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UNCLE JIM GRAYS TURF CAREER Veteran Retires to Oklahoma on Account of Slump Famous Horses He Has Raced RacedUncle Uncle Jim Gray on account of the western racing slump has gone back to his farm at Minco Okla and has taken his pair of twoyearolds by Bowling Green out of Wampezo and Idlebrldge with him Wampezo Is well remembered here as one of the stars of the highrolling Hasty Stable of which Henry lliggius and John Gray Uncle Jims ou were the owners Through Hasty Wampezo Xnldivar and other horses the Hasty Stable was a power in Chicago racing around 1S921S94 But It went the way of Chris Smiths Kendal Stable and other speculative organizations The elder Gray is one of the oldest and best known as well as one of the most respected turfmen in the country He be saiiracing horses away back in the early seventies and has probably owned and trained two score of good ones in his time Some of these were Jim Gray Lucas Galen that finished third to Proctor Kuutt aud Salvator In the Futurity in a huad finish Celsus Foster Henry Burt Tulla Blackburn Free ¬ hold etc Besides Bowling Green he has somcxdozen choice broodmares at his farm and says he Is not too old yet to breed and develop a Futurity winner Bowling Green was bred by the late Captain James B Clay and Is of royal lineage being by King Galop a son of Galopln and out of Captain Clays great mare Playing Fields that never produced anything but winners and has to her credit two of the best broodmares In the stud book He raced successfully and has already earned an enviable reputation In the stud studUncle Uncle Jim Is not an admirer of some modern training methods We race our twoyearolds en ¬ tirely too much said he In fact we race them to death and then complain that we have so few good older horses Instead of drumming twoyear olds from one end of the season to the other they should not be raced more than half a dozen times in their juvenile form Constant drilling of them retards their development and it has the tendency to give them weak joints and weak bone Of course the trainers are not altogether to blame The big money is hung up for the youngsters and trainers are forced to go after it If the money offered in twoyearold stakes were split in two and half of it given for the threeyearolds we would have much better material In the latter class better aged horses and consequently better racing
