view raw text
KENTUCKY SCHEDULE * Spring and Summer Dates Meet Approval of Racing Public. • Outlook Most Promising for Some of Best Sport Seen in Blue Grass State in Years. ♦ LOUISVILLE. Ky., April 7.— There is general satisfaction in racing circles in Kentucky over the schedule of dates recently granted by the Racing Commission for the spring and summer meetings at Lexington, Churchill Downs. Latonia and Raceland. Lexington gets thre days more than in former years and will run for thirteen days. Churchill Downs will have twenty-three days, one more than it received last year. Latonia will have twenty-nine days of racing, two less than 1927. Raceland is awarded dates similar to last year. The experience of the past few years has shown that racing of the type and on the scale fostered by the Kentucky State Racing Commission, instead of being a drain upon the community in which it is conducted, is. in reality, a stimulus and an attraction, the benefits of which are now readily recognized and appreciated by the business interests of the various communities in which racing takes place. Under the present regime of the turf in Kentucky, visitors of means and prominence are attracted by the sport in constantly increasing numbers from far and wide. They make their presence immediately felt among the hotels, the restaurants, the theaters and other places of amusement, and the retail stores, to say nothing of other ways in which they distribute their money lavishly. HELPFUL TO COMMUNITY There can be no disputing the fact that racing enlivens and advertises a community as few other agencies can. Since the advent of the regime that has relegated the gambling feature to the rear and brought the racing itself to the forefront, conditions attendant upon the sport are entirely different from the old regime. Nowadays racing is looked upon as a wholesome outdoor amusement in much the same way as the theatre dominates the indoor amusement lield. Nowhere has the modern idea of racing, primarily for the pure enjoyment of the sport itself, taken a firmer foothold than in 1 Kentucky. What wagering takes place on 1 the stirring contests for supremacy that are staged every day during the racing season is merely incidental, rather than of transcending importance, thanks to the wise policy which is being pursued by the various racing associations. The racing of famous horses for princely purses has created a strong sentiment for the sport that constitutes a bulwark against ; any insidious attack which may be launched against it. Evidences ;.re not lacking that 1 the approaching spring season cf the sport in Kentucky will not suff.-r by comparison i with its predecessors. In fact, all indications point to quite the most wonderful I season the Kentucky tracks have ever enjoyed. At this writing, it really looks as ; if the season about to open will set a new standard for Kentucky racing, high though i the standard has been during the past years. . The horses which have been nominated to the rich array of stakes that are to be run l represent the cream of the American thoroughbred. - The race schedule arranged will 1 give these high class horses greater opportunity - than hitherto in Kentucky, and 1 will, undoubtedly, influence some owners, , who had been planning to race elsewhere, to revise their plans and engage in a Kentucky ,• campaigu. A
