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. ILLINOIS RACING NEAR Season of 1935 to Begin at Aurora Track Next Wednesday. "Open House" Schedule for Sunday Plenty of Good Horses Available Track in Readiness. The horses come back to Illinois Wednesday after an absence of six months, to begin at Aurora a long Illinois racing season that gives promise of being the most successful in recent years. At the Fox Valley Jockey Club plant, which has been so thoroughly remodeled as to give the appearance of a new race course, the spring meeting will continue for twenty-one racing days and will culminate in the third running of the 0,000 added Illinois Derby, at a mile and a furlong on Friday, May 24. After Aurora will follow Washington Park, Arlington Park, Lincoln Fields and Hawthorne, in order, with the season winding up next October at Sportsmans Park. The Illinois Derby will be the first of the series of important stakes in the schedule with which the Chicago tracks expect to regain the summer leadership in American racing. With the opening only three days away, Aurora was virtually ready to open over the week-end. The rebuilding ,of the grandstand, the paving of the lawn, and the construction of the new judges stand are far enough along so that president Robert S. Eddy, Jr., scheduled an "open house" at the track for Sunday afternoon. Hundreds of racegoers anxious for a preview of the new season are expected to visit the course during the afternoon. By tomorrow the officials that will handle the meeting are expected to be on hand. Joseph Cattarinich, mutuel manager, arrived yesterday. All three stewards Chris Fitz-Gerald, of the Illinois Racing Commission, John Ireland and Thomas C. Bradley, are expected to appear at the track Monday. Racing secretary Dick Leigh has been on hand for several weeks superintending the work of securing the nominations of top three-year-olds for the Illinois Derby, and. getting his condition books ready. Starter George Wingfield arrived last week and has been busy schooling the two-year-olds, and some of the known bad post actors in starting from the Bahr gate, which he will use here this season. The Illinois Derby, from the caliber of the Continued on thirtieth page. ILLINOIS RACING NEAR .Continued from first page. early nominations, seems likely to attract -"the best field in its history. Col. E. R. Bradleys good filly, Black Helen, ranks as the advance favorite, but such tested performers as Mrs. Walter M. Jeffords Commonwealth, the Texas Derby winner, Roman Soldier, and the Louisiana Derby winner, McCarthy, will have plenty of backers. So far fifteen thoroughbreds have been named, but the lists do not close until May 16, and with personal invitations being sent to the one-two-three horses in each of the three-year-old specials, many more contenders for championship honors are expected to be named. Invitations will be sent to each member of the starting fields in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. The track, which has been fast for the past two weeks, was heavy for Saturdays morning trials, and this caused a halt in the training to some extent. There is a steady arrival of belated shipments, mostly from the Texas region, and those which were unloaded Saturday will bring the number of horses on the grounds to approximately 700, which should enable racing secretary Richard A. Leigh to fill the opening day card without much difficulty. Unless interest manifested in Chicago and adjacent towns is widely misleading, the Aurora management should play host to the largest crowd which has ever atended an opening day, and with good, clean sport being provided, the patronage should hold up better than at previous meetings. One of the most important among the vast number of improvements instituted was the remodeling of the stairs in the grandstand. The laborious task of stretching almost out of physical proportions in order to reach the back of the grandstand will be abolished with this improvement. Another invitation which, without doubt, brings but the principals of general manager R. S. Eddy, Jr., and which was installed with the view of comfort for the public, was the abolishing of the long benchlike seats, which have been replaced by the single seats, and which gives the patrons more room between each row. It will not be necessary for the patrons to go beyond the mezzanine floor of the grandstand to find passage to the betting pavil-lion, as there have been several runways built which takes them to close proximity of the sellers windows. Ample transportation will be available for the meeting. Special trains will leave the Union Station in Chicago over the Burlington at 12:40 and 1:00 daily, at a ninety-cent round trip fare. Special trains on the Chicago, Aurora and Elgin Electric Lines with a round trip fare leave the Wells Street Station daily at 11:05, 12:05, 12:50, 1:05, and 2:05. Ogden Avenue, North Avenue, and Rosevelt Road are the preferred automobile routes from Chicago.
