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KEENELAND OPENING Eleven-Day Spring Meeting at Lexington Begins on April 17. Total of 1,600 in Purses in Addition to 2,500 Endowed in Four Stake Events. LEXINGTON, Ky., April 5. The Keeneland- race course will distribute ?61,60O in purses, exclusive of added money events, during its eleven-day spring meeting that opens here Saturday, April 17, and continues through Thursday, April 29. Four stakes events, with a total endowment of 2,500, also are included on the eleven-day program. The highlight of the program will be the ,000 added Blue Grass Stakes, one and one-eighth miles, for three-year-olds, which will be run on closing day and is expected to bring together a smart field of outstanding Kentucky Derby candidates. Other stakes races on the Keeneland card are: Phoenix Handicap, ,500 added, three-year-olds and over, six furlongs, April 17; Ben Ali Handicap, ,500 added, three-year-olds and over, one and one-sixteenth miles, April 24; Lafayette Stakes, ,500 added, two-year-olds, about four furlongs, April 27. Races of one and one-sixteenth miles will be the most numerous on the Keeneland card. Twenty-seven events at that distance, starting directly in front of the grandstand on the mile and one-sixteenth track, are on the program. Next in number will be the juvenile sprints. The Keeneland racing secretary, Charles J. McLennan, has written twenty-two events for two-year-olds. LONG DISTANCE EVENTS. Eighteen six furlongs sprints are also on the schedule. Twelve races of one and one-eighth miles and two of one and one-quarter miles complete the program, which has been so written that the longer races will be more in evidence near the close of the meeting. Keeneland officials are furnishing an excellent opportunity for horsemen to condition their distance stars for the stamina tests which are to be run at Churchill Downs and other tracks that follow Keeneland. Horsemen who have seen the Keeneland spring book are keenly pleased with the program that has been prepared. It was so written that any horse at the track will have the opportunity of starting at least twice during the eleven days. Only forty-one of the races will be claiming events, a much smaller percentage of selling races than is to be found in the condition books of many American race tracks. Among the events carded for the eleven days is the Experimental Handicap, which was first run at the inaugural Keeneland meeting last fall. The event, carrying a ,000 purse, will be run on the fourth day, April 21, and "owners who accept weights in the handicap agree to start again in the runoff on the following Wednesday, April 28, to carry the same weights and same jockey at the same distance. Sickness or change of track conditions excepted."
