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I 1 I ■ , 1 I MOST VENERABLE OF AMERICAN TRAINERS. Incidents in the Long Career of William Jennings Oldest Turfman of Maryland. One of tbe picturesque figures to be seen at the Pimlieo race track ou sunny days during the Maryland Jockey Clubs meetings, is the venerable William Jennings, of Mount Wasliiiigton. Born in Kil-dare. Ireland, sixty-eight years ago. he inherited ■ natural love for the horse, says the Baltimore Sun, and shortly aft r his arrival in this country as a young man. secured employment in riding and training horses iu Canada and after a few years s|Hiit there, he came to Kentucky and took charge of the famous old Woodhurn Farm and the horses of R. A. Al-xaudcr. From 1808 to 1879 fie w-as engaged in breeding horses in Kentucky ou his own farm, removing in the last-named year to Maryland and purchasing his present farm, which has since been named Glengar. after one of the many famous horses lie bred and reared there. It contains about 100 acres and 110 breeding establishment in Maryland can show a better percentage of performers than have been brought out from the paddocks of old Glengar. For yeai the little Mount Washington farm kept sending stake winner after stake winner to the races and tbe name of •.Maryland" Jennings and the blue and white cap were known oil every track iu the country. It is a long list of winners that the Venerable trainer lias saddled. Some of these that readily come lo mind are Bl— more. Balllnkeel, Glcnmound. Dutch Roller. Duuhoyii-, Roller, Dutch Skater, llazclhatch. Rolling Boer. Sailor King and Malabar. Glenmore. whose victories brought fame and many, ducats to the house of Jennings, was a golden chestnut by ;leii Athol, and could run all day. He won the Louie Stakes, four-mile heats, at Pimlieo. ■mining twelve miles that afternoon and putting three heats as close together as they will ever be seen. Four horses were entered in the race — Gleninorc. Willie D.. Loulanier and Charlie Bush. Willie 1. won the first heat iu 7:29;. l»iilanior and Charlie Bush lieing distanced. Gleninorc took the second heat in 7:30j. and the third in 7:31. Twelve miles in one afternoon was a great fas* to sei a horse and would have sent the sprinter.! of today to tbe lioneyard. It did-not trouble Glen-more, and the next year be came right back and won the Coney Island Cup. at two and a quarter miles, beating the cracks of the country. It was io this race that Mr. Jennings made one of the greatest coups of his career. Naturally, Mr. Jennings always felt very kindly toward his old breadwinner, Glenmore, but in speaking of his winners recently, be said: "Nearly everybody thinks that Glenmore was the best horse I ever owned, but that is not so. I thought a great deal of him. but Kildare was, by all odds, the best horse ever in my stable. He won every time 1 asked liiin. He died of colic in Mobile in 1870. I bad him entered iu the first Dixie here and paid 50 forfeit ou him, preferring to keep him for a rich southern stake. Kildare was by Lexington out of Lou Horton." Ballinkeel, by Asteroid. — Scltottische. by Albion, was another horse that Mr. Jennings valued highly. Ballinkeel won the National, Louisville aud Westchester Cups in 1S75. The principal stallion at the Jennings farm for many years was Dutch Boiler, which dbd last year at the ripe old age of twenty-six. Dutch Boiler, by Dutch Skater, was imported iu utero by James It. Keene and turned out a good race horse. As a two-year-old he won the Great Lastern Handicap. Mr. Jennings bought him in I*S7 from Mr. Keene, and, after winning him out iu a one and three-quarters mile race at Sheepshead Bay, retired him lo tilt* stud at Gbngar. Had Dutch Boiler stood in Kentucky with access to high-bred matrons of the blue grass region, he would have made his mark. As it was. with the limited opportunities offered him at Glengar, he got a list of winners that any establishment might be proud of. Nearly everything that he got could race some. Mr. Jennings stood Atlantic, a son of Sensation, at Glengar for some years, but he proved a failure. Speaking of luck iu horses, Mr. Jennings said recently: "I sup|Hised I bad a world-beater in Glengar. by Dutch Holler and Lena. He was a full brother to Dutch Skater, and a tine, big horse and a grand looker. He showed me such rattling fast trials that I thought I had the btg events in a sling. 