view raw text
j I . All Set for Detroit Opening Tomorrow Response to Stakes Already Closed Highly Gratifying, Secretary McLennan Says FAIR GROUNDS, Detroit, Mich., May 11. — The thoroughbred sport will return to the Fair Grounds track here Friday, when the Michigan Racing Association presents its 80-day summer meeting. President E. E. Dale Shaffer and general manager M. Joseph Lynch are presently directing a big staff engaged in readying the Woodward Avenue plant for the opening of the 1949 Motor City racing season. • No organization in the history of the local course has presented such an extensive handicap and stake program as the MRA will offer and this array of attractions undoubtedly will bring some of the strongest stables in the nation to Detroit. Racing secretary and handicapper Charles J. McLetnnan recently announced that the response to the added money features thus far has been beyond the expectations of he and his assistants and that thoroughbred followers in this area are to be treated to top class sport. Opportunities for Juveniles The Graduation, five and a half furlong allowance stake for two-year-olds; the Champion Stakes, six furlong allowance race for horses from the same age division, and the six-furlong Tomboy, allowance test for two-year-old fillies all carry 5,000 added money. Three-year-old fillies are to meet in the Cavalcade, mile and a furlong allowance race; three-year-old fillies will clash in the Rose Leaves at the same distance, while the Col. F. M. Alger Memorial Handicap, also at nine furlongs, is designed for three-year-olds and older. The latter three stake offerings all are worth 5,000 added. Fillies and mares, three years old and older, will go postward in two middle-distance tests that probably will prove highlights of the forthcoming season. The Tup* Handicap and the Governors Lady Handicap, at a mile and a sixteenth and nine furlongs, respectively, are each worth 5,000 added. Other stake offerings on the Fair Grounds schedule, and endowed with purses of 0,000 added, are the Motor City, Royal Oak, Lightning, Governors Handicap and the Belle Isle Handicap. The last-named feature, a mile and a half run on the turf, may bring out Dix-ianas crack grass-track performer, Galloway, who set an American record for a mile and a furlong at Washington Park last August. The Fisher stars 1:49% for that distance is not likely to be bettered for a long time. Galloway is in the shipment Charles T. Fisher is sending here next week from Churchill Downs. Other special attractions are the Frontier, Border City and Maple Leaf, all worth 5,000; the Lansing, Powder Puff, Curtain Up and Boots and Saddle Handicaps, 0,000 added, and 10 fixtures worth ,500 each. There will be a liberal sprinkling of overnight numbers which will carry much higher purses than the ,500 minimum.