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VIRGINIA HOME OF GWYN TOMPKINS Many Good Thoroughbreds of CrossCountry Fame Quartered There Sea Horses Bad Luck Washington D C March 31 To the New Yorker accustomed to the congested streets and narrow confines of the great metropolis a day in the country is a treat indeed It was my happy destiny to spend Sunday at the comfortable home of Gwyn Tompkins Situated three miles from the old town of Warrenton Va which is but fiftyfour miles from Washington Warrenton has long been known as the hoire of a colony of horse enthusiasts and Mr Tompkins about three years ago satisfied his lifelong desire and pur ¬ chased a desirable bit of property about 100 acres in all upon which he set to work and built the best equipped stable for race horses that I have ever seen It is long enough to provide a sevenlap to the mile hay ride where his hovss do indoor work when t is necessary but the only bad month of the winter was February and for much of the inclement season outdoor work has been the rule The stable is supplied with acetylene gas made on the premises water from springs pumped by gasoline engines into a tank capable of holding 5500 gallons an Ice house filled with ice gathered from his own pond are features which caught my eye as we sauntered over the rich Virginia soil and heard the story of some of the ups and downs on the turf of this capable horseman horsemanA A threequarter mile track on turf the last part of it uphill with a rise of thirtythree feet Is one of the uniisunl things we saw Straight down the center of the iniicld is a twelvefoot wide fenccdln corral a furlong long with an enlarged circle at either end aifd brush jumps at frequent intervals arranged as to work on hinges so that young stee ¬ plechase horses can jump from the proper angles and here Mr Tompkins schools nil his young horses destined for the crosscountry game He has for years devoted himself to Hteepleclmsing but is not averse to handling young flat racers ultimately meant for jumping One such Tenakoe was dis ¬ qualified at Benning last year for second place in which he was beaten out a few inches for first money and as long odds were laid against him to win and place you can imnginc what It meant to his owner when the horse was set back to last place for a foul foulI I was surprised to see at 3Ir Tompkins place the New Zealand stallion Sea Horse for which 15000 was paid by Mr Cotton his employer in Eng ¬ land a few years ago a short time before the Liver ¬ pool Grand National Mr Cotton who is now off the turf for it is hoped only a brief period has long been noted as a liberal patron of cross ¬ country sport It was his lavish expenditures which brought Sea Horse and Phil May to this coun ¬ try It was contemplated to purchase the noted Leinster but the asking price was considered un ¬ reasonably high Commentators on the viccisitudes of racing think It bard that the great crosscountry prize should not have fallen to a man like Mr Cotton who was willing to pay any reasonable price for the right sort of jumper and be won by a castoff like Rublo which was sold for as small a figure as 00 Such however is the nature of the game gameSea Sea Horse met with au accident in a steeplechase at Saratoga three or four seasons ago when on al form he would have won easily but for the misfor ¬ tune He struck the post of a fence with his near hind foot and broke the bones in that member The pastern is weak and nearly goes to the ground racer for crosscountry work which has ever freed a jump On one occasion Mr Tompkins worked him one and a half miles on the flat in 230 Thomas Hitchcock saw the work and said to Mr Tompkins I take off my hat to the best steeplechaser in America He ran in two races at Saratoga In one declaration to win with a stable companion was made as it was Sea Horses first chase in public In America and it was deemed prudent to give him a tryout without costing racegoers anything as the stable was coupled in the betting Up to the last three furlongs the stable mate Alamansor was winning easily and Sea Horse was kept back under a strangling pull But all at once the rider of Alamansor felt him going lame the result of having struck into himself and cutting a deep wound and then it became necessary for Sea Horse to win if he could He was called on to close up a big gap but though going like a steam engine at the finish it was too late and Maiden won for Mr Colt This was not so bad but when Sea Horse met with his misfortune in his next race it nearly sent Mr Tompkins to a sanitarium Now the New Zealand horse is in Virginia after two seasons in Kentucky Sanford Lyne has written to Mr Tompkins to say that the get of Sea Horse are among the best in the state and is eager to have the horse back there About a dozen steeplechasers are how at the Vir ginia home of Mr Tompkins and with the com mencement of the Belmont Park season they will be seen in public They include Jimmy Lane St Nick Loudoun Light Motor Selectus Dr Hellsworth and a few joungcr ones destined later on for crosscountry work Mrs Tompkins wife of the proprietor is the proud owner of the fiveyearold Peep oDay horse Limcham which seems destined to be a credit to his stable As the trainer of Lavaton for J W Colt Mr Tompkins achieved the highest honors supplemented Contlndelfoa slxtb page VIRGINIA HOME OF GWYN TOMPKINS Continued from first page with the victories of St Jude for Mr Cotton but those are only a few of his many crosscountry winners He developed Can Can many years ago In 1SOS jiiiit ten years ngo luck was against him and he had one little marc called Frond The story of how she won her first race at one of the Canadian tracks the privations which her owner had under ¬ gone for some time before this good luck came to him would make a column Suffice it to say that a friend went to New York and won 12000 on Frond on joint account Mr Tompkins drew the amount of the purse handed to his tKiisting head lad suliicient money to pay outstanding accounts then took the train for New York He met his friend at the Hoffman House Go take a bath and then well have breakfast said this friend to the horse ¬ man Not on your life was the quick response brsakfast first and the bath later And such a uial as he made Well WellYou You in Chicago are well aware of what sort of a consistent little mare Frond proved to be She gave Tompkins a new lease of life Now ten years later he is the happy contented owner of a perfectly appointed home the occupant of a house fitted up with all the modern appliances of civilized life the owner of a stable of horses whose earnings average 15000 a year and sufliciently master of himself to say This is good enough for me for the balance of my days daysMr Mr Tompkins is a believer in natural methods In training Ho never worked Lavator a longer distance than a mile and a quarter at his best speed yet he was the most perfectly trained horse to go three miles over crosscountry with the pace hot all the way that we have seen of late years A long time ago he traded the broken down HIndoocruft for the little mare Ballyhoo since famous as the dam of the Futurity winner Ballyhoo Bey She had been run down in fiesh said Tompkins and so for sixteen days I myself led her by a halter all over this green fields at Saratoga wherever she could get Ti tlbble of rich grass On the seventeenth day I won a good race with her and in fact won three races out of four fourHe He did not say so but I think that the ambition of Mr Tompkins life Is to go to England as trainer for his good friends MessrsGwathmey and Weld pick out a desirable Grand National candidate and train him in his own way I feel certain that he could Improve on some of the castiron methods of old time trainers J J Burke
