view raw text
EASTERN THItEE-TEAIt-OIiDS. An eastern turf writer, after a comparative survey, concludes the three-year-old crop of this year excels that of last year in quality and promise, at least so far as those racing over the New York tracks are concerned, and says: "The remarkable feature of the current autumnal racing season has been the rapid development of high class among eastern three-year-olds. After the breaking down last spring of Compute, and after it became evident that Goldsmith, Yankee, Endurance by Right, Goldseeker, Blue Girl and Chilton would not stand. hard training, the outlook of tha three-year-old division was gloomy, indeed. The shrewdest observers of class and form could not see from what quarter we were going to get any high class colts and fillies past two-year-old, the supporters of the game, utterly disheartened, fell to condemning the American systam of racing which countenances the hard campaigning of baby horses. The prospect became still darker when Heno failed to develop the high class form his two-year-old races warranted Clarence H. Mackay in supposing he possessed, and Dixieline bowed a tendon and Masterman, the Belmont Stakes winner, split a hoof in his preparation for the Lawrence Realization Stakes. "Little was expected of Hyphen, Major Dainger. field and Hermis, the good looking chestnut colt Henry M. Ziegler of Cincinnati brought east in May. If any one had predicted that Colonel Bill would develop into anything better than a selling plater he wonld have been laughed to scorn. The Wagner colt had been disastrously beaten at Morris Park and Gravesend by very cheap horses and the word was passed around that for once, at least, the astute John E. Madden had made a mistake. "Francesco was regarded as an Aqueduct over, night handicap horse at best, not likely to win a race after he got to Sheepshead Bay, and Hyphen was looked upon as merely another Himyar sprinter which had not the remotest chance, even in the hands of the clever and careful Peter Wimmer, of ever staying farther than a mile in good company. "The midsummer meetings failed to brighten the prospect, but during the Saratoga meeting a change set in, and today we have as fine a lot of three-year-olds in training, and in temporary retirement, as has been seen in a decade. None of them is a better horse, perhaps, than Gold Heels or Water Color or Blues was last fall, but they make a better general showing than last seasons bunch did because there are more of them. "Hermis has steadily improved until he has beaten the stoutest and swiftest of the older handicap division at weight for age; Francesco has won the besfhandicap for all ages of the year; Colonel Bill has met and defeated the handicap horses in the Ocean and Omnium Handicaps and has tow-roped the shifty Herbert in an overnight race at one mile and a quarter. Major Daingerfield has conceded weight to a field of stout stayers and beaten them at two miles and a quarter, and Hyphen has beaten Major Daingerfield. Besides these colts Green Morris pair, Sombrero and Cunard, which in the spring wore hardly considered to iba good selling-platers, have shown high class, and The Rival, Runnels and Andy Williams have demonstrated that they can, with a reason able amount of weight up, hold their own with their speedier and more prominent rivals. "We not only have a more numerous bunch of three-year-olds this fall than we had last, but. our horses are sounder. Not one of the colts mentioned has a leg complaint likely to put him out of business next year. Major Daingerfield and Hyphen are on the shelf temporarily because of accidents in races and in training. Hyphen struck himself in one of his preparatory gallops for the Annual Champion race and his leg filled. Major Daingerfield was cut just below the knee in that great-race. His leg has not filled. Hyphen was thrown out of training for the year because Mr. Wimmer is a careful trainer who does not care to jeopardize prospects of a good horse by training him when he is not altogether sound. His retiring Hyphen for the year was a fortunate thing because it makes sure the Himyar colts return to the races next year."
