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LEIGH OPENS TRACK OFFICES AT AURORA COURSE ILLINOIS OPENING NEAR Racing Secretary Begins Task of Allotting Stall Space. Dead Calm Second Nominee for 2,000 Added Illinois Derby i Influx of Horses Begins. i AURORA, 111., April 6. Dead Calm, which many think should have won the 0,000 added Louisiana Derby a week ago, instead of finishing second to the Millsdale Stables Grey Count, is the second nominee for the 2,000 added Illinois Derby, to be run May 22 at the Aurora race track. Racing secretary Dick Leigh, of the Fox Valley Jockey Club, arrived at Aurora yesterday morning to open the track offices and announced the nomination of the gelding owned by Mrs. Cecil Gregory and trained by J. R. Gregory. Grey Count was named for the Derby several days ago. Dead Calm is in the Gregory stable in Texas, where he is a leading candidate for the Texas Derby on April 17. Since Grey Count is not a scheduled starter in the Texa3 race, nor eligible for the Kentucky Derby, the next meeting between the pair will take place in the Aurora feature, which" will bring to a climax the nineteen-day meeting opening May 1. Though Grey Count came from behind to catch Dead Calm and win by a half length, there were some horsemen at New Orleans of the opinion that Dead Calm is the better horse of the two. The stretch duel that left the pair far ahead of the field forced Grey Count to equal .Rushaways track record for the mile and an eighth. REQUESTS FOR STALLS. Mr. Leighs first task was to start allotting the stall space, and this promised to be quite a task. A visit to Hot Springs, after leaving New Orleans, brought such numerous requests from horsemen for stable accommodations that the. majority of the stalls are already spoken for. Racing secretary Leigh was the first of the Fox Valley Jockey Club officials to arrive at the track. General manager Robert S. Eddy, Jr., who was detained in New Orleans winding up the successful Fair Grounds meeting, left that point on Sunday and will arrive at Aurora at the end of the week after stopping off in St. Louis to attend to Fairmount Park business. Trade superintendent Placide Frigerio was to start work on the track today and prepare it for the many horses now stabled at the track. Many tons of top soil have again been added to the Aurora track, and it awaits only grading to be in top shape. Several stables from Hot Springs were due to arrive at Aurora today, and with still others coming fror. New Orleans there will be well over a hundred horses at the track by the end of the week.
