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Route Racing Emphasized At Ak-Sar-Ben This Week Total of 21 Races at Mile or Oyer Booked by Dick Leigh OMAHA, Neb.. June 29. "Ak-Sar-Bens great 1942 meeting, which is setting a new high in turf performance in this sector, moves into the home stretch at Omaha - tomorrow. . JThe session which has attracted thousands of visitors from Nebraska and western Iowa as well as more distant points, ends this Saturday. For the final week-end Dick Leigh, secretary and presiding steward, has arranged a thrilling program topped by the Independence Day Handicap for a purse of ,200 and the. ,000 Ben Holmes Memorial. The Ben Holmes Memorial, over a distance of two miles and 70 yards, will furnish the supreme test of the 1942 meeting for the stout-hearted routers who have written such a colorful chapter into the annals of- Ak-Sar-Ben racing this season. With the Independence Day Stake, it will cap a glittering nine-event card that will mark Ak-Sar-Bens race "adieu" for 1942, expected to draw the largest one-day crowd of the season here. Fans who like the distance events will be treated to the most exciting five-day program of the meeting, Leigh declares, pointing to a total of 21 races that he has booked for a mile or more during the coming week. Among them will be another ,200 stake, the Iowa" Handicap on Wednesday, charted for a mile and 70 yards. This, as well as other big stakes of the week, say officials, are sure, to fill, as the cream of many famous stables whose mounts have been making new performance records make their final bid for their share of Ak-Sar-Bens "50,000 in 1942 purses. Highlights of the week, and of the 1942 meeting for Nebraska owners, comes Thursday in the Nebraska Futurity. For two-year-olds foaled in Nebraska, the event will be an added money affair of 00 if seven or more in this start and 00 for six interests. Secretary Homer Southwick of the Nebraska Thoroughbred Breeders Association, which sponsors the Futurity, anticipates a full field on the basis of eligible nominees. The week will also bring the climax in the race for leading jockey honors at Ak-Sar-Ben. Lyle Whiting, the skillful Shel-ton, Neb., veteran, who led the pack here in 1941, has maintained a lead taken early in the 1942 races. But in the past week plucky Fritz Becker and Ted Malear have been gradually whittling down Whitings margin to a point where the Nebraskan is by no means sure of the coveted trophy and wrist watch.
