view raw text
Open Major Season At Crete on Monday Extensive Preparations for Lincoln Fields Thirty-Day Meet Have Been Completed ■ CRETE, 111., May 15.— With the drawing tomorrow of entries for the inaugural program, the stage will be set for the opening = on Monday of the 30-day meeting of the e Lincoln Fields Jockey Club at this popular i South Side course. Stuyvesant Peabody, president, and Col. Matt J. Winn, executive director, have completed extensive preparations for the meeting which opens the major track racing season in Illinois and, with interest in the sport running high everywhere, Lincoln Fields seems assured of much success. Not in many years has Lincoln Fields . faced an opening with prospects so bright. Many of the countrys most prominent J racing establishments are sending their . horses here and with them are coming I some of the nations leading jockeys. The desirability of racing in one sector • throughout the summer is appealing to » owners of many of the larger stables and 1 most of those who participate in the Lincoln ; Fields session will be found also at Arlington Park, Washington Park and j Hawthorne, as their meetings come along . later. Large Entry List to Stakes The Crete track has made it attractive for the better horses in that it had carded five generously endowed stakes as well as numerous daily features designed to keep the more widely known thoroughbreds active throughout the 30 days. Incidentally, nominations for the five stakes closed today, and C. Bruce Head, presiding steward, says their numbers will near record proportions. Horsemens response to these features is most encouraging, Head said. Nomina- tions, he asserted, have come from many sections of the country and each of the headliners should have splendid renewals. After mail postmarked by midnight to- night has had a chance to arrive, the ] entries will be checked and probably will be announced in their entirety early next week. The first of these features is the Crete | Handicap, scheduled for next Saturday, May 23, and then on successive Saturdays will come runnings of the Francis S. Pea- , body Memorial Handicap, the Joliet Stakes, ! the La Salle Handicap and the Lincoln J Handicap. Horses were coming in here today in ! Continued on Page Seven ■ | Major Racing Season Starts at Crete Monday Extensive Preparations for Lincoln Fields Meet Completed Continued from Page One ever increasing numbers. Vans plied the entire day between the West Side tracks, Hawthorne and Sportsmans Park, and Lincoln Fields and more were coming from Louisville, from where most of the larger stables are coming. Meanwhile, the racing secretarys staff was deep in the task of registering these stables as they checked in. Larry C. Bo- I genschutz and James T. Clark were look- I ing after this work, pending the arrival of | secretary William H. Shelley. The opening program, for which entries will be taken tomorrow morning, will embrace eight races featured by the Grand Crossing Handicap, a six-furlong sprint for thrpe-year-olds and upward. Three other attractive events on this card are the Chicago Heights Purse, at a mile, for three-year-olds; the Kensington Purse, at six furlongs, for three-year-olds and upward, and the Freshman Purse, at five furlongs, for two-year-olds. The Grand Crossing Handicap and the Freshman Purse will be of especial interest to fans, for the handicap is sure to bring out a number of horses who will compete the end of the week in the Crete Handicap, and the Freshman will draw several candidates for the richer Joliet Stakes.
