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HOW ABOUT THE LATONIA STAKES? Horsemen Anxious to Know About Latonia Derby and Other Well-Known. Fixtures, CINCINNATI, Ohio, February 25. With the Latonia deal practically completed horsemen are asking what lias become of the Latonia stake list. Usually by this time of the year the stake blanks have been distributed to the various race tracks and the Latonia representatives at them have been busy soliciting entries. This year no stakes have been announced, consequently no blanks are out, and -no one seems to know Just what stake events will be run at the Latonia course. The Latonia Derby, the only real Derby in America, is being neglected and is losing prestige. There are eight other high-class stakes, including the Harold, Clipsetta and Cincinnati Trophy, among the spring fixtures, and no mention of them is being made. Of course the new owners have been busy looking after the financial end of the deal, but the racing end need not be neglected. The stake offerings at a race track are the dessert. It is the stakes that every one talks about. No one mentions the overnight races, for they are considered as fillers around a constellation of stars. It is the stake race that creates interest among the public, and when this interest lags, interest in the entire racing lags. Take the Kentucky Derby away from the Churchill Downs meeting and that track would hardly be mentioned outside of the city of Louisville. It was the same with the Kentucky Handicap. Eliminate that from the Douglas Park program and who would ever have remembered that there was a race, meeting at that late track. Of course, there is no intention of abandoning the Latonia Derby or any of the spring fixtures run there in the last half dozen j-enrs, but the tardiness displayed by the new management is not having a harmful effect, but it is causing lack of interest among both horsemen and racing devotees, and it will take considerable interest to arouse both of these classes to the importance of such high -class races as have been run at Latonia in the last decade. The faet that the stake list has not been issued is probably an oversight on the part of the new owners. The time is growing short, and the entry list usually is closed by March 1. However, a short, sharp campaign will revive interest in the stake offerings. The horsemen need have no misgivings; the stakes will arrive in due time.
