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PREFERS INDIVIDUALITY TO PEDIGREE. Capt. J. T. Williams, in Reminiscent Vein at Louis- I ville. Talks of Horses He Has Owned. Laahwffae, Ky.. April •_» .— GaBt. J. T. Williams related a chapter of unwritten turf history to a t ciomI of attentive horsemen at Daacjas Iark re- i ceiMly. It ,li alt with Joe Cotton, winner of the Kentucky Deth] in 188S. just twenty-live years aaajL t He said: "That spring 1 first ran Joe Cotton at Memphis, where he handily won the Tennessee Derby, and ill -il I lost him to la-xinton and he won the Straus Stakes at the old course. I next ran him in the Kentucky Derby, and he won from Bersau. Ten Booker, Favor and Troulfadour. as well as several * ather starters, hut in the Clark Stakes Bersau re- i versed the Derby running and beat niy colt, as well . as Trouhadour. Then ireen Morris, who had I.er-san. came to me and prapsaei tJiat I ret out of his way in one of tlie stakts at I.atotlia. and lie would May in the Stable while 1 took tee other event. One raii- w is worth a little more than the other, hut up finallv fixed the difference up satisfactorily. sad 1 kept Joe Cotton in the stalilo while lVrsan ran and won the Hindoo Stakes, which afterward , beeaaM the Labaua Derby, and Morris did Uhewbje in the Hippie Stakes, which 1. of course, won with Joe Cot Ion. •After th-at event had heen decided I put in rati on the* ears and shipped him to Sheepaaead Bay to run in the Tidal Stakes. Jim stcLanKblin v -baa in that raee. and a colt of J. Bt Banrtea was , his dangerous eosapetitar. He laid off with him lor nearly the entire race ami let a colt called Pardee slip away with a kaaj lead. When he saw | Patsy IMiffv seesafaarly making no effort to move up. ; Mcl.aii-hlin cut loose with my colt, hut the beat he could do was to ;r"t Joe Cotton up in time to make it a dead heat. "Pardee was then owned hy It. W. Cameron, who imported the jrroat Leasaiagtoa, and Major Huhhard. , a prominent turf scrihe in those days, had the man amaeat of the rstt. Neither he nor I eared to run the raee off. and we divided tin- slakes. As I | walked away from Major Hulihard I met Mike i Hwycr. He said: •Williams, what do you want for Joe Cotton.: Fifteen thousand ilollars and the next stake he wins. was mv rraty. Hes my horse. he | said, and 1 have decided to run the dead heat off. j • h. no yon cant." I informed him. I told Major Httbhard I would diviile. and as you have paid me no , m y the roll is still under my control. Then I , found that the bis; pi safer had art a forune on my colt and did not want the money split up as lie was sure Joe Cotton esald heat Pardee in the run off. Ii was a nice chance to sell my colt for a small fort une. "They baaabl Joe Cotton the next season from me. , and the ilead Brooklyn turfman won one of the large*! bets of his career srben the son of Khar, j Alfonso l eat the Stihurl.an Handicap winner. Pontine. in a fast seven-furlong* race nt Slieeiishead Bay. I , est the Derby winner hack for a sire. hut. like Cn iilmoie. another ihhI horse I owned, he died 1h -ton- he was six vears old." Will Yoiin;. asked Caataia Williams how he eon : stih-red J"« Cotton to rate with the irreat Derby bsrses of today. "Well." said the vet-ran lurfmair. i "you cannot class horses in ilifferent years that have never met. I have seen few three-year-old do what j Joe Cot ion accomplished in his year, and I rate liim ] as jrood as any horse I ever trained as a three-year-i-hl. Of course, we only surmise when we go hack twenty-five years, hut I will say I would like to have a colt in the Kentucky Derby this season that had shown me now what Joe Cotton did when I brought him up the line in lMfk He was a jrood. honest, same race horse, with a dir/.zlins hurst of speed. I jruess he would have made a colt like Waldo step alemr to set the money." "How is it you run acioss s many jrood race horses in rear time." asked trainer Tssssr. ■•Well." replied Williams. "I never huy a horse unless he is a s »d individual. I set the horse and studv the pedigree afterwards. If I had lteen huy ins from pedigree I would have hardly picked mil Reals Horn, a son of Bute, from anions the Hassin colts hy many ather sreat horses. "Rams Horns aaararsan pleased me as a year-lins. ami for 300 I sot one of the sreatest horses I ever raced. I limslit my promisins two-year- dd. fioveraor Gray, for the same reasoa, baeaase in- was a CSOd hsikins. lusty-huilt weanlins. Waldo showed up after I lmusht him. or I guess I could not have acquired him at such a tisure. In nine eases out of ten. when vou run across a sreat raee horse, you will find an" aiiini.tl that looks s »d to the eye. ■priii hTcGrath was rish when he owned Tom Bow litis. That noted racer did not have much of a pedigree, and yet we have known few- more hrilliant raii- bsrses. I have the horse and. you have the pedigree. is the way the noted turfman put it up to his critics. I like both S« d individuality and breeding, bal if oae has to be a little off ester give me the hi si Instlar horse with the inferior pedigree and you take the one with only his brae lines of btesd to recommend him. If I had hsaghl alone on pedis ■ I suess I would never have owned a Barns Horn or a Checkmate."
