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j Steger Handicap Heads Lincoln Card [Ten Crack Sprinters Entered In 0,000 Mid-Week Event Dry Run, Crete Victor, Willt Face Pomace, Joe Graves, Jet Fleet and Baybrook Again HAWTHORNE, Cicero, HI., May 26.— The Steger Handicap, for many years a stake fixture at Lincoln Fields meetings but now an overnight event, will feature an attractive program at Hawthorne tomorrow. Minus its nominating and starting fees the Steger continues to carry a purse of 0,-000. Ten of the best sprinters now campaigning here were entered for the six and one-half furlongs feature of the mid-week program. They represent nine different interests, trainer Harry Trotsek having entered both Pomace and Big Stretch for the Hasty House Farm of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Reuben, of Toledo, Ohio. The five-year-old stallion Dry Run, owned by P. J. McMullen, of Detroit, and trained by Roy C. Adams, of Champaign, 111., who won the 0,000 added Crete Handicap here on opening day, is the top weight in the Steger with 117 pounds, three more than his impost in the Crete, which was his third victory of the year. The bay son of Sky Raider — Miss Joker was one of the most consistent performers on the Chicago circuit last year. His two wins prior to the Crete this year were scored at Gulf-stream Park in Florida. Nature put Dry Runs legs on him in a rather unorthodox style, but at the same time endowed him with the ability to use them to good advantage as they are. The McMullen horse seemed ready for another fray when he breezed three -eighths on the slow track this morning. Pomace Picks Up Two Pounds Four of those who finished behind Dry Run in the Crete will come out against him again in the Steger. Pomace, who had 112 pounds up in the stake and finished second a length off the winner, will carry 114 in the Steger. Pomace had a head advantage over R. R. Thomas Joe Graves in the Crete when the latter carried IIOV2 pounds. Joe Graves has 112 pounds to carry tomorrow. Mrs. J. L. Knights Bay-brook, who was only a head behind Joe Graves in the Crete, will carry the same weight, 113 pounds, in the Steger. Sam E. Wilsons Jet Fleet, with 112 pounds, drops two pounds. Pomace was purchased by the Hasty House owners recently from George D. Wideners Erdeuheim Farm. The four-year-old chestnut gelding won his first start of the year at Hialeah. In the Churchill Downs Handicap he was beaten a head by Roaming. He next finished third to Jet Fleet and Baybrook in an overnight handicap at Louisville. His running mate, Big Stretch, a late purchase from Green-tree Stable, for whom he was a stakes winner, has yet to win his first race of the current season. He carries 108 pounds tomorrow. Joe Graves has won two races and has been unplaced only once in six starts this year. He gave Smoke Screen two pounds and beat him at New Orleans last February. Baybrook, winner of the George Woolf Memorial Stakes as a two-year-old in 1951, has started only twice this season after being idle last year. Jet Fleet has won six of his 11 starts this year, following a successful season in 1952, when he won nine races and placed in four others. Completing the 10-horse field for the Steger Handicap will be F. W. Hoopers Heliowise, 114, winner of three this year; Fairway Farms Recline, 113, who won the Illinois Owners Handicap at Hawthorne last fall; T. M. Daniels Jet Ace, 109, with two 1953 victories to his credit, and J. S. Bradleys Sun David, 112. CHARLES J. McLENN AN — Racing secretary at the Detroit Race Course, announced his weights for Saturdays Alger Memorial Purse.
