Marcus Dalys Breeding Venture: Lavish Scale on Which the Montana Turfman Operated, Daily Racing Form, 1907-12-06

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MARCUS DALYS BREEDING VENTURE. . Lavish Scale on Which the Montana Turf- man Operated. Talking about horse sales in the Garden, mention was made of previous big auctions, especially the Marcus Daly sale, when Ed Tipton said: "There was the greatest man that ever went into the business in this country. I bought horses for him for nine years, and I never had but one order and that was to get the best and there was no limit. Buying horses is a business in which a man can make bad mistakes, too, but Marcus Daly understood that and he always stood by his buyers action. Some idea of the big way in which Mr. Daly went into the game may be drawn from the prices at the Daly estate sale. The aggregate fox both trotters and thoroughbreds for the entire properties was ,550. "I went with Marcus Daly as a buyer In 1S00. 1 was then secretary of the Kentucky Trotting Horse Breeders Association. In January, 1S9G, Mr. Daly wanted to start racing at Butte, and I went there arid built the new tracks and stands at both Butte and Anaconda. Racing there was always a great success. There was no bookmaking, only mutuels and auction pools. We had about forty-eight days racing in the season at the two tracks, and some idea of the business may be had when I tell you that in three years, from 1S9G to 1S08 inclusive, over 0,000,000 was handled in the 9 inutuels and auction pools. At five per cent, commission, you can see that that was fairly remunerative. The racing began the latter part of June and it was splendidly patronized. Everybody had money and liked the sport and liked to bet. "Marcus Daly was a great breeder of both thoroughbreds and trotters. He began breeding about 18S7. His father was a country gentleman in Ireland and thoroughbred breeder before him. At Bitter Hoot Stud in Montana, in thoroughbreds he bad Tammany, Montana, Balhampton, Inverness and later Hamburg. He had 100 marcs each of thor-ougbbrcds and trotters. He had both the dam of Sysonby and the dam of Colin, Optimo and Pastor-clla, at Bitter Root. Stud. I bought Lady Reel for him for 5,000 from Captain Sam Brown, of Christiausburgt Ky., and her first foal afterward brought 0,000, the next 0,000 and the third 15,000 as a suckling. "His great trotting sires were Prodigal, Bow Bells, Ponce De Leon, and Mllroy. I really couldnt tell you whether Mr. Daly liked the trotters or the thoroughbreds best. He showed that he was forid of both, by the big prices lie was willing to pay for them, but as a matter of fact it depended much on whose company he was In as to which lie gave the preference. He generally felt about first to see whether bis man was a thoroughbred man or devoted to the trotters before he expressed himself strongly. "Ogden, his Futurity winner, was bred in Ire-j Jaud, and he owned his dam, Orioe. He also owned j ; 1 J , , Sain. Ogden and Sain were out the same year and as Sain did not make good he was sold as a two-year-old for ,000 to Lee Shaner of California. Afterward Barney Schreiber bought him and put him In the stud. When Ogden won the Futurity Mr. Daly won over 00,000 in bets on the colt. He paid John Madden 0,001 for Hamburg as a two-year-old. "Now the Bitter Root Stud Farm is a thing of the past, so far as thoroughbred breeding is concerned, but It raises the finest hay in the world. The Bitter Root valley is one of the finest thoroughbred breeding places in the world. The climate and water are perfect, and I know of no place except Kentucky which can equal it for raising thoroughbreds. Racing ought still to be a great enterprise at Butte and Anaconda and if I had no other business I would like nothing better than to take np the two tracks again and run them. They must be -immensely profitable to the people who are now handling them." Morning Telegraph. .


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