1 turu-d down an offer of 5,000 for him. "I started him for the first time at Morris Park in 1899. and he went to the i»ost an 8 to 5 favorite. He ran in the lead for half a mile, but somebody bumped him. and then lie dropped out of it. He was chicken-hearted and would not race up to his trials, just the opposite of his full brother. Dutch Skater. He was a great disappointment to me aud I sold him for a comparatively small sum. "Now for the other side of it. You know I had Sport in iny stable. He was an ugly brute and sulker, and I determined to get rid of him. Mr. Gilpin asked me what I would take for him and I priced him at . I00. "There was no sale then, but a few days later Mr. Gilpin came around and said I will take Sport at ,000. " No. I said, my price is ,500 today.* Again he went away and I thought it was all off. "Later, however. Mr. Gilpin put iu an appenr.inc- and said: I will take tbe horse at ,500." "Rather as a joke I said: No. I want ,000 for blm. Continued on sixth page. MOST VENERABLE OF AMERICAN TRAINERS. ••utiniieU ff-ui first page. 1 ■ "Well, let tue see him, said the persistent buyer. •I opened Ihe box and let Mr. Gilpin in. Sport lashed out his heel* ami landed his future owner all in a heap in the corner. •1 supposed, of course, it was all off now. but no. Mr. Gilpin said. -1 will take the rascal, and the trade was closed at once. "Well, you know how Sport turned out. He was ■K of the best three -year-olds of his year, and won a big Mini of money for his owner. Gilpin was offend 5,000 for him at one time, and yet 1 MM liiiu as a go id-for-iiotbiiig. and had held on to Gfcagar, for which 1 might have taken 5,000." Mr. Jennings might have added that perhaps Ik1 was .1 little too hasty in getting rid of Glengar. IMi one turned oat one of the best junipers in the country after Mr. Jennings Mli him. He won many a stake in the coloi of Henry Paget, and when he bioke his neck in a MM country race was considered a top-iiotcher. lia- the last half dozen years Mr. Jennings has been out of the active ranks. Rheumatism, contra led at Aqueduct, has crippled him so that hi cannot move about, and he has been compelled to leave the care of his stable to his son, William Jeniiin-. Jr. Mr. Jennings i | trailer of the old school of the Waldeii-.VIcKaiiiel-Huggiiis type and is iu little sympathy with modern methods. Speaking of the Jacii.g game recently he said: •Things are very diflcient now from in my time. Horses, trainers and fMfcffs hav. hanged, and we have the modern get 1 i li .piick method, in place of the old time patient and thorough course. We have great horse* no doubt, today, but they are spiintis Merely. Where will you fiud any lour-uiile horse like Gleninorc. or any long distance performers like Luke Blackburn. Monitor. Parole. Duke ol Mageula and doz*W ol other-, that 1 could r:liie? •Training methods, too. arc diner, nt. Nowadays Lit If the trainers let their hordes run themselves lata condition, but iu the old days that was not invisible. With only three or four-day meetings your horse had to M on edge and point. -d for his in.c. or ..ii . oiild not win. In those days, too, the trainer was with Ills horses all the time «t|. and slepi rtilh them. Nowadays the up to date liaii.er lias ■ room at lh.- Waldorf Astoria, and Lls lolcuiau iand lcit 10 look after the hoists. •"And then the Itoys — how different they are. The little monkeys at the present time know nothing but to get away from the post and scurry home as fast as possible. There is none of the cool, patient judgment of pace that made Isaac Murphy-such a master. "Discipline, too, is lacking among the jockeys. In the old days they slept at the stable, under the constant watch of the trainer, and Were brought up as a father would bring up his son. Nowadays, after the races they hurry oft" to town. and. left to themselves, fall into evil ways. "I cant see where the moderns have improved ti|H»n the old ways. In fact. I think they have gone back."
