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JUDGE BURKE WRITES OF CHARLES KOHLER New York May S From a man who is always in a position to know what is going on in turf circles I learned a few days ago of tlie sale of Mr Bel nionts Frenchbred yearlings lo Mr Kohler and your readers were duly informed by wire When I asked for confirmation of the report Mr Kohler ad ¬ mitted it and invited me to call anil see liini before he sailed for hurope He is to leave here 01 the Caronla on May 10 and will lie absent until the middle of July Charles Kohler is not only a remarkably success ¬ ful business man he manufactures pianos for the trade and has more than 2000 employes I but he is as quick as lightning The dciil fo the Belmont yearlings was completed within half an hour after W L Powers had asked him how he would like 10 purchase them I was looking over the list of Mr Belmonts inareS said Mr Kohlur to me and greatly admired them He has sonic of the best mares in the world When do you look over the list I v asked askedAt At night was his answer for I do not leave my home more than one night in the month monthHow How long have you been interested in racing V was my next question questionEver Ever since I was twentyone years of age he answered 1 saw every Futurity ever run except the last one which took place at Saratoga and wis won by Novelty whjcli liorse later 1 bought I saw every Suburban ever run I went to the track with Kdwiird McKliiieel the day his horse Gen Monroe won the first Suburban I used to help old Miic in figuring out the weights his horses should carry This carryThis was a surprise to me for I hid thought that Mr Kohlers taste for racing was uf recent origin He says that it is his only form of recreation recreationGen Gen Monroe won tlie first Suburban which was in 1SS4 Proctor Knott won the first Futurity which was in 1SSS From Mr Kohlers own statement therefore his turf experiences us a lookeron date back thirty years And yet two years ago few had ever heard of him in thy turf world though about four years aju he raced a small stable called the Southside Stable with Besom a5 the chief liorse in it and Frank Taylor trained for him It was at this time that the late Herman Udseiithal was sited by Miv Kohler for either his own money 2000 or the profits of a 2001 commission which Mr Kohler had entrusted to Uusenthal as a commissioner to lie placed m Besom which won I thought at that time that Mr Kohler whom 1 never met until t vi years later had remarkable pluck to go into trfiirt despite the publicity which most business men shun in betting disputes and suo for his rights He won the suit by the way whjLh was another remarkable remarkablene ne October day In 1J11I Vna vi Sam Hildreth hud put up for sale his whole stable and had withdrawn them because lie did not think they were realizing their real value we were all startled by the announcement that Mr Charlerf Kohler had purchased the wluile lot and that they would lie raced in England The sum of 100000 was frequently published as the amount paid but Mr Kohler some time later told me that it was much Jess Tlie stable was sent abroad in February of 1012 but to France Instead of to England and then began a turf career which at present no w can predict the end of As the horses were eligibb in practically only the jumping races it became necessary to send such good ones as Novelty ILimji ton Court etc over the jumps but not until Novelty had won on the Hat with high weight and proved himself the best horse in training there But when put at jumping he was in my opinion a comparative failure Zeus has never raced in France Hampton Court became the property of Harry La Montague FitzIIerbert never ran then but went to the stud in the spring of lli5 and his Iwok Is well filled af 00 per mare Uncle purchased by Mr Kohler about four years ago and kept for a time at his Hamapo Farm was sent to France where his ownei also has about twenty broodmares Some of the Kaniapo Stud mares were sold in Germany In tho summer of 1912 all the Castlefoli fillies were sold for a lump sum to Mr Kohler and most of them are now at Newmarket where some have won Soon after that lie bought the stallion Superman4 whose twoyearold daughter Umbria ran third this week in England EnglandIn In November last Mr Kohler cabled Hildrcth that S50000 had been placed to his account in a Paris bank upon which he was to draw for the purpose of reinforcing bis stable with French horses for flat racing and this season the New Yock turfman has won some races with several of the horses then bought In England with tho beginning of the racing season there his twoyearolds in Joseph Butters care at Newmarket have won several races and no doubt they will win more Two of them were recently brought back to America nml Mr Kohler told me today that his threeyearold Bee ¬ thoven by Broomstick out of Sans Pcnr Is now on his way here He is a fair threeyearold was his comment commentSix Six mouths back Mr Kohler began to purchase as much stock In the Saratoga track as he could lay hands on and he is now I hear the owner of a block of loOO shares or nearly onefourth of the capital stock and is the largest individual owner He also has stock in the Aqueduct ajid Ottawa tracks His recent purchase of the Belmont year lings in France