Los Angeles herald., 1907-04-25
TURF WAR MAY
Be IN ORDER
LIVELY TIMES ANTICIPATED BY
N0RTHERNERS
George Rose Believed to Be Following
Along Lines Which He Outlined
to the Public Several
Months Ago

ern California racing circles is we'll
Monday and It is believed that several
important phases relative to next
seasons sport were discussed with
northern turfmen.
In an interview with The Herald
last winter Rose stated that track
would be built at Watts in all proba-
bility. Mr.. Rose at the same time
was noncommittal regarding the Ar
cadia question.
In the north it is taken for granted
that turf war will be in order should
Lucky Baldwin attempt to carry out
the plans which have been formulated
for great racing plant on his subur-
ban domain. The following article
from a San Francisco paper indicates
how the southern racing situation is
regarded above the Tehachapi
Many conservative persons will Won
der however, whether as old a man
as Lucky" Baldwin would start war;
ring. 1t was ever thus with Lucky"
however, and he may have a fight left.
Predict Turf War
From Los Angeles comes word of an
impending turf war, the generals COM
manding being E. j. Baldwin and
Bookmaker George Rose. It appears
that Notwithstanding Mr.. Baldwin is
going right ahead with the building
of his Arcadia track, which is to be
a thing of great beauty if not joy
forever, the Ascot folks, dominated by
the tall bookmaker of Brooklyn, will
lease or buy a tract of land at Watts,
six miles from Los Angeles, and there
take a stand now that local laws have
put Ascot park out of commission.
1t will then be "up to- Thomas H.
Williams to say which he will favor
with a license from the Pacific Jockey
club, the Arcadia people or a coterie
of men headed by bookmaker, who
is in "the game for revenue only"
and who may be scrupulously honest
now, but was credited with being a
"real devil" not so many years ago,
but a financially successful one, and
that might cause the past to be for
gotten.
The Baldwin side is presumed to have
back of it some of the best men in
the state-men like Rudolph Spreckels
and ]. ]. Moore-besides several very
wealthy and honorable gentlemen from
the southern part of California.
E. ]. Baldwin's reputation as a rae
ing man is above reproach, and he has
done as much as anyone to bring Cali
fornia into the limelight as land
where great race horses are bred and |
raced.
He is building track in the paradise
of America-the far-famed San Gabriel
valley-among the orange groves and
tropical trees of the southland.
1t will be a credit to the country
and the pride of the master of Santa
Anita in his declining years. Lucky"
Baldwin has never done things by
halves and is not likely to begin now. |
Furthermore. he is entitled to more
consideration as a breeder and great |
racing man than the other SIDE which, |
as remarked before, is in the game |
simply for the mazuma it yields.
Baldwin Producer
Lucky Baldwin is a producer and |
builder-up of racing structures. The |
history of the country is that with |
bookmakers at the managerial helm |
the racing ship has been condemned |
and pronounced unsafe and unsea-
worthy.
Take the Mafiaic-Hebrai combina-
tion of bookmakers and bucketshop |
men from st. Louis and observe what |
they have done for racing in the mid
die west and south.
Not satisfied with the five or six |
millions of dollars they had made in |
and around the Mound city they tried |
to throttle all competition in Missouri
and the result is racing in the "show
me" state is as defunct as little dog |
Rover, and will remain so as long as
Governor Folk can keep it cold. so
bitter is he against the coarse money
grabbers of Missouri's chief city.
They somehow got their tentacles in
at Memphis and their system of con-
Quoting race meetings must have Of
Tended the nostrils of the Tennessee |
ans. for they have suppressed betting
on races in the state, and that means
death to racing in a commonwealth
that has loved "the sport of kings"
and had many great patrons in the
past hundred years
Belle Meade has been the home of
famous thoroughbreds for more than
a hundred years, The combination
owned the tracks at Little Rock and
Hot Springs, and a law was recently
passed much like the Tennessee meas
ure.
Southern Situation Shaky
In Kentucky they bought the old
Douglas park track at Louisville and
would probably have raced there at
least eight months of the year had the
state not passed a law providing for
racing commission.
This commission, composed OF men
having the best interests of racing at
heart limited the racing and set the
dates for the various Kentucky tracks.
This the st. Louis destroyers fought
and carried the matter to the high
courts. the racing commission being
upheld. Now New Orleans is their
chief stamping ground and a telegram
has 1t that they will have their Off
cials in at both the Fair grounds and
City park next season.
If so "the game" at the Crescent city
will soon be infected with the sort of
galloping bookmakers' tuberculosis
that has carried racing to an early