view raw text
1 1 r f f t v s t c £ t v. a e j r s r t s t 1 , j £ f s | I c j j t j j 1 I | I 1 t t 1 t i 1 1 l 1 H0MEW00D FOOTING IS FAST 1 Washington Park Officials Believe 1 Races Will Be Run Quickly. Top Dressing Laid On in 1937 Now Thor- r oughly Worked Into Soil— 200 Horses on Hand. The Washington Park race track, always regarded as one of the safest racing surfaces I for the highly strung thoroughbreds, will 1 find additional favor among owners and . trainers when the South Side meeting gets 1 under way July 31. Not only will they learn that the racing 1 strip has retained all of its safety qualities but they will discover their charges stepping 1 down to the wire in faster time. 1 This opinion was expressed Tuesday by general manager John D. Jackson. It is based not only upon his own judgment, but 1 upon that of numerous trainers whose hoises i are now quartered at the Homewood course. Late in the fall of 1937, a new top soil was 1 added. Because of bad weather it was im- i possible to work it sufficiently for last year s | meeting with the result that the oval was off 1 several seconds. Jackson and his track fore- I man, A. R. McPherson, have been more for- I tunate this spring and the daily workout I sheets bear out the statement that speedy i times will be recorded when the horses begin 1 i running there this summer. I ! I The Homewood course has been opened since early in April to care for the overflow from Lincoln Fields. There are more than 200 quartered there now, mostly of the , i plater variety. The daily workout sheets j j show this grade of horses turning out ex- | | ; ceptional time for their class. A number of , , them have stepped three-eighths in thirty- | | seven seconds, the half in :50, while a num- I i i ber of three-quarter works "around the I j | dogs" have shaded 1:17. The "dogs," to the [ uninitiated, are wooden barriers placed next I to the rail to force the horses to work farther , out on the track. I The Washington Park track will be closed for a short period next month during which | the stable area will be thoroughly renovated I j in preparation for the influx of horses for ! the coming meeting. It will be reopened July , 15 when those stables whose reservations have been approved may move in and begin I working their charges. a— . 1
