view raw text
NEW BREEDERS COMING FORWARD. Lexington. Ky.. July S. — People hereabouts are wondering if the recent momentous transaction in yearling thoroughbred racers between Harry Payne Whitney and James R. Keene means that the veteran financier who is now sojourning in his native England intends to quit the turf entirely, and it has given rise to [Oaaip thai I dispersal of the great i aettetoa Stud Of stallions and mares is shortly to be expected. Maj. Foxhall A. Daiiurerfield, manager of Castleton Stud, is the only person here who Is in a position to authoritatively discuss matters appertaining to Mr. Keenes splendid breeding establishment, and be says he has not been advised that there is to be a disp eraal. Trainer James Rowe. who last rear entered the umploy of Mr. Whitney after a iong term with Mr. K cue. said while here last week to inspect the yearlings purchased by the master of Breekdale Stud, that he had not been advised as to Mr. Keenes plana in parting with all his youngsters, but it had the earmarks of a decision to hang his racing colors on the peg if not to abandon the breeding of thoroughbreds entirely. Whether or not James K. Keene disperse* the Castleton Stud. Kentucky will lontinuc to have a Keene in her list of thoroughbred running horses, just as she had it long before the advent of the great tinan cier into the Blue Crass region to produce from what his native countrymen called and still call, some of them, "cold-blooded, short-pedigreed beasts, quickly running into the woods." the greatest of the great horses of modern times in this land. John Oliver Keene, the astute young Kentuckian who trains the horaaa og Johnson X. Camden, member of the Stat" Racing Commission and master of Hartland Stud, is branching out as a breeder at Keenland Farm. "It is my purpose to have." he said in discussing his plans, •never more than a dozen mares in my stud, each and every one with a winning record on DC turf, good conformation, good individuality and good pedigrees behind them. Xo matter how affluent I may become, it is a part of my plan that twelve mares annually shall be the limit of my breeding operations, and tlio.se twelve will be the best that my purse can afford. It is further a part of my plan never to breed for Hie market, but to break and try on* every horse as a yearling. Such as prove themselves worthy I will train and race. The others I will sell off without pedigree and with hi i Identification as general purpose aaiiala for whatever they may bring in the market for ordinary riding or driving horses." "Jack" Keene now owns six broodmares, all win-tiers and three of them stake winners, and he has from them at Keenland Farm five foals of this year. I tea of which is entered for the Breeders Futurity to be decided at the Kentucky Association spring meeting in £912. The fi e mares having sucklings at foot are at Keenland Farm, and the sixth, the B lmont-bred three year-old Dont half sister to Mizzen and Maine, bv Octagon, out of Donna Mia. she l.y the III Ised out of Bella Donna dam of Beldame i, by Hermit, is to eOBM here shortly from California where she was mated last spring with C. M. Van Gordena General Roberts son of Brutus and Colden Locks, by Ormonde, sire of the winners Wolakao. Robert Hurst, Miss Roberts, etc. Dont •ran two races at Jacksonville in 1010 for the Idle-brook Stable and was sold to Henderson and Hogan. from whom Mr. Keene liought her at Oakland last January. The mares and sucklings at Keenland Farm arc: I Micaela. b. m. 5, by Watercress — Silea. by Sir Modred, and bav roll by Stalwart. Lady Alicia half -sifter to Cutter, b. m. 7. by Sir Dixon— Kenmore Queen, by Ben Strome, and bay colt by Stalwart. Fleur do Marie, b. m. 0. by Meddler— Mary C, by Billet, and chestnut filly by Kismet. Elsie L.. b. m. 12. by St. Leonards — Elsie, by See Saw. and bay filly by Kismet. Logistilla. eh. m. 0. by Locohatcbee -Ssarg, by Rayon dOr. and chestnut filly by Kismet. This season Micaela and Fleur de Marie were mated with St. Simonian II. : Elsie L. with Maza-gan; Lady Alicia with Peter Quince and Logistilla with Ormondale. These sucklings are all robust, healthy and good looking, but the star of the quintet is the son of Stalwart and Micaela. and "Jack" Keene thinks more of him right ivw than any horse he ever owned, excepting, possibly. Braw Lad and Red Leaf. "Ill bet there isnt a better-made suckling in all Kentucky today." said Keene as he looked the youngster over proudly, "and he came pretty near not being here. W. H. McXames owned Micaela and had won some fifteen races with her at the minor meetings in the west. Ho brought her to Oakland while I was there winter before last and on December 30, 1J»00. she started in the last race of the day. which was run in a heavy fog. and broke a bone in her right hind leg. She was the only horse the poor man had and he was sorely distressed. He was trying to get her back to her stall, but she gave out in her hobbling when she reached my stable. I asked McXames what he expected to do with her and he said he guessed hed have to shoot her. I liked the filly and felt that I could afford to spend some time and money in trying to save her for my stud, so I gave him a Colden Carter gelding called Exchequer and took her into my stable. I bandaged her leg in splints and in six weeks shipped her to Kentucky. She was more than a month at the Ixingtou Stock Yards before I arrived from California. One day f decided to transfer her to Keenland and she gave out just as we reached C. D. Wilsons Iroquois Farm". I turned her into his place and when I got home phoned him that the mare with the bandaged leg was Micaela and arranged with him to mate her to Stalwart, and this fine foal, her first, is the result." At Keenland Farm Frank C. Hogan. of the racing firm of Henderson and Hogan. who also has aspirations to breed his own horses, has four young mares — Christmas. Agnes Yirginia. Mrs. Frank C. Hogan and Skyo. The first-named two have sucklings by Stalwart and have been mated back to that stallion. Skyo also went to his court this past spring and Mrs. Frank C. Hogan was sent to The Scribe. It is Mr. Hogans intention to keep Winning Widow and Aeguin for broodmares.