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OUR TWO GREATEST THREE-YEAR-OLDS. Some Features Marking the Careers of Fitz Herbert and Maskette in Racing. No prospective feature of the coming Saratoga meeting is invested with more interest than the meeting of Maskette and Fitz Herbert iu one or aioiv of the stakes to which both are nominated. Last year It was not so. When both were two-year-olds Maskette was the unquestioned queen, and of the colts only Sir Martin was thought capable of .giving her a race. As a matter of fact he was the only one that did defeat her and on that occasion she was giving him five pounds. Fitz Herbert was not thought of as having the ghost of a chance in competition with such stars and probably he did not. But in the progress of months there has come about a change through which Fitz Herlert has grown in prowess and public estimation, until he Is now fit to contend with even the superb Maskette, and with no inconsiderable chance of defeating her.-She is unbeaten this year and so Is he. Her racing has beep easy and so has his, except iu the case of the Lawrence Bealization. Both arc now grand three-year-olds and there is legitimate reason for diversity of opinion concerning the tmtcome of a meeting of the pair. Last year Maskette started in six races, was first in five mid second in one. She was introduced to the public at Saratoga Monday, August 3, 100S. in a race for a purse at five and a half furlongs. This she won In a drive from Miss Kearney iu 1:068, after losing a half-dozen lengths at the start and being carried wide on the stretch turn. She was green and hardly knew what was required of her. but ran a remarkable race after becoming settled in her stride. Two days later she won the valuable Spiu- 1908. Race. Wt. Track. Distance. Time. Won. Purse 101 Saratoga 5 1-2 furlongs 1:00? $ 385 Spinaway Stakes 112 Saratoga 5 1-2 furlongs 1:05 8,250 Futurity Stakes .118 Sheepshead Bay 3-4 mile 1:11 26,110 Great Filly Stakes 127 Sheepshead Bay 3-4 mile 1:125 10.815 Flatbush Stakes 117 Sheepshead Bay 7-8 mile 1:25 2,000 Matron Stakes 124 Belmont Park 3-4 mile 1:204 5,895 Ran second. 1909. Ladies Stakes 121 Belmont Park 1 mile 1:30 $ 6.630 Gazelle Stakes 121 Gravesend 1 1-16 miles 1:48 4,045 Mermaid Stakes ..120 Sheepshead Bay .... 1 1-8 miles 1:52 3,990 Total 8,120 Fitz Herberts two-year-old career was more strenuous than Maskettcs. He started iu twenty-one races, and, winning eleven of them, was but twice unplaced. He began his racing that year over the New York tracks and finished in California at Santa Anita in a great race, December 19. in which, with 124 pounds up, he ran a mile in 1:37S, the best record ever made by a two-year-old at the distance. His series of hard races with Trance was one of the marked features of the early racing over the New York tracks. It was really a remarkable duel between two extra good youngsters, in which one and then the other prevailed, and in one of which they finished in a dead heat, honors being practically even between the pair. Fitz Herbert was a bargain horse, costing such a moderate sum as 00 when: bought by Jack Joyner as a yearling. After he had-been beaten in his first three races Joyner sold him, to Herman Brandt for ,000, and after he. had wori, three good races for Brandt, tried unavailingly to buy him back for ,500. Later on in the year he was sold to Sam Htldreth for 0,000 and was a lucky purchase indeed. His first race was in a dash of four and a half furlongs straight at Aqueduct, in which Hoyle beat him a neck in 52. a new track record. Then followed his first meeting with Trance, which was in the Ozone Stakes, at a half mile over the same track. Trance gave him seven pounds besides her sex allowance aud beat him by a length and a half In 46J. Then High Private, making his first start, ran away from him in away Stakes with her stablemate. Wedding Bells, second, and Lady Hubbard third, and, running its five and a half furlongs in l:05i, set a new track record for the distance. She was then reserved for the Futurity at Sheepshead Bay, August 29. The starters were Maskette, 118 pounds: Sir Martin, 127; Helmet, 123; Perseus. 117; Mediant, 116; Fayette, 127: Hillside, 119; Practical, 117, and Ruble, 122. Maskette led throughout and won by three lengths in l:lli, with Sir Martin second, a head in front of Helmet. September 2 she won the Great Filly Stakes, at three-quarters, carried 127 pounds, and won iu a canter in 1:12?. with Wedding Bells second and Ladv Bedford third. Then came her solitary defeat. This wiis in the Flatbush. September 5. She carried top weight and the starters were Sir Martin. 