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KENTUCKY RACING NEAR Expect Banner Attendance Saturday at Famous Churchill Downs. Improvements Not Entirely Finished Derby Open Race, With Chance Sun a Fading, Favorite. LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 25 Although much is being done to increase the capacity of the plant for Derby day, when an all-time record crowd is expected to overflow the course, famous old Churchill Downs may not be looking its finest for Saturdays opening of the sixty-first annual spring meeting at that track. Rough spots and unfinished improvements will not prevent a new high attendance at the seasons inauguration. Such was the outlook today, forty-eight hours before the curtain ascends on a meeting scheduled to extend over nine-teen days. Racing enthusiasm here is running so high that only the worst possible variety of weather can prevent a record attendance at the opening. Taking cognizance of the feverish and wide-spread interest, Col. M. J. Winn, executive director of the Downs, today ordered an almost complete suspension Saturday of work in many parts of the plant. Louisville was never more agog over a Downs meeting. Like interest prevails throughout the Ohio Valley and Blue Grass belt, according to reports received here. In addition to the sixty-first Kentucky Derby to be staged on May 4, the second Saturday of the meeting, and which definitely shapes up as the most open race in all the long history of the rich and prized Blue Grass classic, the Clark Handicap, Bash-ford Manor Stakes and Kentucky Oaks are to be renewed luring the nineteen days of spring sport. y CLARIC HANDICAP OUTLOOK. The CUrk Handicap, carrying ,500 added monev,"for three-year-olds and over, will be run Saturday with Bazaar, Fiji, Frank Or-mynt, South Gallant, Brustigert and others meeting in the opening day renewal of this . old fixture at one mile and one-sixteenth. The Bashford Manor Stakes, for two-year-olds, is down for decision on Saturday, May 11, while the Kentucky Oaks, for thre-year-old fillies, will top the final program on Saturday. May 18. The largest and possibly classiest array of racing material ever assembled for a local meeting will be available. Every stall at both the Downs and nearby Douglas Park is filled and some of the more prominent stables at the two courses include those of Mrs. F. C. Mars, E. R. Bradley, C. V. Whitney, P. A. and R. J. Nash, T C Worden, Charles T Fisher, Johnson N. Camden, John Marsch, T. and T. C. Piatt, Warren Wright, M. Goldblatt, J. Lowenstein, M. Lowenstein, Mrs. F. M. Grabner, J. C. Milam, Conn Smith, W. F. Axton estate, A. L. Ferguson, W. J. Hirsch, Mason and Hanger, W. E. Hupp, T. McCaffrey, C. B. Shaffer, E. D. Shaffer, J. W. Parrish, Roscoe Goose. Sach-senmaier and Reuter, A. B. Gallaher estate, J. E. Widener, Wm. E. Smith, Jouett Shouse and many others. CHANCE SUN NOT WORK HORSE. Poor form displayed by J. E. Wideners Chance Sun, "slipping" favorite for the race, in a workout yesterday, only served to make the coming Kentucky Derby more of a puzzle. While Pete Coyne, trainer of the Widener hopeful, freely admitted that the trial was far below what he had anticipated, he is not discouraged. He continues to cling to a belief which he expressed weeks ago, "That Chance Sun will run a great deal faster than he works." The son of Chance Shot was, according to Coyne, never a good worker. Unless Coyne revises his program, Chance Sun will start for the first time as a three-year-old in a seven furlong condition race here Saturday and again in next Tuesdays mile Preparation Purse before the big race. Coyne believes that actual racing will do him much good and others who know the Widener candidate prefer to wait until after Tuesdays race before condemning the eastern-owned hopeful. All trace of the lameness that gripped Silversmith while working with Chance Sun Continued on nineteenth page. KENTUCKY RACING NEAR Continued from first page. yesterday had disappeared this morning. It Is believed that the colt struck himself during the trial. Although Phil Reuter has done nothing -with the Texas Derby winner, Roman Soldier, since the star of winter racing reached here three days ago, there is a strong suspicion that the black son of Cohort may be the post favorite for the Downs classic. Those who make a careful study of weighing the judgment of racings closer students, are rather confident that unless Chance Sun comes through with two sparkling performances in his pre-Derby engagements or the running of the Wood Memorial Stakes at Jamaica, Saturday, produces a stronger eastern threat than seaboard racing to date has revealed, Roman Soldier may be the public choice. Roman Soldier will not be seen under colors before the Derby. Announcement to that effect was made this morning by Reu-ter. Having shipped well and acted extraordinarily good since reaching the local track, Roman Soldier, promises to come up to his next engagement in great form. Whiskolo, Mrs. F. C. Mars son of Diavolo, which finished second to Roman Soldier in the Texas Derby, breezed a mile here this morning over a fast course in 1:42. He was accompanied by Blue Armor, another of the Mars Derby eligibles. They ran the quarter in :25, half in :5i and three-. quarters in 1:16. J. J. Flanigans Chanceview, Louisvilles own candidate and also slated for racing before Derby day showed smart improvement when he clicked off a like distance in 1:43 today. Well in hand throughout, he stepped the initial quarter mile in :25, half mile in :50 and three-quarters in 1:16. Back in active training, following a weeks lay off, Mrs. R. B. Fairbanks Bluebeard stepped five furlongs in 1:01. He was paced by Gamaliel and the former Widener racer covered the distance in the fast time of 1:01.