while it is his latest noteworthy uxpuit will not by any means he his last if I am any judge of intentions for he is still keen to own a line stock farm Up to this time his thoroughbreds number just 1415 as he informed me today Stables in England France and America a breeding stud in France and one in America make Mr Kohler one of our most important personages in the turf world worldThus Thus far his colors are unknown to New Yorkers but they will not remain so for there Is a stable of good twoyearolds at the Coney Island Jockey Club track under the care of Dave Leary and when the New York season begins on Memorial Day af Bel ¬ mont Park they will be seen with the colors up The question of a jockey to ride is now disturbing Mr Kohler As Is well known he had hoped to IK able to utilize Shilling who rode for Hildreth for several seasons but that was found impracticable as far as the French and Knglish turf were con ¬ cerned Last year Shilling rode for H C Ilallen bcck and as the turf world knows lie was suspended at Havre de Grace after a whip fight with Diggins in a race there So far Shillings license lias not been formally asked for but It will be and Mr Kohler has hopes that the boy may be permitted to do his riding 1 saw Shilling today and ascertained from him some interesting facts which I was not before cognizant of Though he today looked the picture of health and can ride at 110 pounds Shilling told me that soon after the Havre de Grace meeting he be ¬ gan to lose flesh so fast that he weighed at one time only ninetysix pounds This for a youth of such strength as he is normally possessed of was certainly something to worry over I was so weak that I went into a hospital at Cleveland said Shilling and there I underwent an operation I was told by the operating physician that a growth of some kind was cut out of my left side below the rib and I at once began to recover though 1 was two mouths in the hospital The young man is now residing at Sheepshead Bay is working horses for Mr Kohler for living wages is living a quiet life in company with his wife and is getting into the best possible condition for riding if the license com ¬ mittee will give him a license It is said that both Shilling and McTaggart will be riding during the Belmoiit Pirk meeting Mr Kohler siwke as follows In behalf of Shilling At the time that he was suspuhded for foul riding he was in great mental trouble A tragedy in Ids family in which a near relative was in great dan ¬ ger made It necessary for the jockey to earn as much money as possible In as short a time as pos ¬ sible Telegrams from his home town in Texas kept coining to him calling on the iniy for 250 for 500 etc Ife sent his family every dollar he earned so that at the close of the year be was practically liennilcss I am of the opinion that if Shilling McTaggart or any other good jockey were to be given smother chance with racing under new condi ¬ tions they will not again invite punishment or if they do let them be ruled off forever if proven guilty of deliberate foul work In these days a good trainer or a good jockey is helpful to the race tracks and a drawing card A popular jockey means good gate money and much enthusiasm when he wins on a popular liorse There are now riding not a few jockeys who 1 understand have been punished for foul riding many times yet who have received their license and apparently are reformed characters No doubt some fKXiple who have read turf romances would expect to hear of the owner of a Derby fa ¬ vorite as a great swell living a life of splendor surrounded by admiring friends in his club and calling nxm his fashionable associates in a richly furnished automobile I called yesterday upon one owner of a Derby favorite whose life is not that depicted above It was Anthony L Aste owner of Ten Point As I wrote to you in the winter several months ago Mr Aste is a business man With him it is his business first his race horses second Per ¬ haps when his stable was much larger than it is now he gave less personal attention to the details of his business But now I can testify that while all over the land the condition and prosjiects of the Derby colt Ten Point are the cause of much gossip and some anxiety the state of mind of that colts owner Is apparently as placid as if the horse was of no more value than a milch cow He was busy com ¬ pounding a recipe to bo used in a composition ami the exact elements of tills he alone knew lie was of course proud of the fact that a colt which he had bred should have become a public idol but while most others are or were worrying about Ten Points physical well being the man who had most at stake did not appear at all perturbed He could by sending a tenword telegram have transferred all tho troubles and anxieties of possession of a Derby favorite to someone elses shoulders by simply accepting the price which more than one man was willing to pay for him lint like a good poker player he is standing pat and so 1 Left him but not until he had pointed to a brandnew racing jacket his colors brown with red and white stripes on sleeves red cap and said If the colt wins the Derby those colors will be sacred and may be locked up forever after And so after all the owner and breeder of Ten Poitit lias sentiment and tlie right sort of pride JOSEPH J BUUKE
