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EARLY NEW ENGLAND STAKE! Spring Handicap to Feature Program at" Narragansett Park, April 22. Crack Colony of Sprinters on Hand to Furnish Brilliant Contest Influx of Horses Steady. PAWTUCKET, R. I., April 14. Picking the winner of the Spring Handicap, first stake to be run at the earliest race meeting ever held in New England, is the popular pastime of the Hot Stove League, gathered in executive session in the administration building at Narragansett these chilly April mornings. With the race, feature event of the opening day card just a little over one week away, the air is filled with speculation as each horse car arrival brings new possibilities. With entries scheduled to close Saturday and with plenty of good stake horses already on the grounds, and others expected hourly, the task of naming a likely winner . becomes increasingly hard. The Spring Handicap, to be run midway ! of the program, Saturday, April 22, is a i six furlongs event for three-year-olds and i upward for a purse of ,000. Scheduling of this stake so early in the season turned out to be a master stroke on the part of racing secretary Bob Shelley. Never before have so many crack sprinters been gathered in New England at this time of the year. The class of the aggregation either already on the ground or on the way to stalls previously reserved for them can be gleaned from the following: Belair Studs Fighting Fox and Anaflame, Yancey Christmas Rough Time, Mrs. J. A. Nixs Woodsaw, Felix Spatolas Wise Prince, Hall and Warrenders Natty Boy, Blue Ridge Farms Wise Barrister, H. E. Engers Zoic, Sheldon Fairbanks U-Boat and H. and H. Stock Farms Panther Creek. One school of thought argues the winner will surely be found among this group. An-1 other group, however, holds that the winner will emerge from F. L. Flanders Blind Pig, ; T. H. Heards Be Blue, W. Hodsons Mansco, !w. H. Gallaghers Knights Haven, Medway Stables Ghost Queen, D. A. Woods Infidox, E. P. Bixers Posterity and Mrs. P. A. Shaws Stage Beauty. Outside of these groups there are stalwarts who insist the winner will be a Denemark Stable horse, and that it will be either Higher Cloud or War Minstrel.