115 pounds; Maskette, 117: Fayette, 115; Wedding Bells, 112. and Trance, 112. They finished in that order. Sir Martin winning in a grand exhibition of speed by four lengths, with Maskette second and Fayette a good third. Her next and last race was no race at all, being a walkover for the fillys half of the Matron Stakes at Belmont Park. In which she was coupled with her stable eojnrade, Affliction, only the two starting. This year Maskette has startpdln three races and won them all. She made her debut for the year in the Ladies Stakes at Belmont Park. Slay 20. and being a bit backward was momentarily extended in the stretch, but finally won by five lengths from Lady Bedford in 1:39, with Field Mouse third. The Gazelle Stakes at Gravesend, June 17, one and one-sixteenth miles, brought about her next race, and, giving ten pounds to all competitors, she won cantering by two lengths in 1:48, with Petticoat second arid Lady Bedford third. Her next and last race to date was in the Mermaid Stakes at Sheepshead Bay, July 7, in which, with 126 pounds on her back, she ran a mile and an eighth In 1:52 and won pulled up by three lengths, with Lady Bedford second and Petticoat third. In detail her performances are: the Canarsle Stakes and won by six lengths at a half mile iu 48, the fair presumption being that he had not recovered from his much faster race with Trance. In his next race, the Woodhaven Stakes, at four and a half furlongs, ho turned the tables on Trance and beat her out by three lengths in 53, she currying 109 pounds to his 102. He next ran a dead heat with her in the Elmhurst Stakes at Jamaica at five furlongs. He carried 109 pounds this time and she 103. The race was run in one minute and was a new track record. Their next meeting was in the Bouquet Stakes at Belmont Park, and here Trance, with 109 pounds up to his 112. won by a half length. The race was at five-eighths, was run in 1:00, and the third horse was ten lengths behind the pair. After that they did not come together again until in the fall, when they met in the Holly Handicap at Gravesend. and again Trance was first and he was second. He carried 124 pounds to her 118, and the five and a half furlongs of the race were, covered in 1:00$. Their last meeting was in the Prospect Handicap at the same track, in which Joe Madden, carrying 111 pounds, boat them both. Trance, with 124 pounds, was second, and Fitz Herbert, 122, was third. It was this race that led Ilildreth to buy Joe Madden. Then Fitz Herbert went out to California and won new honors. Fitz Herberts racing of this year has been too recently published in Daily Racing Form to require recapitulation here, and his complete record to date is as follows: 1908. KT.IiTT Race. Wt. Track. Distance. Time. Won. Purse 107 Aqueduct 4 1-2 furlongs :52 $ 125.00 Ozone Stakes 102 Aqueduct 1-2 mile :46i 200.00 Canarsie Stakes 107 Aqueduct 1-2 mile :4S5 250.00 Woodhaven Stakes 102 Aqueduct 4 1-2 furlongs :53j 1,500.00 Elmhurst Stakes 109 Jamaica 5-8 mile 1:00 977.50 Purse 122 Belmont Park 4 1-2 furlongs :53 SOO.OO Bouquet Stakes 112 Belmont Park 5-8 mile 1:00 riOO.OO Purse ..110 Belmont Park 5-8 mile :50t 750.00 Purse 122 Gravesend 5-S mile 1:00? 750.00 Purse 126 Gravesend 5 1-2 furlongs 1:08 780.00 Purse 122 Sheepshead Bay .... 5 1-2 furlongs 1:078 430.00 Great Eastern Handicap 119 Sheepshead Bav .... 3-4 mile :1 1 i Purse .122 Sheepshead Bay 5 1-2 furlongs 1 :07i 490.00 Junior Champion ..126 Gravesend 3-4 mile Abt tl:00 200.00 Holly Handicap 124 Gravesend 5 1-2 furlongs l:0it 350.00 Prospect Handicap 122 Gravesend 3-4 mile Abt tl:09? 150.00 Opening Handicap KM Oakland 1 mile :3Sg Oakland Handicap 101 Oakland 0 1-2 furlongs 1:18 2,540 00 Purse 106 Oakland 5-S mile f :50i 50.00 Purse 115 Santa Anita 5 1-2 furlongs 1:06 325.00 Garvanza Handicap 124 Santa Anita ........ 1 mile 1:372 1,770.00 Kan second: fran third;- unplaced. 1909. Pocanlleo Stakes 123 Belmont Park 3-4 mile 1:13 $ 1.050.00 Broadway Stakes lis Gravesend 1 1-16 miles 1:47 1.025.00 Suburbau Haudleni 105 Sheepshead Bay 11-4 miles 2:03? 3,850.00 Coney Island Jockey Club Stakes.. 126 Sheepshead Bay .... 1 1-2 miles 2:37J 902.50 Advance Stakes .114 Sheepshead Bav 1 5-10 miles 2:11 1.925.00 Lawrence Bealization 122 Sheepshead Bay .... 1 5-S miles 2:45 14.!H0.00 T,J!l, 7,350.00 Walkover.
