view raw text
DAILY AVERAGE ,000 Keeneland Is Offering Worth-While Prizes for Coming Meeting. Blue Grass Stakes, With ,000 Added, Tops Stake Features Session Opening on April 13. LEXINGTON, Ky., March 31. Keeneland will distribute an average of slightly more than ,000 daily in purses and added money to horsemen during the eleven-day spring meeting at- the Lexington track. The condition book shows a total of 7,800 will be offered by the non-profit track during the program. Richest race to be run during the entire program will be the ,000 added Blue Grass Stakes. This feature race is for three-year-old exclusively and will be the richest and most important event in Kentuckv prior to the running of the 0,000 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. A formidable field of Derby candidates is expected to go to the post in the Keeneland race, which has an estimated gross value of more than 0,000. Three other stake races are included on the program. They are the Ben Ali Handicap, Phoenix Handicap and Lafayette Stakes. Each has ,500 in added money. On every day that Keeneland does not offer a stake race it will run at least one event with a purse of ,200. There are nine races of this value in the condition book. There are also eleven races which have a purse value of ,000, each to be run over the Lexington MINIMUM PURSE 00. Following two highly successful meetings last year, Keeneland officials announced that no race with a purse value of less than 00 will be run this spring. The previous minimum purse at the Lexington track was 00. Continued on thirty-fourth page DAILY AVERAGE ,000 Continued from first page. Racing starts at the non-profit track on Thursday, April 13, and continues through Thursday, April 27. There will be no racing on Mondays. Feature race on the opening day will be the Phoenix Handicap. On Saturday, April 15, the track has scheduled the John H. Morris Diamond Anniversary Handicap as the outstanding race of the day. Saturday, April 22, is the date for the Ben Ali Handicap. The Lafayette Stakes, a test for two-year-olds, will be decided Wednesday, April 26, and the Blue Grass Stakes is set for the following afternoon. The winner of the Blue Grass Stakes is certain to rank high as a candidate for the Derby.
