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RESUME OF KENTUCKY TURF Abandonment of Louisville and Lexington. Meetings Unfortunate. ; Despite Loss of Two Meetings Daily Average Distribution Higher Than Ever Before.. i Rearrangement of dates and meetings in Kentucky during 1931 brought about some contrasts in figures as between that year and 1930. The total distribution by the Kentucky tracks in 1931 was considerable short of that of the preceding year, but this was due in great measure to the abandonment of the fall meetings at Churchill Downs and Lexington. Churchill Downs raced only nineteen days and Lexington only ten. This cut down the total output for stakes and purses from ,416,485 in 1930 to ,189,916. However, the daily average distribution by all Kentucky tracks combined was not only larger than in 1930, but larger than ever before in the long and romantic history of racing in that state. These items afford a brief but interesting study in statistics : In 1926 the daily average of the Kentucky tracks was 0,437. For the next three years it held a practically stationary mark, at two or three hundred dollars under 0,000. In 1930 it went above that figure or exactly 0,339.31. Last year, for 108 days of racing, at six tracks, it was 1,017.74. The one additional track was Hamburg Place, where the Prince of Wales Gold Cup steeplechase, at three miles, a betless feature, was run. This ,000 stake, ,500 to the winner, was supplementary to the annual Orphans Day charity program which is put on by Col. E. R. Bradley at Idle Hour Farm. The daily average distributition of Churchill Downs for its 19 day meeting was 4,639 as against 3,580 in 1930. That of Latonia for fifty-seven days was 2,361 as against 1,208 in 1930. Latonia, with its Derby and Championship Stakes and, in 1931 the Breeders Futurity, distributed a total of 60,615 during its summer meeting and 44,014 in its fall meeting. The Kentucky Derby, which always stands out as the red letter event of Kentucky rac-. ing as well as the one -race in which all Americans, whether racing enthusiasts or not, are interested, was not quite so valuable to the winner in 31 as it has been in other seasons since 1922, but it achieved a new distinction in that the running time record. which had stood since 1914 was lowered. The winner was Twenty Grand, champion three-year-old, and his time was 2:01, a sharp reduction of Old Rosebuds time of 2:03. The only occasion in the sixteen preceding years on which Old Rosebuds record had been closely approached in the running of the Derby was in 1926 when E. R. Bradleys Bubbling Over finished the mile and a quarter in 2.03. Of course, a reason for this can be found in the fact that the Derby so many times was run on a sloppy or muddy track. Twenty Grands share in the Derby was 8,725, which just about represented the difference between the earnings of Mrs. Payne Whitneys Greentree Stable and the C. Vi Whitney Stable which sent many more horses and about seven more winners to the post in Kentucky than the Greentree. Twenty Grand made only the one start in the state, but the Greentree Stable was ably represented by St. Brideaux and several others. St. Brideaux was one of the outstanding stars of Latonia racing. He won the Latonia Championship Stakes, which was worth 9,830 to his owner, and he was second in the Latonia Derby. His and other successes of the Greentree starters gave that stable a gross of 6,221. C. V. Whitneys total from nineteen winners, twenty-one seconds and fourteen thirds, was 9,291. His principal winner was The Bull, a two-year-old which won the Breeders Futurity, worth 7,325. Kakapo, a two-year-old filly, distinguished herself in Kentucky racing and placed her owner, R. S. Clark, third in the owners list by winning the 4,040 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, the Fort Thomas Handicap and one or two other races. Spanish Play won the Latonia Derby, worth 2,575, and altogether he contributed 4,125 to the winnings of the Knebelkamp-Morris establishment. Another conspicuous winner in Kentucky racing was Cousin Jo, which ran away from her field in the Kentucky Oaks. She won seven races in all on the Kentucky tracks and took down more than 0,000 in prizes. E. Haughton led the trainers, saddling twenty-eight winners. M. Rose won more races than any other jockey, 63 out of 414 mounts.
