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MODERN TRAINERS AND TRAINING. Soorts of the Times Asks a Pertinent Question and Recites a Few Facts. In llio COVK of :i 1 1 article growing out of the question "Has ! In American trainer of thorough lied horses deteriorated in li is ability to train thoroughbred horses?" :m able waiter in Sports of tin Times s:ijs: •"Only the oilier SSJ ■■ year-: ■+■• to tlie more mature mi n the average trainer of hi_;!i cla s stork was looked npoo as a species of mild demigod, lie was supposed to bare the faculty of weJng severs] inelies nihler the skin of his charges, ami to have almost Infallible knowledge of what they conld do. ami still more Important what they were about to do. What were railed stable secrets* wire Jealously guarded, in Bnglaud special men of busky pbyslque were employed at each training stable with orders to watch night and day lor outside spies i. e.. touta, and no ancient alchemist in search of the fabled Philosophers stone wrought amid inch seclusions ;is did the trainer of a .rood horse. ••The Interesting part is that the trainer of those past chivs undoubtedly did not know much that he claimed. The record of the Btngllsb turf is rich in horses which were headed for the Derby or other somewhat minor dun still vastly Important prises. and won them the iirst time out. .lust twenty years ago the dead PendragOB. one of the greatest Sporting writers that ever lived, astonished his thousands of readers in March of that year by an Bouncing that, bar accident, he hoped to give the winner- of everj one of the twelve classics of the year." publishing the names on the Sunday previous to the race. This, in those days, could only be il I inside infoini.it ion. and the feai was accomplished. He gave the winner id the Champagne, the One and Two rbousand Guineas, Derby, iiaks. si. Leger, Cambridgeshire, Cesarewltch, etc. a- promised, ami later gave his acknowledgements to certain owners and trainers Who had helped him with advance Information. Judging from in currcm is in the past season of American racing in the esst, such a thing would he absolutely and Unequivocally impossible to any New York writer. ""Mere m America We hae had trainers making a specialty of knowing i he capacity of their charges to the proverbial "tick. These men won the Kentucky Derby, Brooklyn Handicap. Brighton Derby. ami many other race- first crack out of the box, as the sporting slang runs, hut by some freak of Fortune they are today side tracked in favor of younger nun. who. if Judged by their work of the present season, have much to explain. "When Captain S. S. Brown, of Pittsburg, died lasi spring he left a stable just approaching maturity. !or many years tin Captain hail been a prominent racing man. but. with many others, he thought lie knew more than any one else. He mated his mares by rule of thumb, following his Individual thought, rather than by studying pedigrees from the scientific slandpoini. Like most other American breeders of prominence, he had magnificent Imported mar. -. but a poor lot Judged by produce of native or semi native sires. lie would not dream of giving for a good imported stallion the equivalent of what live important mares had cost him. and in this curiouslj blind Stand lie was not alone. "Finally, he was persuaded to s laylight. He tried to bay Ard Patrick, and failing, on tin- advice of Peter Wimnier he engaged W. II. Row,-, the pedigree expert, to take two dozen r his best mares :i ii,l ell him BOH best to breed them to win in tiie iwovcarohi ear of the produce, especially naming the Saratoga Special a- the main objective point. He had ah. i.L bred twice and failed. Before the product was seadj to race. Captain s. s. Brown died, ami his trainer assumed charge until the horses slMMild be sold in midsummer. One well bred colt. Salvidere, by Belvidere Sallie of Navarre, was liked b Sam Dmory. looking to establish a stable. His agent was told by tbe trainer: "Dont bother about ii.it colt, hes nothing but a plater; Penarris beat him in his work: ami Mi". Rmorj wis ready to give ,000 but withdrew. The colt was sold ;il :iu. lion. ".lack McCiimis and Charles White were the two bidders, neither giving way 111 to ,500; then the astute John B. Madden whispered lo M.-i .hulls: "lou dont want that colt. Hes been blistered and lir.d. and needs a years rest. Thrown off his ixdse. McGinnis ceased to bid. and I White secured the colt for .