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NEW YORK RACING SEASON OPENS AT JAMAICA PAUMONOK THE FEATURE Presence of Champion Pompoon Adds Interest to Opening Stake. Meets Some of Fastest Sprinters of East in His Three-Year-Old DebutRecord Crowd Expected. NEW YORK, N. Y., April 14. New Yorks racing year, a span of 171 days that promises to be the most brilliant since the enactment of the Dunnigan-Crawford open betting bill, will be inaugurated at the Jamaica home of the Metropolitan Jockey Club Thursday afternoon when the gates are thrown open for a program topped by the twenty-seventh renewal of the ,500 added Paumonok Handicap. This sprint fixture, at six furlongs, has attracted a promising field of ten of the countrys fastest horses, including, through the entry of Jerry Louch-heims Pompoon, the Easts leading aspirant for Kentucky Derby honors. Last years record-breaking Futurity winner will be making his seasonal bow and is the best gate drawer among American thoroughbreds now in training. The giant striding Philadelphia-owned colt has top weight by the scale with an Impost of 116 pounds and is opposed by such accomplished speedsters as Tinta-gel, Emlleo, Speed to Spare, Fraidy Cat, Sgt Byrne, Snark and Cycle. Yet he is expected to rule a short-priced favorite, perhaps at odds-on, and may become the first three-year-old to register in the Paumonok under such a weight assignment. ATTRACTIVE CARD. The Paumonok has been surrounded by Jack Campbell with a card of commensurate attractiveness, and only continued fair skies seem necessary to assure a gathering considerably above the 10,000 who witnessed last years inaugural of the long season in the Empire State. The thoroughbreds will hold forth for twenty-one days at Jamaica and during that period there will be decided a cluster of seven stakes, topped by the 0,000 Wood Memorial Kentucky Derby preview on May 1. Local racegoers-will be agreeably surprised at the many changes in the historic Jamaica plant. Chief of these are the annex to the clubhouse and four additional tiers of seats in the grandstand. The Metropolitan Jockey Club has made arrangements to handle a capacity crowd tomorrow. In addition to an eyeful of Pompoon in action in the featured Paumonok, the patrons will have an opportunity of witnessing the much-discussed Australian barrier in action, as starter George Cassidy will employ this invention in making the starts of the mile and one-sixteenth events for older horses, while the two-year-olds will be broken from the stalls. EXPECTS 90 BOOKS. Ringmaster John Cavanagh expects a total of about ninety books to report for action. Wagering in the clubhouse will be made easier with layers stationed on the ground floor of the new and modern annex partially enclosed in glass brick to afford good lighting. It is estimated that there are over 1,000 horses at the three Long Island tracks and enough of these are fit and ready to run to assure Jamaica plenty of material for its stakes and purses. The ten in the Paumonok speak for the quality of available performers. Continued on twenty-second page. NEW YORK RACING SEASON OPENS AT JAMAICA Continued from first page. Pompoon, naturally, is the magnet that will attract at the Long Island course tomorrow afternoon. Trainer Dan Clarke intends to run his charge, mud or dry, having made vanning arrangements for his charge from Belmont to Jamaica yesterday morning. The services of the familiar Harry Richards, who will have the mount in the Wood and Derby, have been secured and owner Louchheim will be up from Philadelphia to see the tall, racy bay in action. The Pompey colt "knockeJ the watches out of dockers hands" at Belmont the other morning in his lone speed test since arriving here from his Columbia, S. C, quarters when he went six furlongs in 1:12, with the greatest of ease, through the deep, dusty main track. That says he holds all the speed which made him the 1936 two-year-old leader and he can have no excuses on the score of condition. Cycle is regarded by his connections as perhaps the most formidable rival for Pompoon. The Howe Stable performer, who will have the services of Jackie Westrope, won the Paumonok, last year under an impost of 108 pounds. Today, he must pick up six pounds. He has worked very well, going three-quarters in 1:14 and a fraction over the sandy Belmont training track in his final. The Paumonok will mark his seasonal debut. He will not lack for support and may be the second choice to the Pompey colt. Wheatley Stables Snark, a more or less unsound four-year-old son of Boojum, which established a world record of 1:15 for six and a half furlongs under 109 pounds at Hialeah Park in the winter, may have to be reckoned with seriously for the Paumonok. He has trained well for the veteran "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons in recent days. However, his impost is 121 pounds, by which he is the actual starting top weight, and that may steady him in the late stages. Tintagel, fast and erratic member of the Marshall Field string, is another seasoned by winter racing in the South, where he won his last race late in February at Hialeah Park. He has been taught to rate and come from behind and that will make him more of a factor. With 120 pounds he hasnt the best of the weight assignments, but he is good and fit right now. Speed to Spare and Postage Due, a pair of shifty sprinters in the Maryland-owned A. G. Vanderbilt string, were second and third, respectively, to Aneroid in the recent Harford at Havre de Grace.
