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CROWDED TO THE UTMOST RACING PILGRIMS REACHING NEW ORLEANS FROM ALL SECTIONS OF THE LAND. Track Sure to Be Heavy, but Races Are Well Filled Pan Zareta Named to Start in the First Race. New Orleans, La., December 30. Everything is in thorough readiness for the opening Monday of the third annual race meeting under the auspices of the Business Mens Racing Association. Indications point to the most brilliant racing yet seen in the far south. From every section of the country have come racing enthusiasts. The eastern delegation here numbers many of those seen daily on the metropolitan courses and their number is swelled by horsemen from Canada, Maryland and Kentucky, each sectional platoon almost sufficient in itself to maintain a successful meeting. All railroads and steamship lines to this point have during the last forty-eight hours carried capacity crowds and the newcomers have crowded the principal hotels, although others are arriving every hour. Nearly every visitor is full of enthusiasm and eager for the bugle to call the inaugural dash. The procedure of former years will be maintained in the "Palm Garden" and, judging by the number of familiar layers on the ground, the action in this part of the Fair Grounds will be animated. Although the opening days races will be over a heavy track, good fields will apparently contest. The names of twelve good long-route horses went through the entry box for the New Years Handicap at one and one-sixteenth miles, and all of them are good mud runners. The stake will have an added value of ,500. Next in importance will be the Inaugural Handicap at thr?e-quarters. This race will mark the reappearance of Pan Zareta, II. S. Newmans crack mare, which has been resting since last spring. She will meet formidable opposition and has top weight. There was no hesitancy on the part of the owners to enter in the two-year-old race, as six youngsters were put in. Had the track been fast this number would have been greater. Those which are carded to start are a well-bred lot, but there is little of a line on them, because of the scant opportunities they have had to show their merit in morning trials. The "dogs" again were lip this morning, but several hundred horses were worked around them. The "floats" were put into service near the inside rail when the track was closed, but the sun did not assist in drying it out to any extent. Several of the candidates for the stake race were given good work-outs. A committee of the Thoroughbred Horse Association this morning consulted judge Joseph A. Murphy regarding seven races daily, beginning January 6. Judge Murphy told them he would recommend to the association that whenever entries to any race were excessive, it be split and one end of the split be used as the seventh race. He also informed the committee that much depended upon the weather in this project. Starter A. B. Dade will get in tomorrow from his home at Henderson, Ky., and the official racing family will be complete. John W. Schorr is due from Memphis tonight. He has no horses racing here this winter, but will remain throughout the season. Nominations to the City Park Handicap, which will be run next Saturday, closes tonight. This affair is at a mile for three-year-olds and over and has an added value of ,000. The weights will be announced next Thursday. Practically all the stakeholders appointed to work in the "Palm Garden" executed their bonds today. Many of the appointees, who are new in these positions, were drilled in their duties in the "Palm Garden."
