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Expect Detroit Influx From Churchill Downs Many Regulars Ship to Motor City Course Over Week-End FAIR GROUNDS, Detroit, Mich., May 19. — The thoroughbred sport is to get under way here on Saturday, May 24, and this Woodward Avenue racing grounds will be in operation for a 73-day period, its spring and summer meeting to conclude on August 16. General manager Edward P. Strong and racing secretary and handicapper Charles F. Henry are on the grounds, and Strong recently announced that the spacious Fair Grounds plant is ready for the inaugural 1947 program. Stables from many racing points are expected for the impending meeting, and general superintendent Carter C. Curtiss and track superintendent John Oliver Brown stated here today that practically all stall space is taken. Some of the better-known establishments ready for campaigning at the Motor City course are those of Mrs. Norman B. Hernandez, which was sent here from the New Orleans Fair Grounds; a division of Charles T. Fishers Dixiana, and the Earl H. Beezley unit, consisting of 15 thoroughbreds. Following the conclusion of the Kentucky spring season at Churchill Downs Saturday, many regular Detroit stables are en route here from the Kentucky Derby oval. Among those assigned stalls for the forthcoming session are William E. Ball, the Dearborn Stable, Inc., in charge of W. Lyle Dowling; Henry Forrests powerful string, the George White-trained public stable, Milton Shagrins unit, conditioned by the veteran, R. T. Watts; Jesse Trent. Kenneth Noe, D. R. McDaniel, Al Wellman, with the Detroit Stable, Inc.; Mrs. Lottie Wolf and Harry Trotsek, who will have 50 horses for racing at the Fair Grounds. Minimum purse at the Fair Grounds will be ,800, but overnight allowance and handicap events will range in value to 0,-000. On the initial program this year, the 1947 renewals of the 0,000 Boots and Saddles Handicap, and the ,000 Man o War Handicap are to be decided and both these attractions are for three-year-olds and upward. The Man o War will be run at one mile and one-sixteenth, while the Boots and Saddles, traditional opening day headliner, is a six-furlong sprint. There will be no twilight racing at the Detroit Fair Grounds and post time for the first race daily will be 2:15 p. m. Another major change in the racing department was the announcement that an "also-eligible" list is to be carried this season. Races will be drawn to 12 entries and four "also-eligibles," a departure from other years when each event was drawn to an even dozen starters, with the exception of overnight handicaps.
