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GREAT YEARLING FIGURES SOUTH AMERICAN YOUNGSTERS FETCH GRAND AVERAGE OF ,790. , High Price, Is 1,600 and Sales Total 02,395 for 344 Head English Racing Com-meht and Gossip. London, Eng., December 1. The public sales of the South American yearlings at Buenos Ayres, Argentina, terminated October 25. Excluding those offered and sold privately, the actual amount realized by the 344 yearlings colts and .fillies, coming from twenty-four different studs, was 2,199,700 pesos, or 02,395. An approximate average of ,790 for 344 youngsters sold. These figures all round are in advance of those realized in 1900, when the grand total was 1,982,-000 pesos, or 07,3S5, which gave an approximate average of ,270 for the 380 yearlings sold from twenty-eight different studs. The highest priced yearlbig was foaled at Messrs. A. and R. Luros El Moro Haras, viz., Espora, by Orange, out of Espuma, by Wagram, which fetclied 1,000. Sceptres yearling filly, which Is now In training at Manton, shapes very well and takes after her dam in appearance. Many people used to predict that Sceptre would be a failure as a broodmare, because she was so hard worked on the turf, but some entertained a precisely contray opinion after seeing her lusty condition when she had been turned out only a month or two in the Egerton House paddocks, when she was on her first visit to Cyllene. She is now In foal all right to Isinglass, though it will be a latish foal. This mating was chosen when Sceptre was first turned out of training, and the result will naturally interest many. Sceptre had but one real fault and that was that her knees troubled her on hard ground. Fortunately there was nothing in the nature of drought in her three and four-year-old seasons, but In her five-year-old season she could not do herself any sort of justice. It is to be hoped that her foals will not Inherit this infirmity, and that some of them, at any rate, will be in other respects as good as their dam. The French correspondent of Sporting Life, writes: "Although startiug price betting is prohibited bylaw in both France and Belgium, a lot goes on under the rose, and police wink the other eye so long as business is conducted honestly and there are no complaints. I know one man in Paris, who has agents at many of the cafes, wine shops and hair dressers, who must take at least 0t000 on a big race day. In Brussels there is a syndicate tbat has its agents in all the provincial towns, and their takings are often over ,000 a day. Yet, bettings away from the race course is illegal. In ..Brussels there is far more betting on French races than on Belgian races, and as everything is settled according to the parl-mutuel returns, disputes do not often occur. "I can still remember when there was an enormous amount of betting in Paris on English races and, when lists were exhibited in the windows of the Rue de Choiseul, which became known at last as Chisselstreet. All manner of frauds were perpetrated and at one otfice lists used to be exhibited showing betting on races which never took place at all. Needless to say, the winner was always a horse that had not been backed. But all that is in the sweet long ago. The Frenchmen have learned wisdom since then and have developed horse racing on their, own account. They are now quite as sharp and wide awake as the English who have taught them the game." , The potency, of the. St. Simon blood in the English race horse is emphasized Ty the statistics of 1907. Sires of winners in 1907 which were themselves got by St. Simon may be divided into four classes, according to the number of winners of races and of amounts won which stand to their names. There are twenty-seven of them altogether. The first class consists of St. Fcusquin, Desmond, Diamond Jubilee, Persimmon, Florizel II., Bill of Portland and Collar. These seven sons of St. Simon are credited with 101 winners, of 201 races and four dead heats, worth among them 55,000. The second class also consists of seven horses, namely Pietermaritzburg, Raeburn, Sollman, William the Third, Perigord, Tarporley and St. Serf They have sired fifty-six winners of 114 races and two dead heats, worth together over 25,000. The third class consists of Childwick, St. Maclou, St. Simonmimi and Simontault. Thirteen of their stock have won seventeen races worth over 2,000. The fourth class, which have each got either one or two winners, comprises Fitzsimon, Leisure Hour, Petros, Quidnumc, St. Aidan, St. Issey, Sidus, Son of a Gun and Toussaint. Among them they have twelve winners of fifteen races, worth more than ,000. The old horse himself would be placed about the middle of the second class of his sons, having x sired seven winners of ten races, worth over 2,000. All this is the record of the year when St. Simon stands for the fifth time in succession at the head, of the list of sires of winning dams. "It was solely to oblige a friend, the late Mr. F. Grettori, with whose racing affairs lie was at thG time closely associated, consented to run Sterling for the Cambridgeshire In 1871, and few who saw that race will ever forget It, for snrely a more exciting finish never was seen," writes Vigilant In a