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WINN PREDICTS BIG SEASON AT LINCOLN FIELDS 8 1 One Thousand Horses Available for Initial Windy City Meeting Big Influx of Horses From Churchill Downs for Session Which Opens Thursday — The Fighter and Sil-verette Named for Crete Handicap CRETE, 111., May 22.— With the opening of the Chicago racing season set for Thursday at Lincoln Fields, the administration offices Of the South Side course were opened this morning. Horses were arriving hourly and C. Bruce Head, general manager, estimated that approximately 1,000 horses would be available for the twenty-seven day season which is being awaited eagerly by furf fans of this area. Some stables have been here since the close of winter racing in the South and a few drifted in last week, but the general influx began over the week-end as several hundred horses arrived from Churchill Downs, whose season ended on Saturday. A majority of the stables which took part in Kentucky racing are to be *here, and included among them are some of the most fashionable establishments in the Middle West. In sizing up the Lincoln Fields meeting and racing in Chicago in general, Col. Matt J. Winn, president of the American Turf Association and executive director of the Crete track, says the outlook is exceedingly bright and he looks forward to one of the biggest seasons in several years. SUPPORT STAKES. Lincoln Fields will be in a position to give Chicago fans racing of high quality from the beginning, for the liberal purse and stakes program lias attracted many thoroughbreds of that caliber. All of the eleven stakes to be run during the local meeting have been subscribed to liberally, thirty-four horses having been made eligible for the Crete Handicap, a six furlongs sprint which headlines Thursdays inaugural card. Some of the horses named for this attractive fir..ire were The Fighter, Silverette, Kings Blue, Torchy, Gold Flag, Lightspur, Tiger, Dora May, Corinto, Olney, Joe Schenck, Easy Mon, Melodist, Up the Creek, Smart Crack, Reaping and Chance Ray, most of them familiar to local racing patrons. The Fighter has been honored with top weight, 120 pounds, while Silverette must shoulder 118, and Kings Blue 117. SUSTAIN INTEREST. The other ten stakes drew nominations of similar numbers and quality, and should do their share to sustain interest in the Lincoln Fields season right down to the end. The other features are the Dearborn Handicap, Kankakee Handicap, Chicago Heights Handicap, Francis S. Peabody Memorial Handicap, Steger Handicap, Joliet Handicap, La Salle Handicap, Calumet Handicap, Marquette Handicap and Lincoln Handicap. Thursdays opening program is especially attractive, for besides the Crete Handicap, which carries an added purse of ,500, there will be the ,000 Ivanhoe Purse, a condition race at a mile, for three-year-olds, and a high-grade claiming event, styled the Kensington Purse, at a mile and one-sixteenth. Eight races in all will be offered daily. The next big day of racing following the opening will come on Saturday, when two stakes— the Dearborn and Kankakee Handi- Continued on thirty-fifth page COL. WINN PREDICTS BIG SEASON AT LINCOLN FIELDS Continued from first page. caps— will be presented. The Dearborn is for two-year-old fillies and will be contested at five furlongs, while the Kankakee is for fillies and mares, three years old or older, and will be decided at one mile. Each of them is endowed with ,500 in added money and both are expected to draw representative fields. The racing secretarys office this morning presented busy scenes as horsemen filed their stable registrations, and with secretary William H. Shelleys full crew on hand, this work was being rushed to completion. The plant, too, is in order, and fans who journey to visit Lincoln Fields Thursday will find the picturesque course at its loveliest.
