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WASHINGTON PARK FAST Improvements to Racing Strip Assure Some New Time Marks. Numerous Horses Arrive Over Week-End Everything Ready for Saturdays Inaugural. The horsemen who are galloping their horses these early mornings at Washington Park in preparation for the ambitious thirty-one day meeting which opens Saturday, and the dockers who are timing the training moves of the thoroughbreds, have many differences of opinion. But upon one subject they are all agreed when the meeting at the Homewood race course ends on June 29, Washington Park will no longer be known as the "slow" track of the Chicago circuit. The improvements which have been made to the Homewood racing strip since the new management took hold a few months ago have worked wonders. And the first time a field of crack performers comes together, the horsemen say, a track record is going to fall. One of the chief improvements has been a new drainage system that will permit the racing strip to progress from muddy condition to fast much more quickly than has been the case in former seasons. The track has been bulwarked along" the inside rail to keep the racing surface firirir-And the levelling of the tracks bottom, and thenxthe replacing of the cushion that has always, made Washington Park the safest local track for thoroughbreds are expected to step up its speed several notches. EAST TIME RECORDS. Records for many of the standard racing distances are almost a full second slower in some cases than at other Chicago tracks. The six-furlong mark, for instance, still stands at 1:11. The fastest mile that has ever been turned at Washington Park is 1:35. The five-furlong record of :59 has stood for five seasons. Another five-year -old record is the 1:50 for the mile and an eighth. Only Gallant Knights record of 2:02 for the mile and a quarter is impressive in a day when horses are running faster and. faster every season. The first chance fast horses will have at a Washington Park record comes on Saturday, when a smart field goes to the post for the first running of the ,000 Chicago Handicap at six furlongs. Later there will be two stakes at a mile and a furlong in the Blue and the Gray Memorial and the Great Western Handicap. And with such horses as Omaha intended for the American Derby, and the stars of the handicap division for the Washington Park Championship on closing day, there is even a chance that the mile and a quarter mark may fall. BIG EASTERN DELEGATION. There is no longer any doubt that plenty of fast horses will be on hand throughout the meeting. From New York will come such great stables as those of C. V. Whitney and the Greentree Stable. Others are en route from Maryland. Two full trains of crack racers are coming from Kentucky. And from Texas fit horses that have been winning handicaps at the winter and spring meetings will be shipped. More than a few important strings of thoroughbreds arrived Sunday to swell the equine colony at Washington Park. Mrs. John Hertz stable, already represented at Homewood, received several important additions. The Dixiana stable, twenty strong, arrived in charge of trainer Clyde Van Duse. T. C. Worden unloaded with twenty-seven, including the good three-year-old Prince Splendor. The Shandon Farm horses to the number of fifteen, arrived. Ray Pollard arrived with eleven horses, and the Blue Ridge Farm got in with ten thoroughbreds. Little remains to be done in the way of improvements to the plant before opening day. Work in the stands and clubhouse is complete. The totalizator, the most modern in the world, is installed and has been started on its long test run.
