Agua Caliente

Turf enthusiasts heard sad news last week. On top of the bickering between Miami's two tracks (TIME, Dec. 21) and the announcement last week that Maryland bettors had wagered only $46.618,249 in 1931 ($1,218.427 less than the year before), came word that the Agua Caliente Jockey Club had suspended its meeting till Jan. 1, saw little chance of continuing thereafter.

Four hours by car, an hour and a half by plane from Hollywood, Agua Caliente is the most elaborate pleasure resort in North America. It was organized three years ago, largely by 34-year-old James Crofton who had previously been a racetrack barker at the squalid little border town of Tijuana, three miles farther

North. Under Agua Caliente's bizarre red roofs and stucco walls are gambling rooms where cinema celebrities and others who can afford to lose are encouraged to expand the limits at roulette, birdcage, chemin de fer, craps. There is small call for champagne cheaper than Mumm's Cordon Rouge. Agua Caliente's golf tournament--first prize $15,000--is the richest in the world. Even more of an attraction than these for Hollywood plutocrats has been the racetrack, which was constructed at a cost of $2,500,000 by removing part of a mountain. The Annual Agua Caliente Handicap, which was to have been run on March 20 and for which the great Australian horse Pharlap was entered this year, is the richest--$150,000 --horse race in the world. James Nugent Crofton barked his announcement sadly last week. "There's no longer any use of our trying to kid ourselves. . . . Shortage of money has been apparent. . . . The announcement that the Mexican Government would increase taxes on gate receipts was the final blow. . . ." Agua Caliente's racing deficit since the season started a month ago is $100,000.

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