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Distance Runners Await Opening at ThistleDown Kent-Rayenna Will Inaugurate Series of Five Route Events THISTLEDOWN, Warrensville, Ohio, May 28. — Ohio race tracks have always encouraged distance races and ThistleDown will be no exception to this rule during the coming meeting, which opens next Tuesday. A number of the nations better distance-running platers, who will compete in the 4,000 Ascot Gold Cup at the Akron course, are expected to shift over to Cleveland to try their luck in either or both of the series of route events scheduled there. The Northern Ohio series of five races is limited to horses which have started for a claiming price of ,000 or less since July 4, 1953. The* series is inaugurated with the Kent-Ravenna, a handicap for three-year-olds and upward at one mile and a sixteenth for a purse of ,000. The other four events, the Warren, Canton, Youngs-town and Akron purses, increase in value as the distances increase. The Kent-Ravenna will be staged Wednesday, June 2, and the other races will follow at 10-day intervals. ThistleDown also is planning the second running of the Ohio Presidents series. The first of these races is set for June 5 at one mile and one-eighth, and the last for July 19 at two miles and one-sixteenth. The purses range from ,200 to ,000, and entries are limited to three-year-olds and upward ] which have started for a claiming price of ,000 or less in 1953-1954.
