view raw text
FAIR GROUNDS DAILY AWARDS Handicapping Contest to Be Staged at Fair Grounds General Manager Eddy Expects Favorable Results. NEW ORLEANS, La., Nov. 21. When the Louisiana Jockey Club lifts the curtain on its 1938-39 winter meeting at the Fair Grounds on Thanksgiving Day, a popular innovation will be introduced to New Orleans fans, a handicap rating contest. A plan testing the skill of handicappers and seen as a stimulant to fan interest was announced by general manager Robert S. Eddy, Jr., who said the Fair Grounds will give away a total of 6,000 in cash prizes during the meeting, with a 00 award daily and 00 on Saturdays and holidays to the fan or fans making the most expert selections on the first seven races each day. The winner or winners are to be decided on a point basis. Open to all except employes of a local firm engaged to conduct the contest, a fan becomes a participant in the contest by making his or her selections for each race on an entry blank attached to the daily race program. Only the first choice is made and the selection is indicated by the program number of the horse. If the horse selected wins, the fan is given credit for 60 points. If the horse finishes second 30 points and if it runs third the contestant receives 10 points. THE DAYS WINNER. At the end of the days racing the person who has totaled the greatest number of points is the winner. In case of ties the prize is equaly divided. Contestants are limited to three sets of selections and in cases of dead heats the horses are treated alike in the number of points. According to the rules of the contest, the entry blanks must be deposited in special ballot boxes placed at various vantage points on the grounds and they must be filed five minutes before the first race daily. After the boxes are locked they will be placed in the hands of the J. Y. Fauntleroy Company, a well known local auditing firm, which will act as final and sole judges. The names will be announced no later than 2 oclock the following day. Decision of the Louisiana Jockey Club to conduct the hand- icap rating contest here follows the success I of similar contests at other tracks. Wash-! ington Park, Fairmount Park, Hawthorne, t Blue Bonnets and Latonia were among the tracks which put on handicap contests. "Our decision to award points for horses finishing second and third as well as those which win gives contestants a chance to be declared the winner by selecting horses that finish in the money," Eddy said. "I sincerely believe the contest will prove one of the most popular innovations ever tried here."
