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DERBY VALUE INCREASED ADD FIFTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS TO KENTUCKYS CHIEF RACE NEXT YEAR. Probably Will Be Matched by Similar Measures in Respect to Big Douglas Park and Xatonia Annual Fixtures. Louisville, Ky.t December 11. Announcement was made Saturday night by Hamilton Applegate, seere-lury of the Now l.rfuisville Jockey Cluli, that the directors have added 5,000 to the Kentucky Derby, which will be run at Churchill Downs May 11!. 1!17. The event, with this amount added, may be the richest stake in the west, and it will compare favorably with the Futurity in value. Increasing the value of the Derby is commendable. It is sure to impress the public favorably and the public, not the New Louisville Jockey Club, will pay the increase. The idea of disposing of a big sum of money, through the agency of a sporting event, appeals to the imagination of the majority of people. The larger the sum, the greater is the fascination. Formerly, right here in Chicago, a striking illustration was furnished. When the "Washington Park Club began to increase the value of the American Derby, the attendance also began to increase. 5y the time its added money mounted uji to 5,000, the annual attendance also mounted Hp, until Derby day gate receipts almost paid the clubs outlay in stakes and nurses for its entire twenty-five days of racing. Had that admirable racing organization not ben forced out of existence, the added money to the American Derby would have been made .0,000 long before this time. That figure was definitely in view, providing racing continued to prosper. And while it would be the club that vould announce this imperial endowment of Chicagos former great race, the clubs sagacious officials knew through the lessons of experience, that it would be the greatly impressed public that would pay the increase by crowding Washington Park to the suffocation point on Derby day. The New Louisville Jockey Chit officials will never lrive occasion to regret, raising the Kentucky Derbys added money to 5,000, nor would they had they made it 0,000. It is hardly to be expected that the New Louisville Jockey Club will lie alone in this measure of improvement. It is an era of increase in stake values and it would be a strange tiling If there "was not a fitting response from Douglas Park and La-tonia. The 0,000 each heretofore added to the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Handicap aid Latouia Derby have sufficed to attract some of the .stars of eastern racing to the great satisfaction of almost all concerned. It is conceivable that if all three are raised to the 5,000 added mark, their drawing power will be so enhanced that eastern owners simply cannot afford to refr.iin from nominating their best to a man. That would be a mighty good tliliig for Kentucky racing, likewise a highly profitable thing.
