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JAMAICA TRACK IN READINESS Metropolitan Jockey Club Opens New York Season April 16. Seven Stakes Will Be Decided During Spring Meeting at Long Island Course : Wood Memorial Run April 30. NEW YORK, N. Y., April 11 Saturday will see the opening of the 1938 thoroughbred racing season under the jurisdiction of the State Racing Commission and The Jockey Club. Between April 16 and October 29 there will be a total of 169 days of racing, distributed as follows: Metropolitan Jockey Club, thirty-one days; Westchester Racing Association, thirty-nine days; Queens County Jockey Club, thirty-six days; Empire City, thirty-three days, and the Saratoga Association, thirty days. Not in many years has the racing season hereabouts started under more favorable conditions. The mild winter has been an important factor in getting the horses and tracks in good shape for the early start of the opening campaign. For some time many thoroughbreds have been breezing along briskly at the various training quarters. OPENS SEASON. As customary, the popular Jamaica course will be the scene of the inaugural meeting. Dr. Edward P. Kilroe, president and directing executive of the Metropolitan Jockey Club, is enthusiastic about the prospects of the seasons sport. The Jamaica course has already taken on its racing aspect. Everything is ready for the buglers call to the post. The close-up view of the various contests from start to finish has always been a feature of the Jamaica course and one that attracts a following of its own. The nineteen days allotted to Jamaica for its spring meeting will include the running of seven stakes, headed by the Wood Memorial, with the prize of 0,000 in added money. It will be the feature of the third Saturday program, April 30. In recent years the Wood has been watched for the prospective three-year-old champion and it also serves as an index of Kentucky Derby aspirants. STAKE FEATURES. The other stakes down for decision during the meeting are the Paumonok, with ,500 added; the Excelsior Handicap, with the same amount added; the Jamaica Handicap, with ,000 added; the Stuyvesant Handicap, with ,500 added; the Youthful and Rose-dale Stakes, each with ,500 added. For the first time in the thirty-one years of racing at the Jamaica course, two important and historic stakes will be offered as an opening day attraction. The Paumonok Handicap, which has always been the opening day feature, will be augmented by the Youthful Stakes. The Paumonok, with its ,500 added, is for three-year-olds and upward over the six furlongs distance. The Youthful, as its name indicates, is made up of two-year-old youngsters bidding for recog- nition. It has ,500 added and is a sprint of five furlongs. Five diversified overnight events are on the special seven-race program which racing secretary John B. Campbell has prepared for the days sport. It furnishes a good indication of what the Metropolitan Jockey Club has in store for race patrons.
