Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-03-27
ATCHISON'S
AN GLE
BY LEWIS :. ATcHIsoN

The gray. damp gloom OF
Bowie was reflected in Don
Lillis' face as some 5000 fans
plodded out of the weather.
harassed track yesterday. It
was not q pleasant day at the
races. win or lose, and nobody
pretended it was.
Have you thought about
1859 dates?" asked :. new ar
rival in the publicity office, in
terrupting Lillis' meditation.
Has he thought about
them?" cracked an. eayesdrop-
per. That's all he's thought
about. Isn't it. Don?"
I've thought about It," the
New York financier admitted,
land we'll take the same dates
in SO that we had this year f"
That didn't jibe with an
earlier rumor that Lillis, oil the
record, had vowed no more
Bowie meetings would start
February 8, as this ore did.
They've got to settle on
some permanent dates" the
gray haired Lillis said. land
stick to them. Take the same
dates year after year and the
law Of averages will take care
of the weather. But when you
start skipping around you get
hurt"
Lillis. as everyone knows, is
involved in what appears to
be a fight to the finish with
Laurel and Pimlico interests,
The owners of those tracks
want to combine. close Pimlico,
and transfer its racing dates
to Laurel. Lillis has opposed
this. rightfully in the eyes of
many people, on Che grounds
that it would reduce Bowie to
a second-class operation in a
few years.
''Pimlico and Laurel have
sabotaged this (Bowie) meet
ing" Lillis declared bitterly.
"They haven't tried to keep
their tracks open for training.
But they're not hurting us as
much as they're hurting the
horsemen. If Maryland is to
have big league racing we've
got to continue the same sched-
ule we had this year. But the
tracks have got to cooperate. "
A listener picked up a copy
Of the daily racing paper, the
Morning Telegraph, and noted
that while the comment under
workouts clicked at Bowie
showed the tracks condition
was good" both Pimlico and
Laurel were closed for training.
At Laurel, officials said horses
began workouts Sunday.
81 **
Lillis thinks the horsemen
are too afraid of the other
tracks to complain to the Mary
land Racing Commission, even
though the lack Of training
facilities hurts them. He is
particularly disdainful of John
A. Manfuso's work as repre-
sentative of the horsemen in
Maryland.
"All Manfuso can think Of"
LilliS declared. ''is getting AZ
per cent of (the tracks z per
cent. I asked him what he'd
done about getting Laurel and
Pimlico open for training and
he said, Nothing We've spent
a lot of money keeping this
track in shape, but all Laurel's
got is a homemade harrow, and
every time it rains l understand
they close the track.
"Manfuso and most of the
other horsemen are afraid if
they say anything they'll get
thrown out of Laurel and Pim-
leo and will have no place to
stable their horses. None of
them wants the merger, but
when it came up at Annapolis
not one of them showed up to
oppose it. Yet If there was a
secret ballot I'll bet 80 per cent
of them would vote against it..
Nothing was done about
getting those tracks open for
training until we complained
to the commission. I told the
commission we'd close Bowie
April l, unless something was
done, and let them GaureD
find a place for the horses.
Laurel opens March 81.
LilliS has a big race coming
I'm SATURDAY. in the aim nm.