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THE HORSE OF THE TEAK TEAKThe The question Which is the horse of the year comes around as regularly as the racing season and once the discussion begins there is no stopping it until well after all the dates on the racing calendar have been filled Even then the question is rarely settled to the satisfaction oE all those interested in its solution It often happens that the horse of the year is two horses Each has its partisans and they will argue themselves blue in trying to convince the other fellows that their choice is the real cham ¬ pion At the end of last year for instance the friends of Kinley Mack and the friends of Ethel bert were no more willing to agree as to which was the faster of the two than they were at the beginning says an eastern editorial writer writerThe The racea at Saratoga have yet to be run and the fall meetings at Sheepshead Bay Gravesend Morris Park and Aqueduct are yet open for the clearing of titles Before the ques ¬ tion can be satisfactorily settled however some standards must be established by which to judge the horse of the year What must ho achieve in order to be declared the champion Shall he be selected because of his winning a few fashionable stakes from noted company Or because running in all kinds of weather and in all kinds of company and at all kinds of distances he fonght his battles as he found them and got the money It was by such a standard that the horse of the year was judged in tha old days of the American turf In the days of Kingfisher and Enquirer of Harry Bas sett and Longfellow and Preaknesiand Glenelg of Alarm and Tom Bowling and Springbok and Buckdenthat horse was declared the champion which picked up his burden whatever it might be and carried it first past the winning post most frequently no matter what his opponents might be or whence they camo camoBefore Before Commando was beaten by The Para ¬ der it was often said that this particular three yearold of Mr Keenos was tha greatest horee which had appeared in a decade and that it was only about once in ten years that a really great thoroughbred was produced Great thor ¬ oughbreds have had a habit of appearing oft ener than once in a decade and the probabili ¬ ties are that the habit will continue In 1870 there were throe Kingfisher and Enquirer divided the honors in the threeyearold divi ¬ sion and Helmbold was probably the best of the allagers Longfellow was a threeyearold in 1870 but he did not reveal his real quality until the following year Then Harry Bassett and Salina were threeyearolds and who shall say that these were not great race horses Harry Bassett and Longfellow the latter Bas setts senior by one year met and raced and walloped each other until their performances made the year famous on the American turf In 1872 there were the memorable contests be ¬ tween Woodbine and Eolus and Fellowcraft and Buckden and Alarm fought it out for cham ¬ pionship honors in the threeyearold division In 1873 there were Catesby and Slyboots and Tom Bowling all horses that left their impress on the American turf and they followed each other in quick succession successionComing Coming down the years Duke of Magenta and Himyar the sire of Domino and Bramble and Pique were threeyearolds that fonght for the championship in 1878 Duke of Magenta won the title became he suffered but one defeat and won the most money Himyar was a close sec ¬ ond and Bramble was not far behind In 1S79 Harold and Ferida that wonderful mare of George L Lorillards that never found a jour ¬ ney too long and Uncas and Monitor and Spend ¬ thrift were the threeyearolds that lent lustre to their year In 1880 Luke Blackburn perhaps the greatest of tha get of Bonnie Scotland and the greatest horse in their opinion over owned by the brothers Dwyer appeared and it did not take him long to prove that he was without the shadow of a doubt the best of his yoar yoarA A different story might have been told had Pierre Lorillards Sensation of the same age as Luke Blackburn continued as a threeyearold his whirlwind record of the year before When Sensation was a twoyearold there was nothing on four legs of equal years that he could not beat The record shows that great horses fol ¬ lowed immediately after Luke Blackbnrn and Sensation for in 1881 Hindoo and Thora were winning the races for threeyearolds And then followed Rnnnymede and Barnes and Drake Carter and Bootjack and Pearl Jennings and Getaway and Eole and Miss Woodford and Sal vator and Tonny straight down to the days of Hanover and Tremont Handspring and Re ¬ quital The Butterflies Hastings Domino Dobbins and Hamburg HamburgThis This is the recent record of the blue book of the American turf It shows that the great thoroughbreds have not been so far apart The record also shows that the horses entitled to be called truly great were the horses that asked and took no particular odds from any of the runners of their time By this standard the champion of this year mnst be chosen If Con roy can perform again as he did in the Brook ¬ lyn Handicap if he can win races in any kind of going and company he will come pretty near having a clean title to the championship of 1901