*::.7 M . where Kinory i would have gtves the estate 83 MK . The Brown «i trainer thought it a good sale. I "In less than a month Salvidere had won for his g new owner. Thomas Hitchcock, Jr. whom White . represented, a matter of 9,880, and he had been t; ottered another 0,000 for the coil and declined fi il. Madden had instructed White to bid to keep competition down. Madden bought tin colt as a likely steeplechaser for Mr. Hitchcock, trieil him over four furlongs in :4A and threw his hands up in amazement: "This is not a Jumper, its u I stake horse. When Salvidere turned out so well. 6 McGinniS smarting under the clever trick of Madden. 6 BOUgbt legal advice to set the -lie aside, and to € E4 sue damages from Madden on the glonud of SB- g justly depreciating the value of the horse, and a series of other legal entanglements. Unfortunately, Investigation proved that the horse really had. been J liuiitl.v blistered and tiled as a coll. and so was lost l a tarf Cause celchre which would have made new J history, and a number of extremely wholesome ° precedents regarding individual conduct ai a horse ] -ah-. ■ « •hie could overlook a trainer being mistaken in 6 a single horse, but Salvidere proved only one of 6 many. Prank Gill was another from tiie Drown . stable sold tor a song, which, in tin- new stable, i ■ began to win right along, under weight and over a distance, until his owner. McCiimis. was offered , 5,000 for tbe colt in the public paddock and declined the offer. i r "The .lames K. Keese stable is one of the most II important on the turf, beading the list of winning owners, and its destinies are guided by possibly i the highest priced trainers in the east. Yet vear i after year the Keene youngsters have been obviously ,; only half-broken at the barrier, the crack Sysonby c sickened and died, and Delhi, Will Mint. etc. fell 6 by the wax side, only the two-year-obis keeping the ball rolling with steady victories in a notoriously J poor two year old year. The climax came at Brighton "J Beach, -Inly 2s. the rich Brighton Junior Stakes • ,,f 5,000 guaranteed, good weather, and a fas 1 track: seven horses in the race, of which the Keene . trainer started three. Ballot, 127 pounds: Peter Pan, 126; Superman, 12". pounds, at six furkmge, the t odds being 1 to :; against any m I the Keene trio winning. This was farcial. when August Bel- moots BnWT mount made the pace to the stretch. four furlongs in :I7 . to be passed by Salvidere under 11! pounds, winning hands down by four t lengths; Chases way of Herman ;. Duryea second, t at 50 to 1; Superman, third: Rosemount, fourth; t Peter Pan, Ballot, and Golf Ball, in thai order in ] 1:13 . i •"What a uasp went round the trainers gallery at the utter lack of knowledge Of condition oh- vlously held bj the Keene trainer. Four weeks . previously Ballot ran live and a half furlongs in 1:06 under 123 pounds, and lie was fresh from a long rest. Nine days later Peter Pan, under 125 pounds, ran five and a half furlongs, to .in. in 1:06$, and nine more days later ran -i furlongs ] under i "li pounds in 1:121, possibly i . 11 paper 1 he i best two-year-old race of the year. At Brighton | Beach tbe trainer simply did not know that his | charges were not ready. li has been slated that, i ill tbe spring the Keene trainer Offered ex -Jockej , Spencer three tillics for 00 each, one of which was Veil, by Disguise Bituriea, which later won her , first race in a gallop, and The Beldame 12 pounds. Ave furlongs in :•"••». ber only other start, against Adoration, Loring, etc. What is Veil worth today 1 "The vacillation of the average trainer was shown in a thousand ways during the season. Many of them wished to do away with the serve-raking bull i whips in the hands of the assistant starters, which i are calculated i" drive a bigh-spirited horse crasy. A certain trainer of veals was made a committee I I , one to ask the stewards to slop the whips. This wis done at . The whips were praCticaflj . abolished. Three days later the committee of one man was back at the stewards asking that a certain hoi- his be whipped from the post. Taking the bulk of the trainers during 1906 it was as tin- , French President, Thiers, said of the Irish: "They .lo not know what they want, and they will not rest until they gel it. ■What is the verdict? Has the American trainer deteriorated. Is the training really such a mystic •hi. I- reiiicarnal ion at work and has there inulti pile. I on the reappearance on earth that Wonderful trainer who blistered a horse for a sore back, ami then galloped him thirteen times around a small field to see if he "could stay;
