view raw text
E ASTERN TWO-YEAB-OLDS. "There is one question upon which all horsemen are mute. That is the question as to which is the best two-year-old of the season. It is a question which no man can answer convincingly, a tangle which no man can unravel. It was hoped that the running of the Champagne Stakes at Morris Park on Saturday would indicate unerringly the champion of the year, but the running of the Champagne Stakes did nothing more than to make confusion worse confounded. For the running of this race introduced to the circle of claimants for premier honors a new figure in Mrs. L. Curtise filly Euuonin Burch, by Ben Strome The Humber. Pr vious to Saturday it was thought that the issue lay between Whitney and Duryeas Acefull and F. R. Hitchcocks Grey Friar, but to the amazement of hrrsemen of all classes the filly jumped out and boat both of them. It is true that Moltonian got up in time to beat her an eyelash on the wire and that she interfered with Acefull and Grey Friar, for which she very properly was disqualified, but for all that the glory of the race belongs to her. If her boy had kept her straight she must have won, and in any event she had Acefull and Grey Friar beaten to a standstill when the accident occurred," says the New York Evening Sun. "The honors of the race cannot be denied to Eugenia Burch. She met Acefull and Grey Friar at equal weights and beat them fairly, and to Melton-ian, who finished a head in front of her, she conceded fifteen pounds. Moreover, there was nothing fluky about her performance. She did not coma along after Acefull and Grey Friar had raced their heads off. She was within striking distance of them at the head of the stretch and ready and able to go to them at auy time Odom asked her to do so. She ran free and strong until the boy reached for his whip and in doing so let her head go. Then it was that she jostled Acefull, who in turn bumped into Grey Friar. The opinion that she would have won if Odom had kept her straight was so general as to be well nigh unanimous. When he got her straight she again raced strong, but the swerve lost the race for her, Meltonian just getting up in time to win. It was hard to lose such a prize after such a splendid performance, but tho luck of the race was against her. Her admirers may hope for better fortune some other day and not be disappointed, for Eugenia Burch clearly is a filly of high class. At the Brighton meeting, when she won the filly half of the Produce Stakes and other good races, she probably was the best 2-year-old in training, and beyond the shadow of a doubt the best filly then racing. After this meeting, however, she went off a trifle, and it was not until the horses went to Westchester that she returned to her best form. With the filly half of the Matron Stakes to her credit, she set sail for Acefull ana Grey Friar I in the Champagne. How she took their measure, only to be beaten in the last stride by Meltonian, now is racing history, and it forms a chapter of which her admirers with good reason may be proud. Unfortunately, none of the get of her sire has trained on into greatness, but if she should prove to be an exception to the rule turfmen will be well pleased. When all is said and done it must bo admitted that the Champagne was far from being a true run race. In his riding of Acefull. Cochran did not display a particle of judgement. Racing over a seven furlong course he rode him as he might have ridden him if the distance had been five furlongs. The result was that Acefull was a very tired horse at tho end of six furlongs. That he is a game horse hq proved by the desperate struggle which he made in the final furlong. By his riding Cochran not only injured his own chances, but helped to destroy those of Grey Friar as well. Turner on the latter colt plainly feared to let Acefull get too far away from him, and to keep close to him he was obliged to send Grey Friar along at top speed. The inevitable happened when both colts tired badly at the end, although both struggled gamely until the race had been lost and won. Acefull is booked for the Derby, and because of the colors he will carry American horsemen will wish for him the best of good luck in the great English race next year. The colt will be shipped to England on a steamship sailing next week. If John Madden could be induced to go over to prepare him for the blue ribbon of the turf his owners would have reason to look forward to his chances of victory with a great deal more of hope, but Mr. Maddens racing and breeding interests at home are so large and so varied that he could not afford to abandon them, even temporarily. " "Although all- the interest in the. Champagne Stakes centered in the running of Acefull, Grey Friar and Eugenia Burch, turfmen did not forget to congratulate Mr. James A. Galway, the owner of the winner. Meltonian is an imported colt by the famous English horse Melton Argenta, and was purchased by Mr. Galway at the dispersal sale of the Bitter Root stud last winter. His chances of developing into a good three-year-old are all the better for the fact that he was late in comng to hand and was not hurried in any way. Mr. Galway never races a big string, but it seldom happens that he is without a good horse. In recent years he has brought out such good ones as Ethel-bert, Beldomere, Belmar and Adelbert. The latter two horses were gray in color and when at their best it would be hard to match them with any pair of grays that ever raced under a saddle. Meltonian is a solid bay of much substance and good con-formation. As long ago as the Saratoga meeting, such a good judge as Dave Gideon offered 2,000 for him, but Mr. Galway believed that he was a colt of good class and could not be induced to part with him. In the result of the Champagne Stakes he believes that he has found justification for his refusal to sell. "Unable to determine whether the two-year-old championship of 1902 belongs to Acefull, Grey Friar, Eugenia Burch or it may be Meltonian, Sav-able, Mexican or Irish Lad, horsemen are bound to ask how the two-year-olds of this year compare with those of other years. Undoubtedly the two-year-olds of this Beason collectively average high, but when that much is said everything that can be said in their favor is said. There is no colt of the quality of Commando or Domino or Hamburg no colt which roigns over his fellows as these horses, each in his own year, reigned over them. In this year of grace the two-year-old championship is shrouded in a mist so dense as to be impenetrable. The admirers of any one of a half dozen or more two-year-olds may claim the championship for their favorite and attempt to prove his or her right to the title, but the avidence will be far from convincing to the supporters of the other claimants. Tho two-year-old championship of the season of 1902 must ever remain an open question, for with the passing of the Morris Park meeting must pass the opportunity of deciding it, and now it is as open as when the gates were first opened at the first meet-of the year. Gold Heels was the champion of the all aged division and Hermis admittedly is the king of the three-year-olds, but no man may rise and say that this or that colt or filly is the best two-year-old of the -year.
