Milford chronicle., 1953-07-10
Taxes From Race
Meeting Haze Set
An Time High
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nue. from pari-mutual betting,
j license fees and admission taxes.
Total wagering for the 1853 meet
( ing was $50 ,977 ,54S, a daily average
of $l,186,798. Total attendance hit
4S0,553, a mean Of 1907.
I In DelaWare's previous peak sea-
son, 1916, the meeting was Of 80 days
duration. The handle that year was
! S33933, 500, averaging $1,131 ,121 per
day. Attendance tOtalled 448,692, or
1886 daily average. Last year, the
33-day meeting showed total wager
ing of $32,114,521, a per diem Of
S973,167; while the attendance total
was 448,351, an average Of 1856.
Because Of the different number
of days in the 1916 and 1852 meet
ings as compared to 1858, the daily
averages are used for comparison.
The betting increase this year over
1916 was 4S per cent, and in atten-
dance, a fraction Of one per cent.
The. increases over last years aver
ages were 21.9 in wagering and 1915
/ in attendance.
1910 on July 4
The independence Day crowd Of
30,77O was the largest Of the meet
ing and the second biggest in the
tracks history. The record is 34,011,
on Memorial Day of 1916. The one
race handle on the rich New Castle
Handicap set a newemark of $3O3,149
and the daily double pool of $179. .642
established another all-time high
The days handle Of S2,008,364 was
Delaware's second two-million-dol-
lar day in history. The first came
on June 6 of the meeting just con-
cluded, when a record S2,016,927 was
wagered. Significantly, that Satur-
day was the only weekend of the
Delaware Park meeting which had
no opposition from New Jersey and
Maryland racing. But the July 4
program topped June 6 in estab-
fishing the records for a One-race
handle and daily double pool.
The lone record Of 1916 still sur
viving is the one-day attendance
figure of 34,011 set Memorial Day
of that year, when there was no
conflict in racing dates.
This season, there was conflict in
dates both to the north and the
south. Delaware Parks 1858 ses-
sion opened on Friday, May 20.
On both that day and the Memorial
Day Saturday which followed, Gar
den State Park and PimlicO were
running against the Stanton oval.
On Saturday, June 13, Monmouth
Park launched the meeting still in
progress. Then there was the
Charlestown, West Virginia track,
which has been operating since June
26, as we'll as two Maryland trotting
tracks operating throughout the
Delaware meeting.
In the light of Delaware Parks |
newest success, President Donald p |
Ross said: "We are grateful for
the support accorded Delaware Park |
racing by out-of-state visitors as
well as native Delawareans. We are
planning even more facilities for
the future, and an expansion for
the comfort of our patrons, which
we hope will continue to merit their
Reasons Are Varied
The reasons for Delaware Parks
success this season
are various, but the answer given
by Bryan Field, vice president and
general manager of the 62O-acre
plant sums it up briefly: "The only
way to meet competition is with a
superior product presented through
first class facilities"
AS one veteran sports editor in a
nearby major city wrote: This re-
markable showing in the face of
losing one of the two
major holidays and finding the
other on Saturday, always a good
racing day, can be attributed to
two things One is the increased in
terest of New Jerseys metropolitan
areas in horse racing the other
is the aggressive, intelligent way
Delaware's officials have approached
their meetings. Delaware's physical
and the quality of it's rae
ing has been constantly improved
until it compares favorably with
the best in the country, exceeds
most in the East, Thus when they
went out to WOO the public, they 4
had something to sell. This, and the
New Jersey Turnpike, brought re-
suits this year"
T. nj = ! ferT9r
Turnpike and Delaware Memorial
Bridge brought many new racing
to Delaware Park, to be
sure. But the Stanton track had an
other problem that of congestion
and delays in traffic to and from the
plant in the face of construction
and dug-up roads on certain feeder
or access arteries in the Whining
ton area. Delaware Park coOperated
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