On The Pacific Coast
By B. K. BECKWITH

Harness Happenings of a Waning Year

AT A MEETING of the Board of Directors of the Western Harness Racing Association, officers and directors were elected for the forthcoming year. There is no change in the official list.

Re‑elections were as follows: Emmett E. Doherty, President; Nelson A. Howard, Jr., Vice‑President; Bernard Kearney, Executive Vice‑President and General Manager; Oliver B. Schwab, Secretary and General Counsel; L. K. Shapiro, Treasurer. Directors renamed to the Association's Board were: Milton G. Agate, David Butler, Milton G. Erman, Edward J. Furer, Leon Schlesinger and Thomas Wolfe.

The new dates of the W. H. R. A.'s Grand Circuit harness meeting were discussed, and tentative plans formulated for the conduct of the largest Standardbred racing program in the history of the sport. As previously announced, the dates have been shifted from April 2 through May 14, to have been held at Santa Anita, to a five‑day week, schedule running October 8 through November 26, with the location at Hollywood Park.

It was announced that the major stakes of previous meetings would be renewed, with the same or increased value, the schedule culminating in two of the nation's top harness events, the $50,000 Golden West Trot, and the $50,000 Golden West Pace. Added to these two classics, plans were discussed for the inauguration of a three‑year‑old national trotting championship, and a three‑year‑old national pacing championship. These events, with a large added money value, following as they would such divisional features as the Hambletonian and the Kentucky Futurity for trotters, and the Little Brown Jug and the Horseman Stake for pacers, might well develop into the third jewel of a trotting and pacing Triple Crown‑the counterpart of the Belmont Stakes for Thoroughbreds. Coming in late November, they would wind up the Standardbred racing year, and set, the final seal of greatness upon their respective winners.

The board of the Western Harness Racing Association further discussed the consummation of its fall and winter lease of the Del Mar Racetrack at the San Diego County Fairgrounds, stating that this would be made a permanent breaking and training ground for all Standardbred stables who wished to, make application through the W. H. R. A. Office .at 649 South Olive Street, in Los Angeles, for its use.

Speaking for his Directors, Vice‑President and General Manager Bernard Kearney said: "We have leased the Del Mar Track as a permanent winter training ground in the interests of the over‑all harness racing picture on the Pacific Coast. We feel that this lease will greatly benefit the game out here, fostering continued growth in harness racing. It will give owners and trainers a place, unexcelled throughout the United States, for breaking and training their stock, and it should bring the horses up to the western summer circuit of fairs and private meetings in top condition."
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Sol A. Camp, President of that fast growing organization, the California Harness Horse Breeders Association, recently returned from Lexington, Ky., where he attended the famous Tattersalls Fall Sales of Standardbred stock.

Mr. Camp, whose extensive Standardbred nursery near Shafter, Calif., is rapidly growing into one of the biggest in the west, was an active bidder at the sale, acquiring six of the finest bred youngsters to go under the auctioneer's hammer.

Firm in his belief of bringing the best to California, Camp topped the sale with one purchase at $28,000 and another at $25,000. The former is a bay colt called Mighty Sun, by Volomite, out of Margaret Castleton, and the latter is a bay son of the great pacer, Billy Direct, world's fastest harness horse, out of the mare, Erla, this one named Dazzleway. The other four were Mighty Sassy, by Volomite, Adios Hal, by Hal Dale, Orpha Comet, by Scotland's Comet, and Bookmaker, by Guy Abbey. These, considered potential power for the western picture, arrived several days ago at Shafter. Camp's fourteen‑horse racing string will be shipped out from Fairmount Park in St. Louis next week, and will go into winter training on the coast.

The Shafter potato king states it is his intention to race his stable in California next year, bitting the fair circuit, and winding up with the big Grand Circuit Meeting at Hollywood Park in October and November. This will be a boon to western fans.

White Hanover, bought by Camp last year at the Tattersall Sale for the top price of $42,000, did not get to the post this season due to lameness, but present plans call for his conditioning at the farm this winter, and his racing next summer. He was bred to several mares at Shaftcr last winter, and these future California‑breds should be heard from.

Camp now stands the good pacer, Red Streak 2.02, at his Shafter Farm, and has been steadily acquiring some of the best Eastern and Mid‑western brood mares.
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Among other western purchases made at the Lexington sale were those of L. W. Craig, owner of the Cimarron Ranch at Lemoore, Calif., and prominent in the Standardbred breeding industry on out here. He bought Robert Darnley, a bay colt by Darnley, out of Why Worry, and Express Comet, a colt by Scotland's Comet, out of Florence. George DeVries, who operates the Vitamin D Ranch at Pasa Robles, where he stands the champion western stallion, Perk Ax­worthy, bought the brown mare, Miss Bardia, by Arion Guy, out of Miss Volo E. The motion picture star, Charles Coburn, acquired Bold Stroke, by Phonograph, out of McKinney Worthy, and Pauper Counsel, by Chief Counsel, out of Holly­wood Diana.