Centennial Park Nearing All in Readiness Stage: Schooling From Gate Under Way; Workouts Increasing Each Day, Daily Racing Form, 1951-06-14

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Centennial Park Nearing All in Readiness7 Stage Schooling From Gate Under Way; Workouts Increasing Each Day LITTLETON, Colo., June 13. — With opening day only slightly over two weeks off, Centennial Park is rapidly nearing the stage where all will be in complete readiness for the opening day throng expected j on Saturday, June 30. John Woodward, superintendent of Centennial Park, has full crews of carpenters, electricians and gar- j deners putting in full time readying the grandstand, clubhouse and Turf Club. In the racing secretarys office? Bill Mil-ner, assistant to secretary Ivan Thomas has already started the long task of registering the some 900 thoroughbreds which will be on hand for the 50-day meeting. To date Milner has had some 2,000 applicants for the 900 stalls and assures us that well before opening day the Centennial supply of stall space will have been completely exhausted. He again warns all horsemen against shipping to Centennial Park until they have received written confirmation of their stall space. C. H. McMillans starting gate was "set" , early Monday morning and schooling was started that day. Handling the schooling duties in the absence of McMillan is L. G. "Sonny" Crockett, who serves as assistant to McMillan during the Centennial meeting. McMillan is currently doing the starting at Fairmount Park, but is expected at Centennial Park in time to send the first field away on opening day. Workouts at Centennial Park have been increasing daily, and with the arrival of Hal Duncan, Daily Racing Form clocker, on Monday the tempo is expected to step up even more. Duncan arrived Sunday from Hollywood Park and made his first "tab" Monday morning when he caught some 20 works. The number was doubled on Tuesday. Among the most recent arrivals at Centennial was trainer Johnny Fouts who checked in with six horses belonging to Neil S. McCarthy, Frank C. Brophy and Kemper Chaffin. For McCarthy, Fouts brought the Irish importation, Soodani, who as a three-year-old, .finished third to Noor in the Irish Derby. Soodani apparently has at least found his racing legs in this country, since he turned in two sparkling victories this spring while campaigning at Arizona Downs. The other McCarthy owned horse is a two-year-old colt, Placida, who also raced well in Phoenix. Brophy sent Munificent and Breakaway here. The former is a two-year-old who showed fine speed in allowance dashes this past winter, while Breakaway has confined his efforts to quarter horse races. Chaffin will be represented by the fleet four-year-old filly Hijo Lanty, who turned in six winning races during the winter season at Phoenix. Meanwhile, general manager Willard F. "Bill" Tunney returned to Centennial from a trip which took him to Hollywood Park and to Chicago, where he visited Washington Park. Tunney indicated that a number of prominent stables were shipping to Centennial Park from both tracks for the meeting here.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1950s/drf1951061401/drf1951061401_39_1
Local Identifier: drf1951061401_39_1
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800