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DETROIT OPENS ON SATURDAY To Hold Forty-Nine Days of Sport at Fair Grounds Track. "Daily Double" on First and Second Races — Many Prominent *S tables Ship in for Coming Campaign. DETROIT," Mich., May 13.— Detroit will open its forty-nine days of spring and summer racing next Saturday with indications pointing to one of the most successful seasons since the sport was revived here six years ago. The 900 stalls have been been assigned for several weeks and at the present time there are about 500 of them occupied. Arrivals from Kentucky and Maryland next week will fill the empty ones and by Thursday all of the performers that will participate in the long meeting are expected to be on the grounds. After the second year when a meeting of 123 days was staged, two sessions were held annually, but this year, president Clarence E. Lehr, agreed to turn the track over to the state fair association for a harness meeting to be held early in September. This resulted in the long meeting. Detroit will start the three-track circuit that includes Thistle Down at Cleveland and River Downs at Cincinnati. ELEVEN STAKE ATTRACTIONS. Eleven stakes, chief of which are the Col. Alger Memorial Handicap and the Frontier Handicap, both endowed with ,000 in added money, will be offered during the meeting. The first issue of condition books is sprinkled with overnight handicaps and allowance races, all of which will carry purses larger in value than the 00 minimum. Since the fall meeting of 1938 many improvements have been made to the plant and the track proper has been worked upon until is is now believed to be one of the best in the country. With a few exceptions the sport will be in charge of the same officials who have served here at previous meetings. Charles Henry again will serve as racing secretary and will serve as a steward with Jack Young, Clarence E. Lehr and a steward yet to be appointed by Joe D. Frost, Michigan racing commissioner. Bryan Steele, one of George Wingfields assistants and a former starter on Canadian tracks, will dispatch the fields. Although some tracks have seen fit to drop the "Daily Double," it is a popular combination among local patrons and again will operate on the first and second races. Des Dressen, mutuel manager since the first meeting, remains at the head of that department. POWERS ELECTRIC CAMERA. The Powers Electronic Control Camera will be used to decide all close finishes and work on an electrical approximate-odds board to operate on the "Daily Double," has progressed to such a stage that it probably will be given its first trial on opening day. In addition to the prominent Detroit-owned stables of Charles T. Fishers Dixiana, Peter Markey and Charles Bohns Bomar Stable, F. H. Williamsons Indian Lake Stable, Theodore D. Buhl, Mrs. Peggy Ains-worth Townsend, J. W. Barnes, Fred M. Alger, Jr., and others, the meeting has attracted such widely known establishments as those of Milky Way Farm, which will be represented by a division, John Oliver Keene, A. L. Ferguson, Ross Higdon, A. J. Abel, Mrs. Edward McCuan, James C. Ellis, R. B. Georges Glad Acres Farm, L. V. Bellew, Jr., i Byrum Brothers, I. J. Collins, H. H. Temple, Jr., Mrs. E. Oros, Joe Hall, Mrs. R. J. Mur- j phy and others.
