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LEXINGTON TURF MECCA! One Thousand Horses in Vicinity for Programs at Keeneland. Blue Grass Track Gains in Popularity With Each Passing Year Inaugural Thursday. LEXINGTON, Ky., April 8. Thoroughbred racing, for a century and one-quarter the leading sport in Lexington, returns here on Thursday with the opening of the Keeneland eleven-day meeting. Several times during the long local history of the sport racing was halted, but each resumption brought forth greater meetings and better courses. Present indications point to this year being no exception and Kentuckys newest track is in readiness for the short session. In the Lexington locality there are 1,000 horses awaiting the opening and they will carry the colors of a majority of the leading stables in the country. Although spring weather has been interspersed with snow flurries and rainy, weather, the horses that have wintered in this locality are well advanced in their training. With nearly 400 invaders quartered at Keeneland, the trotting track and nearby farms, there is an abundance of material to make up the seven-and eight-race programs to be offered during the two weeks of the session. HOTELS FILLING UP. Hotels and apartments are rapidly filling to capacity-and private homes are ready to take care of the overflow. Each meeting has been better than the previous. With new highways ready to take care of the motorist from Louisville, Cincinnati and other cities in a radius of 100 miles, president Hal Price Headley predicts that this season will be the greatest since the beautiful and picturesque plant was completed for the inaugural fall meeting in 1936. A check of the stables now on the grounds and those to come from Louisville during the next forty-eight hours, reveals that with few exceptions all of the fashionable stables of the Mid-West and several owned by Easterners will participate. The jockey colony will overshadow any in the short history of Keeneland. In addition to the crack pilots under contract to Warren Wright, Joseph E. Widener, Louis B. Mayer, Hal Price Headley, E. F. Woodward, . Mrs. Payne Whitney, C. T. Fisher, Peter Markey and Charles A. Bohn, Russell Firestone, E. R. Remainder on twenty-seventh page. LEXINGTON TURF MECCA Continued from first page. Bradley, C. H. Cleary, R. B. George, Howard Oots and other widely known owners, there will be many topnotch pilots to ply their trade free lance. CHECK APPLICATIONS. Although it will be a mere formality for those riders and trainers who have kept their records unblemished, the license committee of the state racing commission will check over the applications at their annual meeting Monday. Only those to meet with their approval will be permitted to ply their vocations here and at other Kentucky tracks. The stakes program will consist of quality and not quantity. The Phoenix Handicap, the opening day feature, attracted sixteen entries; the Ben Ali Handicap, twenty-one nominations; the Lafayette Stakes, sixty-one two-year-olds, and only twenty-one three-year-olds remain eligible to the Blue Grass Stakes. However, many of the leading speedsters are among the entries for the Phoenix and this also holds true of the Ben Ali. Sidney S. Brown, assistant racing secretary, stated today he expects ten ormore horses to run for the ,500 added prize in the Phoenix and several of the eligibles are also Ben Ali Handicap candidates. Last year Main Man won both races and the feat can hA rpnpated this vear. NEW IMPROVEMENTS. A new main entrance and an additional barn are the only changes made to the plant since last year, but the clubhouse and grandstand have been completely renovated. Among the stables yet to come from Louisville and expected over the week-end are the Tall Trees Stable, Valdina Farms, I. J. Collins, Friedberg and Axton, Shady Brook Farm, J. P. Jones, Baylor Hickman, W. E. Smith, Byrum Brothers, Milky Way Farm, F. P. Letellier, J. Cal Milam, J. H. Skirvin, Brown Hotel and Xalapa Farm. Stalls are reserved at Keeneland for these stables and all of the stabling accommodations at the trotting track are exhausted. Ernest White, who will have charge of the totalisator department in the absence of Mort Shaw, will arrive from Tanforan tomorrow. The big electrical board has been put in working order by a crew sent here by the American Totalizator Company and pronounced ready for duty. Pierre Lorillard, Jr., presiding steward, also will arrive tomorrow, and William Hamilton is expected momentarily from Louisville. The others of the official family have been here for several days. HONORARY STEWARDS. The honorary stewards who will serve with Mr. Lorillard are Maj. Louie A. Beard, Roy Carruthers, Brownell Combs, W. Arnold Hanger, John O. Keene, Charles Nuckols, C. Barry Shannon and George B. Leach. Peter Coyne is shipping eighteen horses, which will comprise the eastern division of the J. E. Widener stable, to "Belmont Park on Wednesday. Dan E. Stewart will have twelve horses to campaign at Keeneland, Churchill Downs and in the Chicago sector for Mr. Widener. Warren Yarberry will remain with Stewart until the opening of the Belmont Park meeting when he will report to trainer Coyne.
