New Deal

In the spring of 1929 a gangling, 16-year-old kid, with a Daily Racing Form bulging out of his coat pocket, ambled around the grounds at New England's fashionable St. Paul's School, taking bets on the Kentucky Derby. He was Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt Jr., whose father had gone down with the Lusitania. His mother, twice remarried, owned a fine stable of thoroughbreds, and young Alfred, heir to some $20,000,000, was champing at the bit for the day when he could spend all his time among horses.

It took ten years for young Alfred to get the bit between his teeth. On his 21st birthday he inherited his mother's stable. When he was 25, he bought a sizable interest in the venerable Pimlico race track outside Baltimore (of which he later became president). The same year he became the youngest member of The Jockey Club, the handful of oligarchs who govern U. S. horse racing. Last week Alfred Vanderbilt succeeded ailing 66-year-old Joseph E. Widener as head of New York's elegant $4,000,000 Belmont Park, founded in 1905 by Granduncle William K. Vanderbilt, William C. Whitney and August Belmont. At 27, Alfred Vanderbilt, president of two of the most important race tracks in the country, was fast getting into position as the No. 1 turfman of the U. S.

Hard-boiled jockeys, with whom he likes to have breakfast at dawn, condescend to call him a "regular guy." To seasoned sportswriters, he is a nice kid with a flair for sportsmanship and a sincere desire to give the public what it wants. At Pimlico he introduced the unprecedented policy of a stake race every day, removed the famed infield hillock that obstructed the spectators' view, and inaugurated the Pimlico Special to determine the Horse of the Year. Last week Turfman Vanderbilt's main problem was: how to make elegant Belmont popular with inelegant New York racing fans (potentially increased for 1940 because of the recent legalization of pari-mutuel betting at New York tracks).

Belmont Park has long been the prettiest and toniest race track in the U. S. Its wide-sweeping racing strip (only 1 1/2-mile track in the U. S.), its picturesque steeplechase course in the infield, its straightaway course (Widener Chute) for wobbly-legged two-year-olds unaccustomed to maneuvering around turns, and its mile training track make it not only the most elaborate racing plant in the U. S. but also ideally suited for classic distance races like the Belmont Stakes (1 1/2 miles), Jockey Club Gold Cup (2 miles), Lawrence Realization (if miles). But, because of its vastness, Belmont has long been unpopular with grandstand spectators, who rarely see anything but the stretch run of the shorter-races. Even Turf & Field Club patrons, who have followed races through binoculars ever since they could hist a pair, are hard put to it to distinguish jockeys' silks over the landscape gardening in the infield.

To bring the race closer to the stands, President Vanderbilt last week contemplated shrinking Belmont's traditional racing strip to 1 1/8 miles--the same size as the tracks at Saratoga, Hialeah, Washington Park and Arlington Park. Whether the proposed track will be ready for the 1940 spring meeting is problematical. The fate of the Widener Chute, also unpopular with railbirds because the horses start almost a mile from the stands and finish at an angle, is as yet unknown.

Other proposed innovations for old Belmont: 1) a tote board and other machinery necessary for pari-mutuel betting; 2) reduction of grandstand admission; 3) descriptions of the races through a loudspeaker to help novice railbirds follow their horses; 4) installation of the recently invented Puett Gate (rental $100 a day)--an electric starting gate similar to the type now used at most U. S. tracks except that the horses are locked in (front and back), sent off when the starter presses an electric button releasing the knees-to-nose front doors.

Considered the greatest race track improvement of the past decade, the Puett Gate was used for the first time in Canada last summer. In 400 races no horse was left at the post and only two broke slowly. Last month, however, when progressive President Vanderbilt tried out the Puett Gate at Pimlico, a horse named Dixieland was left at the post when his stall gate failed to open. To the pleased astonishment of the fans, the $6,000 wagered on Dixieland was refunded.

* Belmont races of less than 1 1/2 miles start on the backstretch extension, to avoid starting on a curve. Since most U. S. races are at a mile or less, the majority of U. S. tracks are one mile around.

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