if inclement weather appears. That the problem is not acute out this way lies in the fact that it almost never rains for eight to nine months of the year, so tracks like Hollywood and Del Mar can be idealized without having to worry about he mud factor. New Freeways Help Coast Tracks When Hollywood Park opened, we commented that we felt it would show a substantial increase in both attendance and play- with our opinion being predicated largely upon- one factor, easier accessibility by motor because of the extension of the harbor freeway to 92nd street, which put the track an easy 22 to 25 minutes from downtown Los Angeles, only 35 minutes" from Hollyw6od.v At the-risk of being pontificial, we stated that to a large degree, the future growth of racing would be tied-in with faster motor transportation. As it turned out, Hollywood is substantially up, and Bob Weurth, who directs public relations at this track, Vallejo, Santa Rosa, Tanforan and Golden Gate Fields, tells us that much the same is true here in the north. "By next summer, the freeway will be finished from Pleasanton to the San Francisco Bay bridge, and a motorist from the city can get here in just over a half hour, with only one red light, that to stop and pay toll on the bridge. New freeway construction is extending toward Vallejo and to Santa Rosa and, of course, the Bayshore freeway leading from San Francisco to Tanforan and Bay Meadows will have its final over-water link completed by July 11, an item which will eliminate the last traffic bottleneck to both tracks. For traffic not only has been, but will continue even more so in the future, to be closely associated with a race track being just successful or eminently so.?*
