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GOLD HEELS. Looked at from any point of view one cares to take, Winnie OConnors investment in Gold Heels was a good ono. The winner of the Suburban and Brighton Handicaps and of the Brighton Cup is a cheap horse at ,5C0, even if he never gets to the races again. He has done this year what few horses have done in this country that is, take up top weight and win two of the best handicaps of the year. Kinley Macks triumphs in the Brooklyn and Suburban of 1930 were not greater than Gold Heels. The mighty son of Islington and Songstress met a first-class and highly soasoned Hold in the Suburban, but it did not beat much in the Brooklyn. Old Imp was his most formidable opponent in the great Gravesend race, and the conditions wore against hor. Not being an early horle, she was not up to her best form and the track was muddy. Gold Heels is a horse vory much on the Kinley Mack order. He has neither the size nor graceful proportions the great son of Islington had when in training. He is a small, stockily built colt, with a big barrel. But he possesses the same even disposition, and, like Kinley Mack, is both a sprinter and a stayer. He can hold his own at three-quarters with tho quickest-footed short distance performers, and he can stay two miles and a quarter with the stoutest long distance champions. The field he boat at Westchester last year under scale impost in tho Morris Park weight-for-age race, was the best seen in these parts in twenty years. Every horse that started had a brilliant record, and they were all fit. Water Color, the winner of the Brighton Derby and the Century Stakes ; Blues, the winner of the Second Special; Latson, the winner of the Municipal Handicap; Imp, the winner of a Suburban; Advance Guard, and Maid of Harlem, the winner of the Annual Champion race, were among tho horses that chased him home. He beat them like a good horse, too. He stood a stiff pace from the start and ran through the stretch with unflinching courage. Metropolitan trainers differ in opinion as to the possibility of getting Gold Heels to theracos again. He has a bowed tendon, unquestionably, but the bow is not a very bad one. Matt Allen, the man who picked him out two years ago, in defiance of the opinion of the alleged experts of the east, and mado a champion of him, believes that with proper care and treatment he will stand training again. Mr. Allen says the colt is sound in other respects and ought surely to get over this trouble. Walter Rollins, the genius who. saw promise in Herbert and gave 00 for the Albert colt as a yearling, when nobody else would make a bid, is of the same opinion. Billy Lakeland and otuors take the. other view. They would all like to see Gold Heels "come back," but they contend that not one horse in ten with a bowed tendon recovers his form. One thing is certain, Ed Graves, the man who took charge of the stout little son of The Bard and Heel and Toe after he was knocked down to OConnor, will bring him safely to the races next year if the thing is possible. Mr. Graves is a past master of the delicate art of dctctoring cripples and making them run like stake horses. He took Heliobas, after Albert Featherstones trainer, Julius Bauer, had pronounced him a failure because he happened to be wind broken, and made a great sprinter of the Farandole horse. This is not intended as a reflection on Mr. Bauer. Mr. Featherstones Btring was so strong at the time in horses sound as to wind and limb. Mr. Bauer could not spare the time required to bring Heliobas out. Mr. Graves will also have tho time this winter and next spring to devote to the task of restoring Gold Heels. He will pursue tho same course Mr. Allen followed last winter and spring. Ho will not run risks in the early spring, but will allow Gold Heels to take things comparatively easy until tho Sheepshead Bay June Bession. He may not start him in the Suburban Handicap, but reserve him for the Advance, which, as already related, ho won last summer. The Advanco is a gallop of ono mile and a half, for a purse of about ,0CO, and Gold Heels has always shown a liking for a distance of ground. If Gold Heels gets to the races next season he will carry the colors of OConnor and Co.,. a canary jacket crossed by scarlet sashes and topped by a scarlet cap. Maltster has been running under these silks all summer. The firm of OConnor fc Co. consists of Frank OConnor, a brother of Winnie, and Winnies nncle. Winnie put up most of the money from his earnings these last few years as a rider of the Featherstone stable. He cannot own the horses himself, because jockeys are not permitted to own horses as a general thing under the Bules of Racing. If OConnor owned horses himself, by psrmis-sion of the Judges Club, ho could not under the Rules of Racing ride any except his own. The Jockoy Club, it will be remembered, put such restrictions on John J. McCafferty six years ago, when the popular Texan owned a stable and regularly took out a jockeys license. I If Gold Heels fails to race again he will probably be retired to Kenmore farm, the placo leased a couple of years ago by Albert Featherstone, and tho present home of the stallion Previous, one of tho best two-year-olds of the season of 1E97 and a four- J year-old of quality in 1899. Mr. Featherstone has j plenty of room for Gold Heels at Kenmore Farm and would be delighted to do anything he could to ! accommodate Winnie OConnor. He and Julius Bauer took OConnor out of Father Bill Dalys hands several years ago and made a finished jockey of him. Daly had already done the rough work, and he had done it well. No man is better qualified than the Sage of Hartford to put a boy, ambitious to bocome a jockey, through his early paces. OConnor is the best graduate of his kindergarten since Snappor Garrisons time. He had a bit of hard luck through the summer and lost some of his popularity, but he has been doing good work since coming back from Saratoga and is rapidly regaining favor again. Gold Heels has had a varied and interesting career. He was bought by the Hon. W C. Whitney as a yearling and turned over to the clever but hopelessly erratic Sam Hildreth to be developed. He spent a winter in the destructive Wheatley Hills climate which has put so many of Mr. Whitneys famous horses out of business, and came through unscathed. He was, however, a failure as a two-year-old in the spring of 1900. Hildreth tried to rush him into condition too early and he could not stand being ruehed. When Mr. Whitney decided to discharge Hildreth from his employ Hildreth appealed to him for a horse or so with which to begin business on his own hook. Mr. Whitney told him to pick out a two-year-old and take him for a nominal price. Hildroths choice fell upon Gold Heels and Mr. Whitney let him have the stout little son of The Bard Heel and Toe for ,200. In a fortnights time Hildreth had sold Gold Heels to Dave Sloan for ,500. Who Sloans angel was did not develop. Gold Heels did not have many stake dates, but Sloan picked a number of purse races and handicaps for him and he wore himeolf out bo-fore the season was over. It was because Gold Heels d:d not win any of the big two-year-old stakes, that the smart folk overlooked him and ridiculed Mr. Allen, when, acting andi the agent of Gen F. C. McLewee and James Brady, he bought the colt for ,500. Bonnibert, the winner of the National Stallion race at Morris Park and several important stakes at Saratoga, had just been knocked down to Frank "Farrell for ,100, and it was said that if Gold Hoels was worth ,500, the Albert two-year-old was worth 0,0C0. When Mr. Allen heard of this he offered to bet ,000 that Gold Heels would beat Bonnibert the first time the two colts came together as three-year-olds. No one took the Tennessee turfman up, but Gold Heels beat Bonnibert the first timo they met. It was in a race of one mile and a f arlong at Brighton Beach in July, 1901. The colt by The Bard beat the colt by Albert all the way.Daily America.
