The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-05-09
sault; but he, too has known what it

SaulC, put ne, LOO mas knOWn WnaG II it has been to lose horses by fire. in one case amounting to $5O0,0OO.
 The best report of the entire Sit- uation relative to fire traps" con- taining valuable horses, was secured during Derby week at Louisville, by the able Harry Grayson, sports ed- itor of Newspaper Enterprise Asso- ciation, who had the following to say:
 "The Main Chance Farm ca-
 lamity at Arlington Park, prac-
 tically on the eve of the running
 of the Kentucky Derby, asks the
 question more pOintedly than
 ever: ''When are they going to
 take race horses out of the fire
 traps that pass for stables at the
 better tracks?"
 The eventual solution must come from the complete fire-proofing of
 the entire stable area said ex-
 ecutive director Benjamin Lind- heimer of the fashionable Chi- cag0, track after Mrs. Elizabeth N. Graham had lost 23 of the finest young thorOughbreds that money could buy.
 We had planned this most inn pOrtant improvement but because of restrictions and shortages of certain necessary materials, we were unable to make it." That's a typical racing statement. Nobody ever does anything about any, thing. To date, generally speaking, track improvements have con-
 sisted of few daubc of paint on the front of the joint and more
 mutuel windows.
 Never thought of the horses and men on the backstretch. NO- body sees them anyway.
 Tex Johnson gave you a good pie ture of stable conditions everywhere when, speaking for the grooms in the Jamaica strike, he said: They want us to look like gentlemen and live like hogs"
 They put millions of dollars in tracks and back them up with two- bit stables built of kindling wood There is not single American track with a stable area that would pass a proper fire inspection. How they have gotten by with it for all these years, I don't know. Some of the barns at Churchill Downs, for ex- ample, look like they have been there since Aristides won the first Derby in 1875. The same goes for Pimlico, which was built along about the same time.
 At Churchill Downs the fire de- partment still has to be called from the outside, and there were disas- trous conflagrations there the past two springs. Ramshackle barns at many tracks are dry as finder, loose ly wired with no piping. They are rat infested, and rodent gnawing on a loose wire has been known to create a short circuit. There would be less danger if only the tack rooms, where the men sleep were fire proof. SwipeS drink and smoke. Night men fall asleep, and hay, straw and feed are highly inflam- mable.
 It is in potential bonfire like this that owners on the order of Mrs. Graham are forced to quarter horses like Lord Boswell, Knock down, Perfect Bahram and the $5O0,000 worth the cosmetic queen had snuffed out the other night. There is no place else to put them If they are to race. It's a disgrace.
 There have been six terrible stable fires in the past two years, with total of 1O7 horses lost two at Churchill Downs, one each at Detroit. Belmont Park, Bowie and Arlington Park.
 When executive director Lind heimer speaks of restrictions and shortages of materials, however. it must be remembered that Ar lingtOn Park was built years be- fore Lucky Baldwin bred horses to spread the face of his Southern California rancho.
 Four that come to mind off, hand occurred at Auroa, Ill.,, years back; at Harve De Grace along about 1884; nine horses were burned to death at PimlicO in 19S7, and seven lost the night be- fore the Bowie opening in 1888.
 At Harve De Grace the other day, chairman George MahOney of the Maryland Commission tried out fireproOf paint by burn Ag a regulation barn. It was dem- Onstrated tslat with 1t . fire wouldn't spread, but that isn't ne answer. There must De no way