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CHURCHILL DOWNS STAKES CLOSE Large and High-Class List of Entries Expected - for Kentucky Derby Stake Dates. LOUISVILLE. Ky.. March 3. A record number of entries for the 1919 renewal at Churchill Downs of the Kentucky Derby is looked for by Charles F. Grainger, president of the Xew Louisviile Jockey Club. The Derby will be run May 10. It will be the outstanding feature of a carnival of racing over a track that has been voted one of the most attractive in the United States by thousands of men and women from all parts of the country, who more than a quarter of a century have made pilgrimages to Louisville to witness its successive renewals, that will be marked, for three weeks running, by the distribution among horsemen of over 0,000 a day. : i- - .Thei-iTr53ltifojirtiiarrtji- fiaT winch will assemble at the post on May 10 to run one mile and a quarter for the Derby of about 6,000. of which 0,000 will be added money, may excel in quality any Derby field of the past; also, that the several starters will be fit to race in midseason form. ! Hardly in twenty years has a single season of American racing witnessed the development of as many two-year-old eolts, fillies and geldings bf real Derby promise as appeared on the race tracks of Kentucky and in the east in 191S. Xot in half a century has there been a winter marked by weather more suitable for the preparation for early racing of horses of all ages and sorts than the winter that is fast approaching its finish. Since the closing of the Kentucky and eastern tracks at the end of Xovera-ber horses have been galloping in the open. The runners that have put in the months of December, January and February at Xew Orleans and Hot Springs. Havana and Charleston, are not a day farther advanced toward actual racing condition than the horses that have been quartered at Lexington. Churchill Downs and Douglas Park. Benning, Bowie and Laurel, about Xew York and at the private training places of Xew Jersey. A field of three-year-olds of respectable numbers and higher than average class could easily be got ready for a first-rate race of one mile and a quarter to be run a fortnight hence. Xor is it possible that there can be a fold weather setback of sufficient duration to seriously interfere with the training of any of the horses, two-year-olds or matured campaigners that are preparing in northern latitudes for April and May racing in Kentucky and Maryland. KENTUCKY HANDICAP MAT 24. The second best of the great specials that "will be decided at Churchill Downs in the course of the impending spring meeting of the Xew Louisville Jockey Club will be the 0,000 Kentucky Handicap, at a mile and a quarter, for three-year-olds and over. May 24 has been fixed for the running of the Kentucky Handicap which, under the old order of racing, was decided annually at Douglas Park. Under the new dispensation Douglas Park has been abandoned. Douglas Park stakes will be decided at Churchill Downs. The transferrence of the Kentucky Handicap enriches the Churchill Downs card. The other features of the coming meeting, with the dates fixed for their running, are: Debutante, ,000 added, two-year-olds, half mile: May 12. Bashford Manor, ,000 added, two-year-olds, four and one-half furlongs; May 14. Clark Handicap. ,000 added, three-year-olds and over, oue mile and one-sixteenth. Merchants Stakes, ,000 added, three-year-olds and over, one mile and a sixteenth; May 17. Juvenile, ,000 added, five-eighths of a mile, two-year-olds: May 21. Spring Trial, ?4,000 added, two-year-olds, five-eighths of a mile; May 27. Kentucky Oaks, ,000 added, three-year-old fillies, one mile and a sixteenth; May 31. These stakes will close on March 4. The Churchill Downs meeting will be managed this year by 3Ir. Grainger, a former mayor of Louisville, who has been president of the Xew Louisville Jockey Club since its organization. Mr. Grainger will be assisted by Hamilton C. Applegate and William Shelley. It has been announced, unofficially, that two of the features of the Decoration day card will be overnight races of ,000 added each for three-year-olds and over.
