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, j OPENING DAY AT COLUMBUS ♦ Inaugural Handicap Feature of Beulah Park Inaugural. • Trark Still Slow from Recent Rains, with Threat of Further Drenching — Horses from Many Points on Ground. ♦ COLUMBUS. Ohio, April 13.— The Beulah Park Jockey Club will inaugurate its nineteen day meeting tomorrow over a slow track dulled by recent rains and with the clouds still hovering overhead, threatening another deluge at any moment A well-filled program of seven races, headed by the usual feature — the Inaugural Handicap — has been provided by racing secretary Washington Nor-vell. Judging from the size of the fields for the first days racing, secretary Norvell will have little trouble filling the daily programs and providing high-class racing. There are more than enough horses to keep interest at fever pitch. Horses from all points of the compass have been congregated here, some coming from far-off Tijuana, some from New Or-j leans and Havana, the other winter points, while many will make their 1927 bow to the racing world after having spent the winter months in idleness at the farms of their owners in Kentucky, Maryland and Virginia. The Inaugural Handicap attracted a field representative of what turf fans may expect here for the first week. It will bring together horses from all the winter tracks, plus many which will make their first start this year. The veteran Sweepstakes, which raced at Tijuana, has been assigned top weight of 115 pounds, while Optimist, a recent arrival from New Orleans, is asked to carry the featherweight of 99 pounds. Crudenas, Buckaroo and The Flying Finn are others which have been assigned weights well under the hundred mark. Should the going remain slow it is expected that Sweepstakes, despite top weight, will go to the post favorite. Among other well known racers which are scheduled to start during the afternoon, is the popular Tippity Witchet. The little Broomstick gelding, although now in his twelfth year, ten of which have been spent in competition on the race course, is an intended starter in the fourth race and like Sweepstakes, is a superior mud runner. He will contest with another popular New Orleans racer in Pure Dee. The officials who will have charge of the actual racing are all on the spot and ready to swing into action. The stewards are Joseph A. Murphy, J. T. Ireland and Chester Sands. Judges, W. R. Norvell and H. D. Continued on twelfth page OPENING DAY AT COLUMBUS Continued from first page Shepard ; racing secretary, W. R. Norvell ; starter, Lester Dean. Despite the fact that the management has had to go on the outside to find stabling room for many of the horsemen, requests for stable room continue to pour in and the officials are at a loss what to do for those who wish to ship their horses here. Secretary Norvell estimates that over five hundred horses will be available for the daily programs before the end of the first week. Never before in the history of the Beulah Park management have horsemen reported so many of their charges fit and ready to race. For those trainers who have a penchant for passing up races in which a horse they fear has been entered, secretary Norvell has scraped the old style entry desk and now the horsemen must make their entries through a slot with no waiting and in this way they do not know what the other trainer is doing until the entries for the race are published.
