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GROWING TURF IN SOUTH AMERICA Race Tracks and Studs of Peiru and Chile to Draw from This Country M A Silvers an American who lives at Lima Peru is gathering some twentyfive American thor ¬ oughbred yearlings together and will take them to South America the latter part of this month The trip is one of twenty days by ship to Colon over the Panama railroad by rail and by ship again to Callao Silvers used to ride around the metropolitan tracks ten or twelve years ago went from here to ride in AustroHungary and in Germany and then to Chile in 1903 with Martin Michaels With Michaels as jockey and Silvers as trainer their suc ¬ cess in Chile was instantaneous Michaels was the leading jockey of Chile during tbe seasons of 1903 and 1904 1904The The Chileans had not tried to dcvelope their horses and the two American horsemen found the sport there in a rather primitive condition Lewis Walker was the only man who had any Argentine horses the best stock in the country Michaels signed a contract to ride for him himIn In 1905 the Chileans began improving their stock by buying in Argentine horses Mr Nava of San ¬ tiago who went to Argentine to buy horses met Charley Gray there He induced Gray to go to Chile with him and added another to the Americans there thereThe The sport was thus given a great uplift In Chile At that time there was only one track the Club Hlplco Now the Club HIppodroma Is also a big success There was no racing In the winter months June July and August although the weather Is delightfully warm there at that time winter con ¬ sisting only of rains Silvers Induced the Hiplco to try winter racing Now It is a regular thing Races are nm at the Hiplco every Sunday and at the HIppodroma every Monday MondayThe The successof Silvers In Chile brought the atten ¬ tion of the Peruvians to him and he was finally persuadetl to go to Lima where he Uas been en ¬ gaged since 1906 He found the sport la Peru in its Infancy In Chile the government had fostered horse racing and breeding by prohibiting bull figTits In Peru Ihc people will Hock to a bull fight and pass by the horse race raceThe The Jockey Club of Lima has been desirous for several years of improving the strain of horses there and of introducing some new blood Their main trouble there is that they have not enough horses to make up n good card It is to obviate this that the club has sent Silvers to this country He countryHe will buy here about twenty yearlings which will be taken back to Lima The club will sell these horses at auction to different owners With this nucleus it Is expected to build up a strain of horses in Pent that will eclipse anything known in western South Ameriaa AmeriaaNext Next year they will have a race for twoyear olds bred in the United States Only a few two yearold races have been run in Peru and they were specials The Peruvians have not been putting their horses on the track until the third year The yearThe biggest breeder and racing man in the country is the Hon August B Leguia who has just been elected president of the republic lie is one of the men most enthusiastic for the development of a su ¬ perior breed of horses He has his own breeding establishment and raises his own horses for racing Aspilligas racingAspilligas Brothers owners of an immense sugar plantation are the only other breeders with the ex ¬ ception of Silvers himself who is associated witli Fred Wakeham in the ownership of a farm They have but five horses now but in another year will have some twoyearolds which they expect to do well Their best animal is the black mare Avonalis bought in San Francisco less than two years ago Silvers believes the next few years will see the abo ¬ lition of bull fighting in Peru and the development of racing to take the place of the brutal national pastime
