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. 1 • —w- * r* #■ ..IV .. . ■ f 1 . 1 • —w- * r* #■ ..IV .. . ■ f 1 VICTOR SOVINSKI — Has the capable Lincoln Road in his care. 1#624 Starters New Record at Churchill Number That RanJ.ast Spring New High for Derby Course CHURCHILL DOWNS, Louisville. Ky., May 2.— The 160 races run at Churchill Downs during the 1957 spring meeting, drew 1,624 starters, which was the largest number that had gone to the post in any one meeting at the Louisville track. That total was almost 10 times the number which had started at the inaugural meeting 83 year* earlier. Smallest number of starters ever attracted at a spring meeting over the Louisville course was 117. That number of starters competed for the prizes at the 1878 spring meeting,. However, at two fall meetings there were a smaller number of starters. In the fall of 1876 and 1877 the number of starters was the same, 106. Churchill Downs had been in operation for 31 years before as many as 1,000. starters sought the stakes and purse monies. In the spring of 1905, there were 1,041 starters, and 1,064 in the fall of the same " year. Since 1919 there~has never been less than 1,000 starters at any spring meeting. In most cases the number exceeded that figure by several hundred. Until about fifteen years ago, fall racing at Louisville was not as prolonged as the spring meetings. Thus the number of starters was always considerably less. However, not since 1942 have fewer than 1,200 starters gone to the post here in the fall. The Kentucky Derby of 1928, which was won by Reigh Count, attracted the largest Derby field of all time. It also was the biggest field to run in any race over the Downs course. Excluding the events which matched one horse against time, the smallest fields that have faced the starter here have included two horses. This occurred in the several match races that have been staged at Louisville. ,A number of stakes have attracted only two starters, in several cases it amounted to one horse since the two starters were the property of the same cwner and these races amounted to walkovers for that stable.
