view raw text
IN READINESS AT CHURCHILL DOWNS. Many Improvements Made for the Comfort of the Big Derby Day Crowd. By C. A. Bergin. Louisville. Ky.. May 4. — The local racing season of 1917. which will be ushered in next Saturday, May 12, at beautiful Churchill Downs, with the running of the forty -third Kentucky Derby, the richest three year-olds fixture of the year, should be the most attractive from the standpoint of sport and the most successful from a monetary angle, the Kentucky turf has even known. There are more horses M good class of American, English and French breeding awaiting the bugle call, than the west has had for a good many years. The Kentucky Derby, which this year possesses an added money value of 5,000. has beea the moans of attracting to Churchill Downs the best aggregate of horses of all ag s that will be seen on any tracks on this side of the Atlantic in advance of the midsummer meeting at Saratoga. The New Louisville Jockey Club is offering big inducements to get the liest horses, and it has succeeded beyond any possible doubt. Rich stakes and valuable overnight purses are the drawing cards that have accomplished Cat. Matt Winns long cherished hope to have the best of the thoroughbred world represented in the different races at Churchill Downs. The club is hanging up purses of a minimum value of , besides the various rich stakes and. by offering the heat inducements, deserves to get the liest horses. Col. Winn has recently returned from the east. and is now back at Churchill Downs busily engaged in arranging the multifarious details incident to the opening of the meeting. The club has made a big outlay of money in various improvements to the plant this spring, the most noticeable betas the enlargement of the grandstand space and its merger with the paddock lawn, thus turning the two enclosures into one. The enlarged grounds will, it is believed, be ample to hold at bast 40.000 patrons on Derby Day, if so many should attend. Prepare to Accommodate Great Crowd. There have beea many touches put to the clubhouse and its grounds in anticipation of an unusually ultra-fashionable attendance during the meeting of prominent petaeM from all over the country. In looking after the comfort anil convenience of the clubhouse patrons, the general public has t:ot been overlooked in the complete grandstand accommodations. The plant is better prepared than ever to accommodate a great crowd. Some idea of the great oxiiense incurred by the club may be obtained when it is stated that the total expenses for Derby day alone will an nt to approximately 0,000. Half of this sum goes to swell the entrance and starting fees of the Derby. while ,000 will be hung up for the other six races. The 2tK-odd employes of the pari-mutuel department wfU earn at least ,000, and another similar amount will 1m? the outlay for officials, salaries and other expenses. 0a Derby day seventy ticket sellers, and a like number of cashiers will be employed in the pari-mutuol department, and this large number will probably establish a record for any American race track. The idea of abolishing the entrance fee to the paddock is an innovation on American race tracks and originated with Colonel Winn, who lias always believed that the amount charged for entering the grounds should cover admission to the paddock. The innovation will be put into effect at the coming meeting and is Im uii 1 to prove popular. The scheme is said to be fa von d by the management of several ether tracks, where jts adoption is contemplated.
