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CHILCUTT OMAHA STARTER Ex-Jockey Replaces Ruby White at Ak-Sar-Ben Track. Served as Assistant to Eddie Thomas for Seven Years Plenty of Horses for Meeting. OMAHA, Neb., April 19. Noel Chilcutt, the young Oklahoman, who back in 1927 was the second leading rider at the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben running race meeting, is coming back to the Nebraska metropolis but not as a jockey. The 28-year-old Chilcutt will be in the starters box to yell "come on" when the 1938 meeting gets under way May 28, W. H. Schellberg, chairman of the racing committee, announced. Young Chilcutt replaces Ruby White, originally scheduled to replace Jack Hodgins as starter. White has informed Ak-Sar-Ben officials he will be unable to serve; fso Chilcutt was promptly engaged. Now starter at Agua Caliente, Chilcutt comes highly recommended. For the past seven years he has been serving under that grand old man of the starters box, Eddie Thomas, who used to shoo the thoroughbreds on their way at Ak-Sar-Ben meetings back in the days when Charley Irwin, Benny Creech and Ben Jones were engaging in their feuds here. WEIGHT INCREASES. Chilclutt had to hang up his tack because of that bane of all the little riders overweight. He couldnt keep his poundage down, but he wouldnt desert the track. Taken in hand by Eddie Thomas, Chilcutt worked up from assistant starter to a starter in his own right. With opening day hot so far in the offing, Ak-Sar-Ben officials are readying the horse plant and with stable applications coming in daily, it seems certain that therell be plenty of horses under roof when the meeting gets under way. Many horses that raced at the Oaklawn Park meeting at Hot Springs have been shipped to Omaha, while several carloads have arrived from New Orleans. The big push is scheduled for early next month.
