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WILLIAM P BURGH SOME OF THE THINGS WILLIAM P BURCHS GOOD HORSES HORSESDID DID IN RACING WILLIAM P BURCII ranks well up in the list of truly veterans of the American tnrf and lias every right to take honorable pride in a stainless record as an owner trainer and racing olliclal lie lias Iweu training horses forty years or more and training them well for him ¬ self and others A quiet and unobtrusive man lie is but one that is intelligent and well in ¬ formed and deep in the esteem of men whose esteem is worth possessing When Bnrch was a mu h younger man than he is now towit in 1SS2 he was the owner of quite a servicea ¬ ble band of racers in Colonel Spragne Iota Helen Wallace Homespun Jim Nelson and others that could win At the same time C II 1ettingill owned such other good ones as Dnke of Montalhan Fair Count ami Constantlna It was tlio custom of the two worthies to take their horses to Charleston and Savannah for a touch of winter racing after the northern rac ¬ ing campaign was over To show what per ¬ fectly insatiable monopolists they were the rec ¬ ord of the Charleston December meeting of 1SS2 is quite interesting It covered four days of which one had four races and the others three each so there were thirteen races in all Two of these were for South Carolina twoyearolds to which they had no eligibles Of the remain ¬ ing eleven thev won ten between them Iturcli taking six and Pettingill four They tried for the entire eleven but slipped up on one because 7 15 liates lilly Itoiiulu Kate managed to I eat Burchs Homespun for the Hampton Stakes at mile heats It was pretty much the same way in the next month at the Savannah meeting when out of eleven races pulled off these two graspers after all the loose change in South Carolina and Georgia took ten and had no starter in the one that got away They were not o successful at the Augusta meeting vhich came off in February because of the tun races run they only took seven Tho racing of that time in those southern cities was not for with fashionable society nnd marked by such lavish hospitality extended as to IK simply delightful alTairs and it is quite probable both linrch and PoJlinglH would declare they never had more enjoya ¬ ble experiences in their lives than then The horses mentioned were of really good class and held tlicir own worthily In summer racing over the northern tracks One of them Colonel Spragne was an excellent handicap h rse and the means of practically impoverishing the Chinese legation at Washington at one time It hapi eind that he won a mile and a quarter dash over the old Ivy City track May IS 1882 foi which the famous horse Glonmore was a great favoiite and Colonel Spragne so little thought of that the three 5 mntnel tickets sold on him each returned 700 It also happended that two of those tickets were held by attaches of the Chinese legation Tills remarkable accumulation of wealth for practicably nothing caused great excitement in the celestial establishment and a linn conviction that Colonel Sprague was the greatest horse oxtniit It was his last race at the spring meeting so with oriental patience his return at the fall meeting was awaited Here lie won at his lirst start carrying the confidence and cash of all hands from the Chinese minister down to his humblest employe This con ¬ firmed the conviction that he was truly an invincible so when on the next day he eame out In a mile and a half handicap against such formidable opiMtnents as Checkmate General Monroe Branswick Duke of Montalhan and Lida Stanhope all that the legation had won on him and all that they conld scrape up besides went in on him Itight nobly he raced for their money too but Checkmate proved too much for him and second to that truly great racer was the best he could do Hence followed consternation tribulation and rigid economy in the aristocratic Chinese establishment through a hard winter winterIn In his time Mr Burch raced many highclass horses too many to attempt to notice in a short sketch but a capital lilly that lie owned and raced in 1SS5 gained for herself the record of winning the race marked by the longest delay at the post known in American racing This was Biggonet by Bramble Bobinet and the race was the Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga August 1 1885 Fourteen fillies went to the post and stayed there something more than two hours and a quarter Charles Wheatley was then secretary of the Saratoga Association and appointed his son It R Wheatley starter in the hope that he would become expert at the business in time But he was the worst ever and it was due to his unlitness for the work that this remarkable delay occurred Like most of tho Brambles Biggonet was a sturdy creature and standing the worriment Itest won without ditli cnlty Ilorcaliouts a good many people imagine that the long delay at the post when Boundless won the American Derby was a record but it is this Saratoga case that stands out alone and unapproach ¬ able The next year Biggonet won the Withers Stakes and beat all the crack colts of tho year Only ono other fllly ever won this historic race Lncanla carrying it off in 1895
