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FAMOUS RACE OF OLDEN DAYS. Review of History of the Kentucky St. Leger, Which Is to Be Revived This Fall. Louisville. August 20. - Eighteen years have passed since the St. Lager was run at Churchill Downs. Its history embraced a similar period of years. It attracted attention during the first four years of its running for the reason that no Kentucky Derby winner seemed able to add it to his list of turf triumphs. The distance then was two miles, while the Kentucky Derby in the old days was a mile and a hull. In 1879, however, the bay colt, l.oi d Murphy, look the two-mile race in the fall as he had the Derby in the spring. Lord Murphy will always be known in turf history, not only as the first double winner of the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky St. Leger. bnt as the only horse that ever defeated the great Falsetto. This he did in the Derby, bin luckily for Urn, the sire of Sir Rnon was on the ocean When the St. Leger was run. tew doubt that Falsetto would have turned Hie tables o.i bin had he met him in the last-named race. There were ten starters in the first St. Leger. w hich Dan Sw igert won with King Alfonso, lie was a lucky winner, as a tar greater horse than he proved af terwarda to lie. ran second to him that day. That was the great Ten Itroeek. which ultimately held live records over the same track on which King Alfonso defeated him in the first Kentucky St. Leger. The St. Leger winners of 1S70 ami bs77 were Cant. .1. T. Williams Greedmoot and Vera Crux, Captain Williams is one of two owners who in succession won two renewals of this great race. The other was the veteran, G. Li. Morris, who in Issi and ls.s2 won wilh Fellowplay and Apollo. In Creedinoor s year there were only six starters, and lleretog. owned by the late Maj. 15. 1. Thomas, who bu d Domino, ran second. In era Cruz season seven horses started and second place fell for the first lime to a li.ly. I. W. Hunt Reynolds, of the onrr famnnn Sw eet wood stud, of Frankfort, being the owner of Felecia. which finished second in the St. Leger after she had won the Kentucky Oaks in the spring. Hunt Reynolds was second also in 1878 with the great cup mare. For tana. The race inut year was won by l.eveler. a good looking bay coll by Lever, owned by It. II. Owens, then a prominent turfman of Lexington. Mr. Owens is still alive, but he exploits today more his record in John II. .Morgans command than he docs his hurt history. There were only live starters in Lcvelers year, which was due to the fact that for the first time in the history of the running of the race the track was heavy. As noted aliove. Load Murphy won the St. Leger in the year 1879, and Bucktle, owned by the eastern turfman. William Lakeland, ran second In front of four other starters. The first eastern owner to win the great race was in 1880 when James Uowe crossed the Alleghauies with Dwyer Brothers Luke Dlackburn. So great was the prestige of the son ot Bonnie Scotland thai only Kinkaid. among the many nominations, was pitied against him. Of course, Luke Dlackburn won in a canter and Incidentally it may be noted here that in his two defeats as a three-year-old. the only race he lost when he stayed on his feet was over this track when Fonso defeated him in the Kentucky Derby. When the horse was beaten in the east by Montrose he fell a long distance from uosjae. The banner years in this race for Green B. Morris were 1881 ami IS82, when he won with Fellowplay. the son of lyoogfcilow, ami his Kentucky Derby winner. Apollo. In Fellow plays year there w ere i .u 1 , live starters ami -Major Thomas again ran sec Sad that season with the fill teg la*. In Apollos year there were six racers and Milton Youngs Boatman was the runner-up. In 1883 Frank Waters, an eccentric Lexington lawyer, furnished the winner of the race in the gray gelding. Vanguard, which was the rank outsider of the four starters. Musk, owned by i. W. Burden, of Tennessee, ran third. The track that day was a sea of mud and slush. After the race it was customary in those limes for the winner of the St. Leger to buy a case of wine, which was served to th members of the club and ripped by them at tables on the lawn as they watched the races, but that day they buegit their own wine, as Wale,-.; failed lo show up with the order to the caterer. Colonel Clark, a stickler in such matters, called the Lexington lawyer* attention to what he thought was an oversight, but Wat rs. in a dignified manner. Informed Colonel Clark that he was a true Ken-tuckian and drank only with his friends. II seemed that the cause of the incident was a misunderstanding on the part of one of Colonel Clarks clerks. Waters had come down from Lexington to see his colt win and when he presented himself for a complimentary badge, the clerk, doubting that a man of his gypsy-like