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HOW APPLEBY "LOST" KING THOMAS. The highest price ever paid for a yearling in America was .?4O,C00. The name of the colt was King Thomas. He was owned by J. B. Haggin and Senator George Hearst, then one of the great turfmen of the period, was eager to get him,as he was a full brother to Bau Fox and King Fox, two high-class racers. "Dave" Johnson at that time had just run ,000 up to .3,000 at the Washington races. He proposed to his partner, L. O. Appleby, that they should put the money into yearlings. King Thomas looked a great racer in embryo, and Johnson began to bid. As the sale progressed and Senator Hearst went higher and higher for King Thomas, Ben AH Haggin said to Johnson, "Davy, whatever you give for the colt we will give yon back half that amount for him as a stallion." Practically.- therefore, Johnson was bidding only half a dollar against every dollar bid by Senator Hearst. When the unprecedented figure of S3S.000 was reached, the colt was knocked down to Appleby and Johnson. Stabling him in Twenty-fourth street, the new owners of the record-price yearling adjourned to the Hoffman House, and there learned that Senator Hearst would give ?4O,00O for the colt. "He is yours," exclaimed Appleby, who had time to cool off from the fever of excitement into which his youthful plunging partner Johnson, had led him. King Thomas was the greatest disappointment on record. He won one race as a four-year-old, but long before this he had burned up fortunes of people all over the country who bet on him because of the high figures he sold at.
