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HITCH IN KENTUCKY TRACK MERGER Charles F. Grainger Says Churchill Downs Is Not for Sale Under Any Circumstances., LOUISVILLE. Ky., January 4. It looks tonight as if the deal for the Kentucky race tracks merger is. at least, temporarily blocked. Senator Combs came, to Louisville from Lexington at the request of P.. J. Ilanlon. who is said to have a small interest in Chuivhill Downs. This was sufficient to start a rumor that the close of negotiations was near at hand. It now develops, however, that Hanlon had been called into the case to help put the plan through because of his experience in merging large properties and that his conference with Combs was merely along this line. In a statement issued today Senator Johnson Camden announced that the whole matter was now up to Charles F. Grainger, president of the New Louisville Jockey Club, and that Combs would deal with him. Later Mr. Grainger said that as far as Churchill Downs was concerned it. was not for sale under any circumstances, and that he did not expect to see either Senator Combs or Camden, or discuss the matter with anyone. He also added that tho Downs would continue in the future as it has in the past, which was equivalent to saying that it would not take over Douglas Park, which was what the syndicate desired. , In speaking over the telephone from Cincinnati, manager John Hachmeisfer of Latonia and Douglas Park said that lie had had no further conversation with any representatives of the syndicate, reports to the contrary notwithstanding, and had no . idea of what it proposed doing in regard to the tracks under his direction. If the deal does not assume some definite form within the next two weeks he will leave for his home in Florida to spend the remainder of the winter.
