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. • _ t f [ I 1 , i i BARGAIN YEARLINGS OF OTHER DAYS. A Rood-tanking two-year-old had just preened home winner of a stake race. "1 remember that colts grandilam." sjhike up a veteran of the tun". ••The first aad only time that 1 ever saw her was at the old Fair Grounds track at New Orleans. She was a starter in a sprint at six furlomrs one January aft-. crnoon and while running in a prominent position she was carried into the fence and her shoulder was torn fearfully. As she stood trembling and bleeding. Una hie to walk, her owner with tears in his eyes removed tbe saddle and bridle and was about to shoot the mare when a young man Stepped up and begged for her life. •• Ill pal her in slings, he said, and I think I can save her. Dont kill her." "The Kentnejkiail who owned the mare wished the young fellow goad luck and walked awav. The l est veterinarian in the Crescent City was consulted and a temporary bouse was made out of board! onlv a hundred feet away from where the accident occurred and for two months the mare bung suspended in slings. She COOld finally walk, but was always lame. "She was so well bred that she was valuable as a broodmare, and her young owner, ■whose father was an official of tin- track, was on the lookout for a chance to mate her with some of the fashionable sins of be thoroughbred region of Tennessee or Ken tacky. One day a man who owned a good son the English bona, St. Simon, came to the course and while in conversation with the father of the young man who owned the mare the youngster plucked up courage enough to say that the blood lines ol bis mare would match those of the premier stallion of tbe Teimcsscean. "A few questions developed the fact that the mare wan a granddaughter of the great English horse. Hermit, and an invitation was extended to •bad the crippled mare to Tennessee. A vear later a very handsome chestnut tilly walked hv the mat leus side. She w as perfect in contour and w as considered one of the choicest weanlings on the place. "When the foal was alxmt six weeks old a magnate of the turf whose name is known wherever thoroughbreds have raced in this cotintrv for the but! thirty years came to New Orleans on a realty pilgrimage. The young chap obtained an Introdue-| lion to this man and told him about the mare and foal he had in Tennessee. Would he see them? A few minutes converaatJoa brought an offer of |1,000 for the pair provided the millionaires stud groom approved of them. "A wire was sent to Lexington that afternoon and two days later word came from Nashville that th mare and foal were as represented and the youngster fell mighty proud when he pocketed the cheek for ,000 which dosed the deal. "ou all know that the Astoria Stakes at Graves end is one of the sportiest events of the vear. It is a special slake for t Wo-year-ohl fillies and besides the money value there is a handsome piece of plate tor the owner of the winner, who gives a dinner to the other subscribers and some friends. It is modeled on the lines of the famous Gimeraek Stakes a! ■ork. and I think there is scarcely a man who has ever won it who doesnt consider the boner of being host on the occasion of much more moment than the mere winning of the plate or money. "This was especially true of the millionaire who bought the crippled granddaughter of Hermit and her filly. The season at Gravesend was vet voung that season when it was rumored that the race for the Astoria Stakes was at the mercy of a certain chestnut filly in the- stable of a western owner, and When the day on which the race was to lie decided came around the westerner was on hind in his private car. accompanied by a partv of friends, among whom was the fair-haired girl after whom the Astoria candidate had been named. It was only a gallop for the handsome youngster, whose mothers life had been saved by the Louisiana liov and she went right along picking up other stake races until in the autumn upward of 340,000 had been placed to her credit. "She broke down liofore she was a three -J ear-old and was sent to the Keutuckv stud of her owner , where she remained until his death. He willed her lo bis brother, who in turn tirad of racing and sold her to another rich man. whose property she now is. This strapping fine colt is her beat "produce to date, but she is a young mare yet and great things are in store for her. no doubt." "Fortune plays some funny pranks in racing." interjected another racing man. "There are cases every year of turfmen with bug* breeding establishments selling yearlings from their farms which give Sound healings to the best that are retained. "The instances of Supposedly unfashionablv bred youngsters that have sold cheaply turning out world-beaters is long. Take the case of the crack fillv Round the World. She cost an even hundred dollars a little more than a year ago ami she has won up- , ward of 315,000 in stakes and purses. "Morello was a hundred-dollar yearling that became a champion, and I doubt if tbe American turf evr saw a letter race horse than this big son 0 Eoltis. lie was a raw boned, rakish fellow when he was led into the sales ring as a yearling, ami the , fact that he was bred in Virginia was probably t!o ; reason young Doswell of that slate hid on the colt i "Nobody apparently wanted the lumbering year- ; 9 ling.- and when the young Virginian, who was a ; neighbor of the Hancocks, who bred him. found pluck enough to offer .SlOO sonic persons laughed behind their hand.