Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-02-16
Bowie Bets p
Byt8PerCe
Over Last Year
BY JOSEPH y. KELLY
star Racing Editor

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Bowie moves into its second
full week of mid-winter racing
today. showing an, 10 per cent
betting increase over the first
seven days of last years
meeting.
Until next Saturday. how
ever, there will be no days with
which to compare attendance
and wagering figures because
snowstorm closed Bowie for five
days at this time~last year and
it didn't reopen until Washing
toms Birthday.
Although the nine-race pro-
grams introduced this year are
chiefly responsible for increased
mutuel play. warmer weather
last week was credited by the
MANAGEMENT with drawing lar
ger gates and wagering totals.
Despite showers Saturday
1884 turned out and betting
hit a surprising $1,468,921 to
bring the total for seven days to
$6,542, 735 and a hefty $934,676
daily average.
With six Saturdays and next
Mondays holiday card still to
be tapped, Bowie officials now
are talking about the current
44-day session topping the
highly successful meeting in
1857 when Bowie startled racing
circles by opening a month
earlier than ever attempted in
Maryland.
That first venture with Feb
ruary racing produced a $l.003,-
542 daily average, but last year
bad weather dropped Bowie
back to a $919,450 average for
"a days.
Highlight of the week at
Bowie is the $l2,500 Burch Me-
mortal Handicap Saturday. The
SiX-furlong dash will match
most of the sprinters who per-
formed in the Early Bird purse
and last Thursdays Abraham
Lincoln stakes.
Triple M. Farms Tinkalero,
who ran off with the Lincoln,
is among the early choices, al
though she probably will be
asked to carry more weight
than the lot she toted Thurs
day. Saturdays event also is
a sixteenth of a mile farther.
Racing Secretary John Turn
er, jr., will weight II sprinters
for the Burch, which honors
the memory of William Preston
Burch, father of Preston Burch
the famed trainer. The Burch
was cancelled because of snow
last year.
AS expected, d. Eldred Rine-
hart, chairman of the Maryland
Racing Commission, announced
that the plan to close betting
windows at the Maryland
tracks at post-t time has been
dropped. Instead, the system
of maintaining a 26-minute in
terval schedule, which has been
adhered to closely at Bowie to
date, will be continued.
Jockey Nick Shuk has re-
turned to Florida after getting
little more than two mud baths
Saturday.
He finished fourth with Sit
This Out, who with his stable
Home Port, disappointed
the Bowie bettors in the Miss
Maryland Stakes. Nick was last
with TungSteno, 2-to-1 faVorite
in the eighth race.
Shuk said Sit This Out did
not fancy the sloppy going in
the stakes while Home Port,
the other half of an entry that
was backed down to 13-to-10.-
lost her chances at the start
by breaking slowly.
Jockey Arthur Chambers pi-
loted Nora Dares, who carried
Mrs. Walter A. Edgar's silks
home first in the Miss Mary
land. 1t was the second straight
year that a Maryland-bred g.
year-old filly won the Miss
Maryland.
Trainer Jim Rowan, who
saddled Nora Dares, was being
congratulated by horsemen to-
day for his splendid job in get
ting Nora Dares in tip top form
for her first race of 1859.