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FINAL LAP OF OAKLAWN PARK MEETING Only Five More Days Remain of the Most Successful Period of Sport Held at the Spa in Years HOT SPRINGS Ark April 12 Entering upon its final lap Monday the Oaklawn Park spring race meeting has only five more days to run and then there will be a general exodus for Kentucky and the east on the part of horses horsemen and turf followers in general from here Kentucky will get the greater part of the horses as most of those which are intended for a campaign in Maryland have already gone What thoroughbreds will be shipped east will not be raced until the opening of the New Yorjc season seasonWhen When the allotted thirty days of racing at Oak lawn have expired the 1919 season will go down in turf history as the best ever at the local course Starting late in the year and just at the time when most of the tourists and visitors are as a rule getting ready to depart for their homes in various parts of the country the meeting here not only held them longer than usual but brought many more here at a juncture vhen in previous years travel this way was quite light lightClean Clean sport under the careful supervision of two of the most able officials of presentday racing judges Francis Nelson and J B Campbell will result in the 1919 Oaklawn meeting being talked about with favor for months to come Keeping a clean slate at all times and even to such an extent that the scandal mongers have no chance to criticize a nice meeting is no snap job and especially where a lot of bush horses come out to run in the cheaper grade of claiming races as is the case here Horses have gone to the post at the local course that have not been seen in action on the big tracks in many a day and some of then never They wore brought together from all sections of the country and there were good bad and indifferent ones among them but they were all made to toe the mark Strange to say the bushers put np more interesting contests than the crack thorough breds as the latter as a rule got in races where they stood out outHorsemen Horsemen and racing followers go north and east from here this season in a much happier frame of mind than last year when the war was on and the outlook was none too bright with racing conducted under difficulties Even those of a pessimistic turn of mind xee the biggest spring summer and fall seasons ahead in many years and they can forecast nothing but increased prosperity for the sport Thoroughbreds are more valuable than ever due to the increase in the purses and stake values np the line and a race horse that can win is much in demand