appearance owned a horse as good as Vanguard, turned him down and referred him to Colonel Clark. Of course. Waters had pride and never mentioned the incident to Colonel Clark, ne paid his admission io the track and presented himself at the secretarys oSce after the races for a check to cover his horses winnings, amounting to about 14.000. In 1SS4 the Louisville firm of R. A. Johnson and Company found easy sailing in the fU. Teer with their two horses. Loftin and Powhattan. they running one two in the race over a muddy track. In 1885 Ti n Booker won Milton Youngs first and only St. Leger. In 1888 Aztec won the race for an Illinois man named Powers. It was late in his l luce year-old form that Aztec came to his best form, but then he was invincible. That fall he swept all before him. and just as the veteran trainer, Lee Paul, was dreaming of triumphs in the Suburban Handicap and other great races in the east for him He following year, the colt sickened and died. Powers had turned down an offer made bv Dwycr I.rothers of ?20. MlO two days before his death. Lee Paul, though he trained Hindoo. Morgan Scout and other gn at race horses, went to his grave believing that the American turf had never seen a distance runner as good as Aztec. In ls.s7 another Kentucky Derby winner repeated his spring triumph in the St. Leger, it being Labobl I.rothers noted horse. Montrose. F. I!. Harper ran second wilh Libretto, winch was the first Latonia Derby winner. In 1S!M the race was shortened to a mile and a quarter, the present Kentucky Derby route. Incle Bob, owned by the Chicago turfman. George V. Hankins. won the race from four other starters, with F.d Corrigans liiley. the Kentucky Derby winner of that year, in second place. The race was discontinued in 1802, when P.arney Traeeys Semper Hex was the victor. II will be noted in this imperfect running review of the St. Leger that up to its discontinuance it was a feature fully equal to the Derby in the siiring. In fact, many of the horses that raced in tlie SI. Leger trained on in older years and raced wilh more distinction than some of the stars that have figured in the Kentucky Derby history. Among the old guard of turfmen who took a delight in the St. Leger of long ago. its revival at the fall meeting of the New Louisville Jockey Club is hailed with pleasure by those old-timers of the paddock and the quarter stretch. To the newer class of race goers it will also Tie a pleasant innovation, and it is most fitting that it be revived over a track which was the first to restore the old style of pari- mmtuel betting, which prevailed in the early history of the great race. An Intimate friend of J. E. Madden in this city st iles that upon the announcement of the Jockey Club in the east that racing on the New York traeks would cease Seiitember 1. Mr. Madden instantly made no his mind to ship his entire stable to Louisville at the conclusion of the Saratoga nieeting. Mr. Madden scored his first triumphs on tin running turf, it may he said, over the New Louisville Jockey Clubs course. It was here he raced Dundee, Chimes. Grace Fly. Maxine F.lliott and Pridgewater. Then a few-years later he came with the two great fillies. Myrtle Harkncsa ami Amanda. In 1W 7 Hamburg appeared, and it was then he began H is extensive operations in the east, but it was not until P.MM that be forsook Churchill Downs as a spring training ground. It was on this track that he broke and prepared for their first winnings such great horses as Irish Lad, Yankee. Ballyhoo Bey, Aristocracy. Skilful. Are full, Mexican and the remarkable Bine Girl. In lsiis he left Plaudit here in charge of Albert Simons and won the Kentucky Derby. In 1899 he left Etta and won the Kentucky Oaks, she being sent to the post by the famous colored trainer. "Brown Dick." Etta Is the Inst horse that carried the Madden colors at Churchill Downs. In hWM he hoped to win his second Kentucky Derby with a colt out of Imp. bv the successful sire. Mirthful. This burse was Faust. When he sold his yearlings M. H. Tichetior of Chi :.•_-., bought this colt for .OO0. and Mr. Madden gave him a Ikiiius ;, pel him back, so sweet was be on him as a reading. As a t w o-year-ohl he allowed him to develop as he never did any other colt he ever trained, always having in view a Kentucky Derby winner, as he had made the assertion that he would win the race with the brown colt. That spring he trained btm with the greatest care, but lUSi on the eve of shipiiiug bun here to run af the Downs he was taken sick and while he recovered afterward and wo ft races, bfa performances were by no means sensational. Those on the inside i»f Madden** stable secrets maintain thai he never trained a belter colt than Faust, and that had no mishap occurred to him he would have done that wbich Plaudit did for live owner of Dam-burg Plan when he defeated Lh-ber Karl In 1896. —
