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-- BESSIE SPAHK. Concerning the crack filly Bessie Spahr, her former trainor Capt. Buck Franklin said recently: "Soma surpriso was expressed that so good a filly should not have bean raced until fall, but it was not a case of dodging the cracks when they wero at their best to get a soft spot for hor and make, a clotm up, as they say these days. But for a bit of bad luck she would have been cut loose at Washington Park when at a long price a sure enough clean up could have been mnde. When I took tho Clay and Woodford horses at Latonia everything in tha bar j had throat trouble with tho exception of old Pink Coat. That kept Bessie and the other two-year-olds from racing at the Hawthorne and Harlem spring meetings. I went right to doctoring them and got them io good shape at Chicago. One morning at Washington Park I worked Bessie five-eighths of a mile with a strapping boy up in 59L Dont you think that would havo got the money anywhro? We decided to start her in a race at flvo-oighths which came up a few days later, but fortune was once mora against us. When wo went over to Washington Park thay gave us our end of a barn, the other end of which Johnny McHale had. Well, sir, when everything seemed to be looking the brightest I found one morning on going to the stable that about all Mc-Hales horses had laryngitis, and our threa two-year-olds all contracted tha dissaBS again. That, of course, put Bessie out of business and that explains why she did not run until tho fall meeting at Harlem. With any kind of luck we would have won a number of races with her before wa ever got .to start her, for, as I say, fit and as she was when aha worked that remarkable Ave eighths for ma, I believe that she would have given Abe Frank and Endurance by Right, at their best, trouble to beat her. Oh, no. Mr. Cook got a grand and a cheap mara in her. She could go a distance too, for on two different occasions she worked a mile for mo in 1:41, and each time sho had up mora weight than she carried in either of her races. I am euro she will be a great throe-year-old one of the best in the country." "No, she is not in any of next years Oaks How did it happen that sho was not entered? Why, the trutb is, when it waa time to make entries for the big filly events of 1802 Mr, Woodford did not think she was of stake calib3r. In fact, he did think she was of much account. Why, I said to him ono day when I was at hiB place and looked her over. Thats a nice filly, Mr. Woodford. Well, if you think Jso, Captain, you can have her for 00, he replied. But I had jnat coma up from New-Orleans, and after a bad winter did not have 00, .and I couldnt take what 1 knew was the greatest bargain that was ever offered ma. I told him, though, that ha would find that ha had greatly underestimated the value of tha filly, and, of course, time has borne mo out in my judgment. Well, Clay and Woodford havo five nice yearlings now, and among them is a half brother to Bessie Spahr, a slashing colt by Flying Dutchman Elizabeth H, I tell you if nothing goes wrong with that fellow he will ba one of tha cracks next Beason. Old Pink Coat bids fair to duplicate, his successes of tho past threa soaBons again next year. Ha went into winter: quarters as fine aa silk."
