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x 1 j , , | j , , j , . ■ . ■ ; ; ; ! VALUE OF FIRST CLASS HORSES. People have aoi yet givea up talking about the vast total nali/.e. 1 at the recent Deceasaec Sao--, and wondering whether Messrs. Tatteraall eaaaot improve even on these resnlts by some scheme which will liiail les- labor on all Concerned; but. be thai a- it atay, Ihe main feature, after all, is that the buyers want the P.iiiish thoroughbred, and are will lag to pay in large sums for their wants. The desire to disburse money did not end with the December Sales. Within ui.v own knowledge 30.860 guineas 8158,000 was offered for Leaaherg, with the added condition thai he might stay in Fnglaud at Mr. Leachs stud, where lie now is. and 1 think the offer might have been Increased had Mr. Cox shown any sign of lining his horse go at all. but he simply replied: "Lean berg not for sale." and that enditl it. It is well to have -11. h mat Pis clearly recorded, lor many a supposed offer has been due to a loinmissioii Bgeal aakfaag if an owner would take Bach and siieli a price for his horse, and then hunting around to sec if aayoae would give it. Ihe offer of 30.000 guin lifer Lemberg was solidly made last week, and was refused. This must dearly be inn: 1 -ling and worth noting among high-price records. Then there is Prince Palatine, a Beach better horse than Lemberg. and bred to perfect ion. For him as mueli as 45.0OO guineas 34,000 was vainly offered during last October. He is well worth 80.000 guineas or ev.-u ne.re. to an Argentine breeder, as they get snea niaininoih prices for the young sleek, but 1 aaaler staud thai Mr. Pilkington wishes, ju any event, that the son of Persimmon should stay in England, and there is a spoiling inclination to keep the admitted champion in training another year. Rvea at this late period Prince Palatine, if retired to the stud, would eoinmaiid a ready subscription list of, say, twenty mares at 400 guineas for his first sea-.. 11. and the future seasons would be tilled as a matt -r of COBTSe. Such a horse i- really worth from 45.-000 to 50.0H guineas even in England, where the price would represent little more than three years purchase, it is a big lump to invest in a boraa doubt, but lean ranee can always protect it. and the boldest men in such investments have always been the most successful. It is much to tie hoped thai Prince Palatine will stay in England, for there is 110 horse in this country so ideally bred to combine speed and -lamina of the highest class. It has lieon rightly objected in past years that owners have retired good young horses prematurely lather than risk their reputations. This was certainly done with Blair Alhoi. t oinuioii. and many others, but no anch reproach could attach to Prince Palatine, who has already achieved the best possible, and whose further raring career could not place him higher in the stroll of fame. Most of us are inclined to a Kip Van Winkle view as to the priees of bteed-Stoefc and the fees of stallions, hut we live in times when every sale cats all records, and when, in South America, the price of a 30.080 guineas sire is so trifling that it all Canaan bin a With interest over the sale of his first years slo-k. This being so. it is only necessary 10 alter the foeus of our old-fashioned views and to iook nt modern priees in their true pro|K niou to surrounding circumstances. From this readjusted point of view I should take Prince Palatine to be worth all of 50.000 guineas, simply as a eommereial speculation: and I am more than satisfied that a horse like F.ayardo is worth that sum — altogether outside the abnormal value which obtains in Souih America. Vigilant, in London Sportsman.
