The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-09-06

Agu Caliente, which was Tijuana putting on the dog, has folded.
 No winter meeting for the first time in IA years.
 Agua Caliente held up surpris- ingly we'll after the crash. But re- peal did 1t no good, and with pari- mutuel betting legal in California, open gambling Is the only thing the $2,000,000 plant below the border has to offer the good people of the sunkist slope that they cannot get at home. And the chances are they don't have to look very long if they care to f1irt with games of chance and spinning wheels.
 The new Los Angeles Turf clubs course on the estate of the late Lucky Baldwin, at Arcadia, honce- forth will be the headquarters of the motion picture colony's race goers.
 < The Santa Anita Handicap there on February 23 takes the place of the old Agua Caliente, formerly the Coffroth, as the worlds richest stake.
 And with 155 racing days in Cal ifornia. Tijuana can go back to sleep. The little ramshackle vil- lage down there at the end of the trial can rest just as peacefully as it did until James Wood Coffruth put 1t on the map in 1915.
 The palatial track, clubhouse, ca- casino and hotel at Agua Caliente stand as monuments to prohibi- tion, anti-racing legislation and the golden and giddy days.
 It Was COffrOth's Idea
 Tijuana's passing is just as well, but there's many an interesting story in connection with its 1S- year run.
 The border is closed to racing, but its romance rides on.
 There's the tale of Coffroth, perhaps the smartest sports pro- moter of his time, looking for something to turn to when box ing was booted out of his native state, and arriving in Tijuana with an idea and a shoestring. And prlaying that into a million or more.
 Coffroth, lways a man of ci- sion, was against the expansion at Agua Caliente in 1929. He wasn't keen to invest important money where the Mexican government raised the taxes with each big turnout, and realized what repeal and favorable racing legislation in the north would do to his ven- ture.
 So. while Coffroth retained some interest at Agua Caliente, he and | two or three others who started dith him got out in time-Sun- shine Jim, for one, with eonough | to retire.
 But undoubtedly the most color full figure connected with the high | rolling activities on the two banks | of the dry river bed that is the Tijuana was James Nugent Crof. i ton. one of the principal owners CTS and general manager of the Agua Caliente layout. Crofton was a poor farm boy at Hood River Ore, and the only horses he saw before ] itting the border were at. tached to ploughs.
 He wound up with more than { million, major interest in thu A u a Caliente establishment gambling concessions, a n d : string of thoroughbreds. It wa Crofton who interested J Schneck and other picture peopl
 when it was decided that Agu
 Caiiente was to be America
 "DeauvilIe.."
 The Mn on the Horse sat in a New York hotel room
 with group of racing men il the summer of 1929. General Abe lardo Rodriguez, then governor q Baja California. was there incog nito. He had come east with Crof ton. who was canvassing owners with a view to having them shiI | to Agua Caliente for the $11,00( handicap the following March. ant other fixtures.
 | Victorian collected $10S,,3 300 1T winning the Agua Caliente 1T 1880. by the way. The purse was as large when Golden Prince