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HOW CASTLETON YEARLINGS LEARN TO RACE Lexington Ky September 10 The unusual suc ¬ cess of Mr Keenes horses in racing is in my opinion due In a measure to early and natural de ¬ velopment such as is to be obtained on no farm In Kentucky other than CastletOn said Willis Field a day or two ago agoOf Of course the excellence of the blood in Mr Keenes horses is the most material consideration in an analysis of their performances on the turf but their development In a perfectly natural way con ¬ tributes a greater percentage than a great ninny persons might suppose to their achievements At Castleton the browsing range and the paddocks are larger by far than on any other farm in the Blue Grass region I do not know how many acres are contained in each of the fields at Castleton but aside from two or three small paddocks in the vicin ¬ ity of the stallion barn the domain of 1000 acres has no more than four division fences The mares with their foals run in the largest of these well grassed and abundantly watered fields Tlie mares in seeking tldbits from the grass are constantly on the move and their foals walk or trot at their sides At weaning time the youngsters are separated from their dams the colts going together in one of two large fields and the fillies in i group In the other There they remain until the late summer of their yearling form when they are taken up and shipped to New York to be trained Time and again I have seen the youngsters at Castleton group at one end of the field break away and race to the other end as hard as they could stave The distance thus covered I should say was more than a half mile Then they would walk bark leisurely and do it all over again I suppose they would run the length of the field a dozen times a dayi So it can l e seen the Castleton youngsters are really in training from the day of their birth that from their foaling time to their going away as yearlings the exercise thus obtained is bound to bring early and natural development When the Castleton youngsters go into the bauds of trainer Itowe for their first lessons on the track their muscles are as hard as Iron and they have no sur ¬ plus fat to be removed before active training begins as is the vase with so many yearlings raised and fattened with the paramount idea of securing big prices in the sales ring ringThe The voluntary exercise of he yearlings is one of the most interesting springtime sights at Castleton Farm In their after development the one most frequently winning in these natural races is not always proved the better horse of tin stable h contests under colors If I remember correctly Ma lor Daingerfield told me that both Sysouby and Colin were never particularly prominent in thosr riderless races They were both inclined to make their running In a leisurely manner and usually both pulled up quite a distance in the rear of the foremost
