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J j J I , 5 I 1 ; j j I SANTA ANITAS FIRST FEATURE New Years Handicap Entries to Be Released Tuesday, December 2 1 Expect Specify, Bourbon King; Ligarptl and; Other Stars io Be Named for thV Opening Day Feature. ARCADIA, Calif., Dec. 24. Nominations for the New Years Handicap close at mid-L night Saturday, December 24. The New Years Day Handicap will headline the open-t- ing day program and will have 0,000 added. to be decided over the mile and one-sixteenth distance. From the fact that Christmas falls on Sun- day . and will be celebrated on Monday, the racing secretarys office will not release the official list of nominations until Tuesday morning, December 27. The rains that fell at Santa Anita during the past week have not permitted the own- ers of the big stake horses to give their charges the proper kind of training and it seems unlikely that more than ten horses will be named through the entry box to face the starter for this rich prize. At this time, the probable list for the open- ing days feature appears to be Bourbon King, Ligaroti, Specify, Indian- Broom, Gosum, Main Man and Pageboy. Specify, the star p2rformer from the stable of A. A. Baroni, which will become a four-year-old on the first of the year will most likely be asked to carry a higher weight than he packed in his last out. when he eefeated Ligaroti at Tanforan while carrying 118 pounds, and Le lasted in a driving finish to defeat the Binglin star by a scant nose to win the San Francisco Handicap. The race enriched the Baroni coffers to the extent of ,400. ESTABLISHES FINE RECORD. In his last six starts. Specify, the game son of Jamestown, has not been but of, the money, winning three of these, placing second" twice and finishing third in the other start. Although a bit unruly at the gate, . Specify always seems to get away fast, and having an abundance of early speed, generally sets all his own pace. Baroni has been schooling Specify at the starting gate for the past two months and has hi?h hopes that, he will stand quietly when he faces the starter in the New Years Day Handicap. Specify is at his best, and should give his opposition plenty of competition. Ligaroti, the South American threat from the stable of Bing Crosby and Lin Howard, is most likely to draw the top impost, having carried 128 pounds in his last endeavor and just losing to Specify. Like Specify, Ligaroti has not been unplaced in his last six starts, in one of which he finished second in the match race with the 1938 champion, Seabiscuit. Trainer J. Smith, who has the conditioning of the Binglin star, reports that the, seven-; year-oM son of Fogon is at top form and will be a hard horse to beat with any racing luck at all. Ligaroti has been going through his paces on the five-eighths training track since his arrival at Santa Anita and will be J put to hard work on the main .track during the coming week. 7 L. B. MAYERS REPRESENTATIVE, f The stable of Louis B. Mayer will be represented in the New Years Day race by Main Man, which failed to show in the San Francisco Handicap the last day at Tanforan. Main Man, a five-year-old horse by Hildur Rose Mist, was purchased by Mayer last summer in the East and the stable has high hopes of winning many of the rich stakes that are being offered by the Santa-Anita management. Of the others that are probable starters, Hal Price Headleys Bourbon King is not to be too lightly regarded, as he has been turning in some very good works in the past week. Gosum, from the stable of Nelson A. Howard, will also ask for weights in the New Years Day feature. D. S. Jcppson is likely to nominate his star performer, Pageboy, which W. R. McGirr has at peak condition at this time. Darrel Cannon, trainer for the A. C. T. Stock Farm, has been pointing Indian Broom for the New Years feature for several weeks and will most likely be seen in action when the horses parade to the post. With the field that is likely to go postward when the bugle blows for the New Years Day Handicap the large- throng that will be on hand is sure to witness a truly great race, i " - . -
