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MORE RAIN AT LOUISVILLE Downpour Retards Training at Churchill Downs and Douglas Park. Period of Bad Weather May Mean a Shortage of Horses Ready for Racing Dur- ing Approaching Spring Meeting. LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 11. A hard rain, starting during the night and continuing until mid-forenoon, held training and other activities in preparation for the coming spring meeting and Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs to a minimum at that course and also Douglas Park today. It was a drenching downpour and, coming on top of three weeks of much the same kind of wet weather, left the racing strips at the two local courses in unquestionably the most unfavorable condition in years. As a result of the long period of rainy weather, condition of the racers among the 900 or more horses quartered at the two tracks and which did not race during the winter is such that many of them will not be ready for racing during the Downs meeting. Much of the same weather has viisted itself upon Lexington and vicinity, where from 400 to 500 horses are in training at the Lexington track and private farms, and reports of the condition of horses in that section is no more encouraging. All in all," the situation is so serious that unless hocse-men get immediate relief in training conditions a shortage of fit horses for the local spring meeting cannot be avoided. Two more or less obscure candidates were the only Derby eligibles asked to work through the mud and slop at Churchill Downs this morning. They were Mrs. Hollis Ryders Blackbirder and the Meehan Brothers Carroll Day. The former went five furlongs in 1:07, handily ; while the Meehan nominee was called upon for a mile, for which he was timed in 1:53. Slow as it I Continued on twenty-second page. MORE RAIN AT LOUISVILLE Continued from first page. was, the latters trial was the fastest of the morning at the distance. Blackbirder, a thoroughly conditioned horse as a result of winter campaigning, turned the quarter in :25, and the half mile in :53. Bluebeard, purchased yesterday from William R. Coe of New York by Mrs. R. B. Fairbanks, wife of an Indianapolis newspaper . publisher; Joseph E. Wideners Chance Sun, the Derby favorite; Jouett Shouses Weston, and J. J. Flanigans Chance-view had gallops at two miles each. Chance-view did not appear on the course until early in the afternoon, while others of the group braved the morning weather. Despite weather interference, some of the work of improving and renovating Churchill Downs escaped interruption, exercise and work, however, had to be suspended much of the day, more rain coming down during the afternoon. From those in charge of stables still at farms down in the Blue Grass, track superintendent Tom Young received word that they planned to ship here just as soon as the elements behaved long enough to permit them to load their strings. Clyde Van Dusen, chief of the training staff of Charles T. Fishers stables, was over from Dixiana for the day and, calling upon Young, advised him that additions to the Dixiana unit at the- Downs would be made at the earliest possible time. "Training conditions," said Van Dusen, "at all of the farms are the worst in years." Plans of Alex B. Gordon, who has the C. B. Shaffer and E. D. Shaffer stables at the formers Coldstream Stud; Dick Thompson, who has E. R. Bradleys main division at Idle Hour Farm; Emerson Davis, with Conn Smythes string at the Lexington track are much the same. Prominent Derby candidates are included in each of the mentioned stables. Judge Charles F. Price announced that the State Racing Commissions license committee, composed of himself, C. Bruce Head and Thomas C. Bradley, would meet next week to pass on applications for licenses as turned over to the committee by the commission several days ago. Judge Price also reports the condition of Mrs.. Price, who has been seriously ill at their home for ten days, much improved.
