The Picket At Saratoga., Daily Racing Form, 1903-07-23

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THE PICKET AT SARATOGA. The Picket is in Saratoga. MiddletOn and Jungbluths American Derby winner, the conqueror of Savable and Claude, four times a " i Derby winner in the west, arrived from Chi-* cago today in the charge of Carroll Reid. The trip was made safely an expeditiously •■ ■ accept for a three hours delay at Albany, .-which did not in the least upset the good temper of The picket. When his train pulled into the Delaware and Hudson Railway sta- tion at 2 oclock The Picket and his five " traveling companions were tearing off xnouthfuis of hay from bales situated con-i yenlently near their stalls. He was ready near, says a letter of July 20, from Saratoga to Morning Telegraph. "Tou would not suppose that that fellow had just finished a tiresome twelve-hundred-mile trip in a crowded car, would you?" remarked Mr. Reid, as he eyed The Picket affectionately. "He is as sober and unconcerned as he was the day he entered the cars. I do not believe the trip has affected him. But I cannot, t of course, speak authoritatively on that subject until I have sent him out for a stiff gallop. "When he will gallop depends, of course, upon the weather here." All the horsemen at Horse Haven and the big track of the Saratoga Association were anxious to have a look at the horse which ran away from the gallant Savable and won the richest and most coveted of American three-year-old races after having led all the way. Mr. Reid was unable to gratify them. A pelting rain was falling when the train arrived, and The Picket was led from his car covered completely by blankets and a waterproof jacket to keep away colds. Only his legs, his tail, his muzzle and his ears were visible. I was luckier than the horsemen. Mr. Reid stripped the colt for me in the car before leading him out. The Picket is not a horse of the heroic mold of Water Boy and Irish Lad. He more nearly suggests Goldsmith or stout little Roehampton. He is a stocky bay, high at the withers, powerfully muscled about the shoulders and quarters and nicely coupled. He stands a bit over 15 hands 3 inches. His back is short and his body is supported by four cleanly chiseled sinewy legs. The hind ones were free enough from pimples and windgalls, but the forelegs were swathed in bandages. "He is not unsound," Mr. Reid told me, when I looked inquiringly at the bandages. "Those wrappings are merely a precaution. This colt never took a lame step in his life. But he struck himself on the near foreleg just above the ankle in the American Derby. I am not certain whether this occurred as he was leaving the post or after the finish, when they threw a floral horseshoe over his neck. The bright colors of the flowers and the clamor of the crowd startled him. He jumped quickly to one side. "He did not become lame from this knock, but a few days afterward boils formed on the injured leg. I poulticed them pretty much as a mother poultices a boys neck, and in due course they opened naturally. The Picket was restive while the boils were coming to heads, but picked up immediately after they burst. I put the bandages on the legs to keep away infection." The Picket will be out on the track in a few days. It is Mr. Reids intention, if all goes well with the Falsetto colt, to start him in the Travers Stakes at one mile and a furlong, to be run on Saturday, August 8, as a side light to the Saratoga Special. That will probably be the first race of the American Derby winner in this part of the country. He will not meet Africander, Golden Maxim or Irish Lad, the star three-year-olds of the eastern division. They are not Travers eligibles. But he may meet Whorler, Reliable, Fire Eater and a few other second raters, so that we may readily find out just where he belongs. After the Travers he will fill his other dates here and then go to Sheepshead Bay to make the Fall circuit. Mr. Reid and the Falsetto colts owners always believed that he would make a good horse over a distance of ground, so they; engaged him liberally in all the Autumnal specials. Out west The Picket ran in the firm name of Middleton and Jungbluth. Here, according to the racing calendar of last week, he will bear the colors of Carl Jungbluth. So will the other members of the Middleton and Jungbluth string — the three-year-olds Shooting Star and Santon and the two-year-olds Jason and Requiter— who came east with the Derby winner. Although Mr. Jungbluth is a New Tork man, a wealthy licorice manufacturer with offices in Fifth avenue, he and Col. Middle-ton, his racing partner, who is a Ken-tuckian, have heretofore confined their racing operations to the west. The Picket is the first good horse the ever brought east. Mr. Jungbluths name will be used in these parts because he calls himself an eastern man. Mr. Jungbluth and Col. Middleton, ■who is a tobacco manufacturer of Louisville, race horses purely for sport. They love the game, but are such busy men they really have no chance to see their horses run. Mr. Jungbluth was in Europe when The Picket ■won the American Derby. Col. Middleton, however, was at Chicago. . Since The Picket has shown first-class form by winning the Derby, Mr. Jungbluth has decided to come back home and see him race in the east. He will sail from Liverpool on July 22 and be here for the Saratoga Associations opening. Col. Middleton and Mr. Jungbluth are particularly pleased with The Picket because they bred him. They have a farm in Kentucky, which is the home of the Volante mare Voltario. They sent "Vol-tario, some four years ago, over to the farm of their Louisville neighbor, George J. Long, to be bred to Falsetto. The Picket was the result of that union.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1900s/drf1903072301/drf1903072301_2_3
Local Identifier: drf1903072301_2_3
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800