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KENTUCKY 1918 RACING REMARKABLE Despite War and Other Handicaps Sport Flourished Greater Than Ever Next Year Cincinnati O December 2 From various stand ¬ points the Kentucky racing season of 1918 which came to an end with the closing of the Latonia Jockey Clubs belated meeting on Thursday will go clown in history as one of the most remarkable in the annals of the American turf In spite of extraordinary handicaps with which the sport was called upon to contend during the fall period the season as a whole may properly be characterized as immensely successful The spring meetings at all four Kentucky tracks were marked by recordbreak ¬ ing patronage brilliant racing and a degree of pub ¬ lic enthusiasm over the snort that was unprece ¬ dented and which was all the more remarkable because of the wartime conditions prevailing The fall meetings while beset with complications grow ¬ ing out of the influenza outbreak and other diffi ¬ culties nevertheless furnished further proof of the unbounded popularity of racing as one of the great ¬ est diversions of the people of Kentucky and ad ¬ joining states statesThe The season closed with the conviction firmlv im ¬ planted in the minds of those having the welfare of the sport at heart that racing In Kentucky if on the threshold of a greater era of prosperity and popularity than has ever before been known With the groat war at an end it is the general opinion that racing throughout America is in for a tre nienduous boom next year in common with other outdoor sports to which the people of the country will naturally turn in the reaction following the strain to which they have been subjected since the United States entered the war warThe The end of the season finds the Kentucky turl in a healthier condition than for a long time with harmony prevailing in every quarter from the membership of the newlyappointed state racing commission right down the line Horsemen gener ¬ al v are well satisfied with the personnel of the new commission and the belief is general based on a knowledge of the views and ideas of the in ¬ dividual members that a policy will be carried out by the new governing body that will furthei strengthen the position of the sport in public es ¬ teem teemHIGH HIGH CLASS HORSES PARTICIPATE PARTICIPATENot Not the least important factor in the success of the various meetings in Kentucky this season hat been the participation of highclass horses from the east in the rich feature races with which the Ken ¬ tucky program abounded Intersectional rivalry nil high at various times and public interest in several of the outstanding fixtures of the season receiver impetus on this account that was of decided bene ¬ fit to the welfare of the sport as a whole wholeThe The indications at this writing are that not onlj will all the important fixtures which have brought the Kentucky turf into such prominence of late be renewed for next year but that in several instances their attractiveness will be enhanced by an in ¬ crease in values which already are so high as te challenge countrywide attention and patronage A notable instance of this sort will be the Latonia Derby the value of the added money for which will be doubled and which it is reckoned will have a gross value of something like 30000 With a fixture like this as the headliner for its sprinp meeting and the 50000 Latonia Championship Stakes scheduled for decision in the fall to say nothing of numerous other events that will in them ¬ selves be well worth while the patronage of turf ¬ men from distant points and which would be looked upon as wonderful but for the comparative eclipse into which they are thrown by events like the Derby and the Championship Stakes it can readily be ap ¬ preciated what a carnival of highclass racing is in prospect for Latonia next year and what is true of Latonia will apply with equal force to the othei tracks of tha state The Louisville tracks will of course offer their usual valuable events including the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Handicap both of which rich fixtures have been well patron ¬ ized in recent years by horsemen from one end of the land to the other Many more eastern entriet are looked for when the Kentucky stakes are openec for entries next spring than n any previous yeai as a natural result of the unprecedentedly rich of ¬ ferings that will make the stake program irresistibly tempting
