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CLAIMING PRICE IS LOWERED Fair Grounds Reduces Minimum Claiming Price From. ,000 to ,000 by Request of Horsemen. NEW ORLEANS, La., Feb. 15. The minimum claiming price for which ahorse may be entered at the Fair Grounds today was reduced from ,000 to ,000 when the Louisiana Jockey Club submitted to a request advanced by horsemen at a meeting with Jockey Club officials at the Fair Grounds Sunday. Under the change, effective with the racing tomorrow, two races, one at ,500 and another at ,500 to ,000, the latter to be reduced to ,000 beginning next week, will be provided daily during the remainder of the meeting. Meeting with Col. J. P. Sullivan, managing director, and Joseph McLennan, racing secretary, of the Louisiana Jockey Club, horsemen proposed a reduction in the minimum claiming price to the extent of providing one race daily at the ,000 scale and one at ,500. The proposal was taken up with Col. E. R. Bradley, principal owner of the track and other officials late yesterday, and Colonel Sullivan today apprized horsemen of the acceptance of the proposal by the management in time for the lower scale to become effective with tomorrows program. In fairness to horsemen who had prepared horses for the cheaper races, the minimum "top and bottom" ,000 races will not be offered until next week, the compromise scale during the remainder of the current week being ,500 down to ,000 for a race daily and another at ,500 flat daily. Under the plan approved by the horsemen, a three-quarters race of the ,000 "top and bottom" variety or one under the same claiming price at a mile or over and one under a flat ,500 scale at three-quarters or at a mile or more, should be offered daily. It was suggested that on days when the ,000 race is at three-quarters, the ,500 race be at a mile or over, and vice versa. Horsemen believe that such a reduction in the minimum claiming price will not greatly lessen the quality of Fair Grounds programs and that such a lowering of the scale will prove a boon to owners of practically all of the stables participating in the current meeting. For some years the minimum amount for which a horse could be entered at the Fair Grounds was ,000, but in the- opinion of many owners and trainers the value of horses at this time is such that the same type that raced in ,000 company a year ago is worth little more than half that amount at the present time.
