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THE LITTLE SAINT CASE Richard Crokers Croakers purchase of the colt Little Saint at the conclusion of a selling race at San down Park last month was considered to be one of the sensations of the English racing season The incident is thus described in the Sportsman Mr Croker Crocker remembering I dare say the manner in which ho and Mr Dwyer used to be run up for their selling race winners in their first campaign here three years ago decided to turn the tables on the Britisher British Anyhow he kept remorselessly bidding on and Mr Beau ¬ mont standing on the right of the auctioneer and charged with the responsible duty of buy ¬ ing King in began to turn almost as white as his hat as one hundred after another was steadily rolled up At first people had been taking little notice of what was going on but when 1000 guineas was reached excitement began to sim shim ¬ mer mere and as the strange duel continued quite a crowd gathered at the foot of the rostrum and Little Saint was left to wa k about wherever his attendant could find an open space spaceNo space No one took any notice of him all attention was focused on the rival bidders They ad ¬ vanced vance only at tens at a time and this only made the dogged perseverance of each more noticeable When men jump 50 or 100 at a bid you know the contest will not be a long one but here it bade fair to be interminable Some one near me remarked that Mr Croker Crocker meant having the colt even if he had to give 3000 guineas for him I daresay this was so Any ¬ how he went grimly on to 1600 guineas and then Mr Beaumont gave up in despair Mr Croker Crocker was boss of that show He got the colt and those standing around gave him a cheer for what had been a nice round of sport sportAnother Portsmouth Another writer says What cruel luck to be sure to have tumbled up against the American who hardly ever bids for a plater platter but when he does is an awkward customer to tackle for he can stay with the best of them He seemed highly amused over this deal The other side looked mighty serioxus serious Overtures were I understand made after the sale to get Little Saint back but Mr Croker Crocker naturally enough would not entertain the idea Sixteen hundred guineas is a bit of a record for a plater platter entered to be sold for fifty but likely enough it is that Mr Croker Crocker has when all is said and done not got hold of the worst end of the bar ¬ gain Commenting on this transaction W H Rowe says in Morning Telegraph Little Saint is by Friars Balsam out of Little Emily Friars Balsam has had some very nice representatives running in America the most conspicuous having been The Friar Voter and Casseopia Cassiopeia Little Emily is by Wis Wigs ¬ dom out of Lady Emily she by Distin Dustin out of Sappho Sapphic and is the property of Mr E H Watt Little Saint was himself sold as a yearling for 600 guineas at Doncaster Downcast last September his pur pour ¬ chaser being Mr Cresswell Crosswalk in whose colors he scored the victory which led to his being se ¬ cured by Mr Croker Crocker CrokerWhile Crocker While Mr Croker Crocker has been scoffed at by some English newspapers for giving such a long price for a selling plater platter it should not be overlooked that the colts party had bid almost the same figure in their desire to retain him the inference being reasonably fair that those who ought to know best considered him worth to them within a trifling sum of what Mr Cro Cero ¬ ker kern paid Let us hope that Mr Croker Crocker will have the best of luck with his purchase and that Little Saint will carry the Yale blue gold tassel to victory in many nice races Mr Cro Cero ¬ ker kern despite continuous bad luck has all along proved himself a genuine sportsman and it is vastly to his credit that he soon gave evidence of his disapproval of the policy of his erstwhile mentor mentorWhat mentor What the Dwyer policy has this year accom Tacoma ¬ plished polished in overracing overacting and misusing such good horses as Previous Kingdon Kingdom and Sly Fox would almost certainly have been Dobbins fate in 1894 but for the reason as was generally under ¬ stood at the time that Mr Croker Crocker put his foot down and insisted that the colt should be re ¬ served for his stake engagements Our English cousins have no end of respect for Mr Crokers Croakers sportsmanlike acceptance of the many unkind knocks to which ill fortune has subjected him and I am sure one can discover in reading be ¬ tween teen the lines of the previously quoted ex ¬ tracts that their authors cherished a secret gratification that Mr Croker Crocker had caught an English owner out of lino limo at the selling race game gameSelling annealing Selling races are manipulated very differ ¬ ently gently in England from the stereotyped manner to which wo have become accustomed over here While with us it is comparatively excep except ¬ tional tonal to have a winner bid up or a beaten horse claimed these are matters of every day occurrence in England And it is quite need ¬ less to add that the purpose of selling races is thereby much more thoroughly served Even the largest and most influential establish ¬ ments aments take a hand in the game and horses are almost daily changing hands In conse cone ¬ quence quenched of this competition in the matter the public really gets a great deal of pleasure as well as profit out of these events the profit arising of course from having backed the right un while the spectacle of such a horse as Harry Reed winning race after race at odds on and entered to be sold for only a fractional part of his value is positively un ¬ known notto motto say impossible impossibleIt impossible It is interesting to note that Americans have been concerned in the two highest priced bid ¬ dings in the history of English selling races Unless my memory and information serves me wrongly Little Saints purchase bylMr blamer Croker Crocker for 1600 guineas has been approached only by Mr M F Dwyers Dyers retention of old Banquet for 1510 guineas at Newmarket Newark in the spring of 1895 It will also be remembered that Mr Dwyer was forced to bid 1250 guineas to retain Harry Reed a few weeks after tlie lie Banquet episode
