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FAIR GROUNDS GRAND PROSPECTS Business Mens Racing Association Meeting Promises to Eclipse All Previous Ones. New Orleans, La., December 27. Coming on the heels of the Jefferson Park racing season, the one which will open at the Fair Grounds January 1, promises to eclipse any winter race meeting ever held in this country. With settled weather Jn prospect, with about 1,200 thoroughbreds on the grounds, and with the best riding talent ever gathered at a winter track, it is hard to see how it would be possible to improve the- outlook" for a successful season for the Rusiiiess Mens" "Racing- Association. Jefferson Park has done a big favor for the Fair Grounds. It not only has shouldered all the bad weather, but has brought many stables here early enough to be right on edge for the Fair Grounds opening. It has tried out the new betting system, and has imnroved upon every angle of the sport. Chief of all recommendations, Jefferson Parks racing meeting has served as a clean, spirited prelude to the season which will follow at the old track. Seldom in the history of rating have thoroughbreds run as fairly as they have been running at Jefferson Park. This proof of up-to-the-minute watchfulness by the racing officials has strengthened the faith in racing, as conducted today. Such faith will prove a strong pillar upon which the Fair Grounds can lean. . . Ry the time January 1 rolls around, hundreds of thoroughbreds now here will be ready to race; scores of them will already have faced the barrier a number of times, and interest in racing naturally will be at white heat because of the line which racing followers will have on the racers at the end of Jefferson Parks meeting. NO PURSES XESS THAN 00. The first book of the Fair Grounds meeting has been distributed. It calls for eleven days of. racing with no nurse less than 1917.sh00 and no handicap less than 01. The cover on the -program book has a fine lithogranh of Oniar Khayyam with Rorel up. This great horse wintered here last year and his career has been followed with the keenest interest by the local public. The inaugural days program consists of six well-arranged races, with the New Years Handicap of ,500 added as the stake offering of the day. Four of the races are at a distance of one mile or over, the closing race of the day -being at a mile and a quarter. The dates for the running of the stake races are as follows: New Years Handicap, ,500 added, one mile, January 1. Gentilly Handicap, ,000 added, three-quarters of a mile, January 5. Pontchartrain Handicri, ,000 added, oue mile and one-sixteenth, January 12. Jackson Handicap. ,000 added, three-quarters of a mile, January 19. City Park Selling Handicap, ,000 added, oue and one-sixteenth miles, January 21. New Orleans Handicap, Value ,000, one and one-sixteenth miles, February 2. Martin Rehnnan Handicap, ,200 added, two miles, February 9. Tulane Handicap, ,000 added, three-quarters of a mile, February 11. Crescent City Handicap, value ,000, one and one-quarter miles, February 12. Racing manager Joseph A. Murphy of the Rusiiiess Mens Racing Association, has posted notices instructing horsemen to make out new stable applications. Here is judge Murphys order: "It will be necessary for all horsemen to make out new stable applications for the Fair Grounds meeting, with badge list and names of horses, so that all sales and transfers may Ive checked up. "The first, badge issued will be for twenty days. Coupon books for the. war tax .-will Ih delivered with each badge. For owners, trainers, jockeys, the price for books will be , which must he paid when the badge is delivered. For ladies the price will be . No charge will.bV iiiatte. for stable or employees badges. " ". ...- "Owners and trainers badges will be issued only to actual owners and trainers and horsemen will save themselves and the management the embarrassment of a refusal by not applying for badges for any other person. Ladies badges will be issued only to owners of horses and wives of trainers and owners. No other request will be honored. "Entries for January 1 will be closed at the Fair Grounds only at 11 oclock. No one will be at Jefferson Park to take entries on that day, but entries will be accepted by telephone. The same regulations will prevail during tiie meeting. "Scratches will be at 10 oclock." Doctors J. A. Kyle and D. A. McLean have been appointed official veterinarians for the meeting. One of them will be on duty in the paddock during racing hours. They will look over the condition of starters, see that they are properly plated for the going in which they are to run and look out for sick or unfit .liorses. Often horses are started and run bad races that are taken down sick after the race. It is believed that, careful supervision will prevent all this. A plater with his kit will also be on duty in tin; paddock. Another innovation will be the printing of the time for races on the program. In this way people in the city, who wish to see some special race, will be able to know the actual post time.