-. The coif bad a big curb and was generally unprepossessing: but this uglv duckling became a swan all right, and when he appeared tiie following spring at Washington he was in a class by I, i n: el 1 and won his first two races with such ease that the attention ,,f tbe smartest horsemen at the track was challenged. "The late William M. gingerly, a Philadelphia newspaper man. was told about the .son of Kolus by Frank Van Ness, than whom there was no! a more shrewd observer on the running or trotting turf. ] The late John E. McDonald was another smart turf- I man who regarded Morello as a potential champ ion, and it was a race between them to see who should buy bim. McDonald sent a man to pay the asked 1 price. ,900. but lie found that Van Ness had fore stalled him by a lew minutes. r "II was a big turn lor young Doswell. He had W«a two good races with a colt that cost him 3100 only ten BMufhs before and had then disposed of him lor .5110. Van Neas was afraid of the emrby bosks which blemished Morello. Speed marks In- called them, aml.be straightaway prepared Mo- rello for what was a most sensational career. "Those who saw the big bay coll win the Ill- turity have always referred to it as the most re- markahle race they ever saw. The colt had i i» ei! suffering from dlsteaaper and t u days before ; the ace it was a dollar to a dougiiuu t that lie could no! be prepared for the big race, worth upward of 340.000 to the winner. Van Ness, when racing . trotters, had done some remarkable things, a few 0 which were not according to Ilovle. and when he , sent Morello to the post for tbe Futurity with the youngster showing plainly that In- was then suffer- c ing from the ravages of distemper, the smart follows si" :. their loads and prophesied that Morello would choke and perhaps fall before the race was half aver. "Jimmy Kowe. who started ti e race, said that the , colt COUgbed a dozen limes while at the post, and , Billy Hayward. the veteran jockey who had the , mount, often said before his death that he expected , lo have to pull ihe youngster up before half the- ; distance was over. That sick giant, however, was good enough to toy with one of the |,est fields of two-year-ems tut that year and. although many of ; us had beta on other candidates, we threw up our ; bats ami cheered madly when the gallant colt marched to the front in the last furlong. "It was tin- most remarkable achievement I have ever seen, for it must not be forgotten that there 1 was an impo-t of l:,o pounds in the saddle. Morello must have been steel ami whalebone, for he got no 8 let-up that winter, but was raced a! New Orleans „ and then on through the west, winding up the fat- * lowing printer in California." "Raeeland was another hundred-dollar yearling." v broke in a listener. "Joe l llinan. who is almost a memory now as a plunger, was the kscky purchaser Q 9 of the bia angular gelding by Billet, and ir Joe had kept Race land during his entire racing career anil bet on him exclusively he wouldnt have died broken financially, as rumor has it. , "Like Morello. Kaceland bad a curb, and like , Morello he was rejected because of it. obi Bnoea ; was his nickname, and he gained fame in tbe colors of III1 man, the elder August Belmont and finally _ with Dwyer. for whom he won a fortune in stakes and purses, besides an unloM sum in wagers, for the unhandsome gelding was as true as steel ami would run as straight as a string tinder punishment ; in fact, he was as nearly a piece of machinery as TOU -could , find in the thoroughbred ranks." I "Price cuts no great figure for an untried per former." remarked a bystander. "The lhvvcrs used -to pay tremendous figures for Hie brothers and sis ten of their great horses, but they got tired of it -when on one occasion they gave more than 380,000 for a batch of j callings and out of the lot got not a ■ single slake candidate: in fact I think thev won a ■ f.-w selling races with some of their gold bricks. -Ugh among which was Joe Black barn, a brother to 4 the famous Luke. Joe was the worst I ever saw. r and McLaughlin won- out half a dozen good whips -tryfaag as make him run. I "One of the first lemons in the thoroughbred line -•Wr Secured by anybody was King Thomas, the big !i brother to Dan Fo. for which the late Senator • . Rears paid 330,000. King Thomas could run about lasi enough p. beat Albert Coopers buggy horse ami wheat he sh 11 tiled around Sin epshead Pay in the mornings old Albert would shake his Mad and mumble something about foolish people with BSOM money than horse sens. Ahaau all that King 1 t Thoms I lad to recommend bim at an. time was 1 bulk, and yon can have too much of that when it ■ 1 lis to carrying n a mile and a quarter, or even l in -. li! the ureal three year old prizes, like the Realization Stakes." "You all overlooked a pretty good hundred-dollar boss when you didnt mention Proctor Kindt." spake up a Kentuekiaa. "1 mnembah the day Sim Bry ant made you all sick with him at Sheepsliead Bay. You all were some sick when old Sam jumped the white-faced gelding out in the Junior Champion Stakes at Monmouth Park, but the Futurity was what the Frenchmen would call the coop de grace for you New Yorkers who thought Salvator was the classiest boss out that yeah. "Yes. sub. that gamecock on the back of Sams jacket was tlappin his wings when Pikey Panics, tbe best little aiggah riilah in Kentucky, put it on Salvator ami Isaac Murphy. Murphv. of cohse. was a Kalntueky niggah. too. but while he was a finished ridah and a great judge of pace he couldnt finish like Pikey. and we all got the money. "It made Sam Bryant Spruce up. an perhaps he wasnt si lass fob some time round Lexington! Poali old Sam. he was fond of bosses an he was game to the last, going to the race track to see the colors when the doctors told htm he might die on the way." There was a light in the Kentuckians eves as he finished which ineanf much. It told more eloquentlv than words that ill his on in km Bryant had risked his life iii a good cause and that there are few better filings than a struggle between thoroughbreds 1 rained to the hour when thev meet in a fair field with no favor. — New York Sun.
