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EXPECT DONOVAN APRIL 23 Reorganizes Wheeling Downs Racing .Department -West Virginia Meeting to Open May 28. WHEELING, W. Va., April 20. Early plans completed, Walter H. Donovan, past president of the National Association of State Racing Commissioners and president of the West Virginia Jockey Club, left his Florida winter home yesterday and, after visiting Baltimore and New York, will arrive here about April 23 to take over the direction of preliminary routine for the Wheeling Downs meeting, which opens its twenty-two-day run on May 28. During - the winter months Donovan has reorganized his racing department and has rounded out the plans for Wheelings spring meeting in conferences with his new official family, headed by Robert S. Shelley, the Narragansett racing chief who is the new director of racing at Wheeling; Samuel C. Nuckols, famous Kentucky Derby official, who will be presiding steward, and William J. Shelley, new racing secretary. INTERVIEWS HORSEMEN. Aided by his new staff, Donovan has been in constant touch with horsemen in Florida, Cuba, Maryland, Ohio, Kentucky and Illinois. Racing secretary William Shelley already has applications for stalls for 355 horses, virtually enough to conduct the coming meeting without taking into account a prospective list of 300 late applicants. Henry S. Horkheimer, Maryland sportsman and breeder, reports active early interest in the Wheeling Downs meeting among Maryland horsemen. More than 100 horses are included in the list of applicants Horkheimer received for Donovan during the winter months. i
