New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-07-27
NOVELTIES PLANNED
FOR GRAND CIRCUIT
Programme at Empire City,
Track Will Be Augmented by
Saddle and Team Races.
PARADES TO BE FEATURE
Horses Will Pass Before Stand
Prior to Each Race, as
Is Customary at All
Running Contests.

Enough already appears upon the sur
face TO warrant the prediction that the
Grand Circuit meeting, TO be held at the
Empire City track in August will be one
Of the most successful ever held IN this
country.
This result is foreshadowed from the
entries made in the various events. The
novelties and improvements scheduled are
so numerous as TO transform this meet
ing from an ordinary American trOtting
affair into something Ike the perfectly
appointed meeting place of refined sports
men about which every horseman has
dreamed but never expected to see re-
allied
A few of the innovations are; No driver
will be allowed TO appear on the track IN
his shirt sleeves or clad in garments Mt
only for the stable. as has too often been
the case at trotting meetings in years
gone by. The association will furnish at
tractive silk colors 10 all drivers who are
not provided with them, and such colors
must be worn.
The horses starting will be paraded be-
fore the grandstand prior to each race. so
as TO give the spectators an opportunity
10 see the horses.
At every race meeting in the country.
before as well as after the advent OF the
rnegaphone. a large percentage of the
PEOPLE in the grandstand and at different
places around the track have been I'M
able to hear and understand the an
nouncement Of the time Of the heats or
the placing Of the horses by the Judges.
This Objectionable feature is 10 be RENE
died by electric megaphone announce
nents
When harness racing was at the flood
tide of it's popularity on Long Island
some fifty years ago, the events that
brought the greatest crowds 10 the tracks
we're those for team racing and racing
under saddle
IT is a coincidence worthy OF considera-
tion that as soon as these popular meth
DDS of racing were dropped from the
programmes interest in harness racing
n began 10 wane. and the decadence con-
D unued until light harness racing became
y practically only a memory in the vicinity
Of New York
Now that the sport is about 10 De re-
vived through the fundamentally Of the
Empire City meeting, the management
IS determined 10 foster and preserve II
by giving the followers Of the sport what
they want. viz: Racing by teams and
under saddle. as well as in harness.
As interesting and attractive as these
novelties doubtless will prove 10 be. the
scheme Of having the same horses in the
same race perform upon mile track and
half-mile track far surpasses any nov
city that has ever been attempted in the
country since harness racing was estab-
lished This instructive departure from
the ordinary methods of conducting races
has been made possible by the fact that
the half-mile track is constructed on the
inside Of the mile course The home
stretch OF the half-mile track joins the
homestretch Of the mile track at or near
the last quarter pole. so that the finish
on each track is directly in front Of the
grandstand.
BY reason Of the two tracks Joining the
quarter stretch is made 100 feet in width.
thus affording ample room for the horses
on both tracks 20 finish together. Say.
for example. there are ten horses start
ing in race; five will be assigned TO each
Of the tracks and alternate by heats.