view raw text
DOWNS OFFERING 00,000 Distribute Condition Books for Meeting at Derby Track. Racing Secretary Shelley Writes Conditions to Suit AU Classes of Horses on Grounds. LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 10. The program of races during the nineteen-day spring meeting which opens at Churchill Downs on Saturday, May 1, provides for a distribution of approximately 00,000 in prize money, it is revealed by a glance through the first issue of the condition book just off the press. Headed by the ?50,000 added Kentucky Derby and supported by the 0,000 added Clark Handicap, the Bashford Manor Stakes, and the Kentucky Oaks, each worth ,000 in added money, the book reveals a general increase in overnight purses and a liberal array of attractively endowed handicaps and allowance races. A typical week-day program is the one which is scheduled for the first Tuesday of the meeting. May 4. It embraces eight races, the same number which will be offered daily throughout the meeting, and heading the card are the Trial Purse, a ,500 allowance affair, for three-year-olds, designed to bring together eligibles for the Kentucky Derby, and a ,000 condition race, for four-year-olds and over. Besides these numbers are a varied assortment of claiming, maiden, and allowance races to which purses of lesser value are attached, but which should bring together well-matched fields. MINIMUM rURSE 00. The minimum purse during the coming meeting will be 00, but the condition book includes a majority of races of greater value. William H. Shelley, Churchill Downs racing secretary and handicapper, has been widely congratulated on the attractiveness of his book of conditions, which makes it possible for horses of all grades and classifications to enter competition. Besides offering a goodly number of races for horses of higher quality, Shelley has incorporated in the program races for horses of the Ir er claiming brackets without which meetings can hardly expect to succeed. Of especial interest to fans is a large number of route affairs which the book includes. An advocate to distance racing, Shelley has seen to it that there will be an ample number of contests to be decided at distances greater than a mile. All added money events during the meeting were subscribed to liberally, for in addition to the 103 which were nominated for the Derby, forty-sbc were made eligible for the Clark Handicap; 142 were named for the Bashford Manor Stakes, the principal two-year-old feature, and 55 were named for the Kentucky Oaks.