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Chicago Harness Scene Shifts to Sportsmans Fox Valley Session Opens With Ovaltine Pace in Two Divisions By Staff Correspondent SPORTSMANS PARK, Cicero, 111., June 1. Harness racings wheels, big and little, begin rolling in high gear Monday night when the 78-night co-ordinated meetings of Fox Valley and Chicago Downs get under way here at Sportsmans Park. President Max Brock of Fox Valley "takes the reins Monday night through July 6 with Chicago Downs taking over from July 8 through August 31. Mondays card honors the oldest of the Sportsmans sulky clubs. The Ovaltine Club of Villa Park will be honored with the running of the ,000 Ovaltine Pace, which drew 22 entrants and was split into two divisions, the seventh and eighth races. The Ovaltine Club started attending Cicero harness races with a group of only 35 five years ago. Monday night they will have more than 200 honoring the winner Continued on Page Forty-Thru Chicago Harness Scene Shifts to Sportsmans Fox Valley Session Opens With Ovaltine Pace in Two Divisions Continued from Page One with, their own trophy besides the blanket which the track management presents to j all stakes winners. More than ,250,000 in purses are to be distributed during the meeting with several 0,000 and 5,000 events. Saturday will see a 5,000 three-year-old pace, the Fort Dearborn. The Trans-American series will also be raced twice; on June 21 at the Fox Valley meet and later in August at the Chicago Downs session. This race has all of the nations top four and fiver-year-olds nominated. Also on tap during the Cicero session will be the Grand Circuit week in which another 00,000 in purses will be on the line. The five-eigths mile racing strip proved popular -with both fans and horsemen last year. The Sportsmans Park stretch is comparable to most mile tracks and thus gives all horses a chance even after making that last turn home. Many horses were seen winning from seventh and eighth as they came into the stretch last year which naturally brought screams from the stands. The air conditioned clubhouse and huge grandstand which is equipped with elevators is another reason Sportsmans is considered the finest harness oval in the Midwest. The Congress Street Expressway will be available for harness fans for the first time this year. Coupled with the new Laramie Ave. bridge it is now possible to drive to Sportsmans Park from the loop in less than 20 minutes. Brock explained: "We have the purses, the top horses and drivers in the country, a well equipped track with better transportation available. Give us some weather and a fast track and well show the world that Chicago is the harness capital of the nation." It was pointed out that the Hamble-tonians running in Du Quoin, 111., this year, will lure more top stables here with most of them stopping at Sportsmans. Brock also pointed out that the 1956 season was the first in Fox Valley history in which there were no rain-outs. "The Sportsmans grounds are geared up for any kind of weather which made it possible for us to race many nights when most tracks would be rained out."
