Town With a Future - Beulah Park - Part 3

(The following was written by Lewis Garrison, and is reprinted from 1927’s “Grove City - The Town with a Future”, available at the Grove City Welcome Center and Museum. Any opinions made in the article are from the author.)Time will come when the rank and file of Beulah Park patrons will have to be told just what was accomplished during the initial year of present ownership. In brief, the racing property was converted from one for fair weather only to one that will fill all requirements, no matter how boisterous the weather. The final act of 1923 was to sand the track in order to eliminate as far as possible the mud hazard. Rain no mortal can keep away, but Beulah Park's daily racing programs are conducted without regard to showers, storms or deluges.To accommodate the people, there was a start made in February, 1923, on the construction of a modern grandstand. The old one was shunted to a new position and now cares for a portion of the Overflow. In the same dreary month of February, definite steps toward caring for more horses than ever at Beulah Park were taken. Four barns, built on up-to-date plans suggested by General Manager Shepard, came into existence. Some single row stalls were put in on limited space. In July of this year, two more barns, one of 36 stalls like each of the others of early-spring finish, and another of 40 spaces were rushed to permanent completion.Both grounds and track have been brought out away from the water menace. Cinders, by car loads, have been employed to thrust nature's mud into other oblivion. Over the concourse where the public gatherings are most dense, tiny stone and gravel has been brought into service. Again, there was no sparing of the use of concrete to make substantial walks at the track side and from it back under the grandstand and around to the principal entrance.Mid-summer regrading and autumn sanding of the track have combined to bring up the course to the most exacting requirements. Yet one of the most important additions to it was the construction of a chute, from the end of which horses can confront the barrier and be off, at the snap of the barrier, on a race of six furlongs. Races of greater distances are started at various points of advantage on the main course.Racing men, as they came in for the April inaugural meeting of 1923, found Beulah Park more or less in the rough but they saw construction going on. The spring sport was successful. Many of the same founders came back in August and readily noted vast changes. Dufferin Park, Toronto, is a noted racing plant with a track of less than a mile. Be assured, one and all, that Beulah Park, Grove City, is challenging the Canadian place for international premiership. Nor can there be any recession for the Capital City Racing Association's one motto is “Clean sport”.