Continued on second page.. , i ; ; , j . . , , , ; GREAT YEARLING FIGURES. Continued from first page. recent number of the London Sportsman. "Sterling was three years old and handicapped at 123 pounds, and under the impression that his task was an impossible one Mr GVctton, who then raced under the name of Mr. Blaydon, did not consent to run him until the Saturday before the race, which was decided on Tuesday. The late Mr. Hamar Bass, who conveyed the message to Mr. Smith, was politely invited to Sit down there and read the paper for a few minutes, and do not speak to any one until I come hack In the course of half an hour the business was done and the huge bet of GC,000 to 1,000 was returned, with 1,300 to 100 for a place in addition. The horse ran and started at 20 to 1, the favorites being Henry, who was destined to win the Ascot Gold Cup in the year following; Favonis, the winner of the Derby; Vest minster, who had won the Cambridgeshire two years before, and Allbrook. The late Tom Chaloner-rode Sterling, George Fordham was on Sabinus, and George-Jarvis had the handling of Allbrook, who carried a pound overweight, which may just have cost him the victory. The last-named won everywhere but at that particular and important point at which the money Is paid, and finally finished a dead heat with Sterling, but even that was not quite good enough to entitle- him to a share of the spoils, for by an almost superhuman effort Fordham got there in the last stride with Sabinus, and literally snatched the verdict by a head. In my opinion that performance was never excelled by himself and all his contemporaries, as well as most people who knew him, dubbed him the finest and most artistic jockey of all time or any other rider, and it was grievously unfortunate for him that through an extraordinary lapse of memory he forgot who it was that had laid him 2,000 to 80 against Sabinus on the night before the race. Jockeys, I may add. were not prohibited from betting in those days. Thus a tremendous coup was just missed by Sterling, who, however, acquitted himself of one of the grandest performances in the history of racing, and Mr. Smiths judgment was fully vindicated by the result, as, indeed, wasihe case when, years afterward, Robert the Devil won the Cesarewitch. That was a remarkable instance "of chance, for Mr. Brewer was on his way to. Weatherbys to scratch the horse when he met his friend, was persuaded to turn back and have a bit of lunch, discussed the matter, and finally decided to run and back the son of Bertram, which won in a canter," At times the slap dash American comments on the British turf naturally riles its sporting journalist. Under the caption "Thumping Lies," the London Sportsman of November 2S, says: "What can possess some of our visitors calling themselves sportsmen to take back home such ludicrous and abominable stories as they from time to time put about? This week we have received two specimens. A Chicago paper quotes one person as saying: " The English trainer .does not train. He turns up in the morning with a top hat and an eye-glass, and, after taking a cursory glance at the lay-out, departs with the assurance that he will see his assistant later In the day. He seldom keeps his word. The principal trainer seldom knows more than one or two horses iu a stable of fifty. He pays little or no attention to the others unless they are engaged in important stakes. That may account for the frequent surprises. " The same journal of the sanjo date whacks a Colonial critic in this style: "From an obscure township in New Zealand comes the following cutting: In England, so -far as he could gather, there were only two classes of people who went to the race meetings the men who went to bet and the women who went to show off their dresses and themselves. To go toa race meeting for the mere pleasure of the sport, as so many did in the Colonies! was an almost unknown thing in England. Then the majority of the prizes were small. Except at Ascot and one or two other meetings, the majority, of the races were for stakes of only a hundred pounds. The "Deutschcr Sport" has been hunting up coincidences, and has discovered that the fact, even should the precocious three-year-old St. Obrian, run with his colt, now a yearling, of a meeting with father and son would not be a record, since in 1SS3 in tho Lcipsic- Handicap Steeplechase Flohtaus ran side by side with his filly, Mauschen. Another record is also destroyed tint constituted by Charles Carter, which has won the Grand Baden Handicap five times running for M. Lienart. with a different horse and jockey, for the Grand Frankfort Steeplechase was won for five consecutive times by the same horse, or rather mare, Victoria, belonging to Mr. Schawel. and trained by G. Herbert, while the rider on each occasion Was Mr. nector Baltazzi. Through Orby, 9,200, and Rhodora, ,935, old Rhoda B., by Hanover Margerine, by Algerlne, is on the winning list of English broodmares of 1907, at the 7,135 mark. Rhoda B. is only twelve years old. The English three-year-old, Gorgos, by Ladas The Gorgon, recently sold for a big price to tie Due de Grammont, has been sent to the big stud farm of that nobleman at Mortefontaine, France.
