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REMINISCENCES OF A VETERAN TURFMAN. If ono wants to "talk horse" and knows enough of the subject to question and listen intelligently he cannot do better than to go down to Brighton Beach and introduce himself to John Davis. He need not be afraid that Mr. Davis may be away from home or hard to find, for during the winter months he is watchman and caretaker of the New Brighton Theatre and is always on the job. He need not he afraid of a rebuff, for .Mr. Davis is us good-natured as he is courtly and well-bred: and that is saying much for his amiability when it is remembered that he was born and reared in tin blue grass region of old Kentucky in the early half of the nineteenth century, and that his asso elates and models were the grandees of the turf in those days, who raced their horses for sport ana the glory of victory rather than for iinaucial gain. John Davis was born in Lexington June 5. 1.S2G. and when not more than ten years old was engage! in exercising race horses down on the Georgetown pike between Georgetown and Frankfort, lie remembers well the name and characteristics of the first horse upon which lie was mounted. This wa the horse Whipster, by Blackburns Whip. He was a horse of some spirit and rather disposed to he unruly, but young Davis stuck to him, winning the approval of his employer and the stable grooms and thus securing an auspicious start in his struggle to make his own way in the world. Mr. Davis reminiscences of the turf in tho-e early days would be sulliclent to fill a book much larger than his volume entitled "The American Turf," but possibly the most interesting matter to be obtained from him In the course of a few hours chat mnv be found in his recollections of some of the great turf heroes of long ago; animals which were carrying tin; silks of their Illustrious owners years before Lexington and I.ecompte ever saw the light of day. To say that Mr. Davis was born more than 87 vears ago may not coavey to the average horseman of today as vivid an Idea of the period of turf hlstorv over which his experience extends as to say that "it was he who gave Jacob Piucns Ills first mount, and that it was he who llrst induced Nelson lilttletield Charles I.IttleHelds elder brother to come from the city of Quebec to the United States because he saw in young I.ittletield extraordinary promise as a jockey. lie also went with the late Itlchard Ten Broeck as his principal jockey when that famous turfman campaigned through Canada in 18-17. which was six years prior to the date of the purchase of Lexington by Mr. Ten Broeck and Captain VIley the week in which the great son of Boston and Alice Carneal ran his lirst race, won the Phoenix Hotel Stakes and leaped into first honors on the turf. Like nearly all turfman, Mr. Davis has two or three turf idols which he regards as the greatest race horses ever trained. His trio consists of Wagner. Boston and Doubloon, and he describes them with as much accuracy of detail as if he -had looked them over last week. , Hero is the substance of what Mr. Davis had to syv about Wagner: Wagner was by Sir Charles, he by Sir Archy. His dam was Maria West, by Marion, and he by Sir Arehv, so you can see that Wagner was inbred lo Sir Arch-, which I regard as the greatest sire that "ever lived here or In any other country. He stood fullv sixteen hands high and had plenty of substance. He had unusually broad hips which overhung his stllles somewhat, though he had grand driving power, with thick stifles and powerful, . muscular gaskins. One was apt to be impressed with his bread overhanging hips, however, and it was a common saying among the turfmen of that day that you could hang your hat on bis hip bones. He had a broad and muscular loin, though it was tiat and not arched like the loins of some great horses I have known. He had good bone below the knee, and his pasterns were rather long and elastic, though not so much so as those of Boston and Lexington. "Wagner was a horse of peculiar temperament. He had u resolute, combative disposition, and if a jockey struck him with the whip or used his spurs savagely, be was apt to ston and refuse to make r an effort. He wanted to run his race to suit himself. and lie could not be made to run away from his company until the race was practically over, but when his jockey called on 1dm to catch a horse in front of him and simply made a bluff as if he was about to whip him, he would show a burst of speed which In his day was practically resistless. lie could run at a terrific rate, but you had to get him where lie thought it was necessary before be would roallv extend himself. He was of a cool and almost sluggish disposition, but as game a horse as ever was foaled. "When the Burbrldge brothers contemplated backing Grey Eagle against him, Mr. VIley was sent east to watch Wagner In his race and estimate his chances of beating their famous gray, and after he had seen Wagner win a number of races he came back to Kentucky and said, "Wagner is a great horse and a great stayer; but I do not think he has sliced enough to beat Grey Eagle if you, make a waiting race of it and come at him in the hitter part of the journey with such a burst of speed as your horse can show. "Well, It was planned that Grey Eagle should make a waiting race of it up to the last quarter of the third mile, and then set such a hot iwce that Wagner never would he able to catch him. The first two and three-quarter niiies was run at a moderate racing clip, and at the head of the stretch In the third mile Grey Eagle was about three open lengths in front and fighting for his head. Then the boy sat down on him and sent him along the last quarter of the third mile in :23Vi. "This was where we expected to get so far from Wagner that he never could get near our gray, but you can imagine how we felt when we saw this chestnut horse which we supposed to foe shy on speed leading foy a neck as they hnlslled that fast quarter. That was practically the end of the race. Wagner went on and won that heat easily. Then, after they had cooled out. Grey Eagle weut-,out ;to set.a hot pace right from the start in the second heat, but Wagner stuck right to him and finally beat him at the finish. "Of course I was anxious to see Grey Eagle win that race, for I was in the employ of the Burbidge brothers and felt as much interest in their hprses as they did themselves. Grey Eagle was perhaps one of the most elegant looking race horses ever bred in this country with the exception of his cars. They were coarse and carried badly, almost like mule ears, but otherwise he was a particularly handsome and elegant looking horse. He was a great show ring horse, except for his ears. He was a steel gray when a four-year-old and although "he grew white with advancing years he always was a cleau gray until he became white, but he never was dappled nor flea-bitten. "I believe I neglected to mention Wagners color. Be was a dark or hard chestnut, with small white markings. "Boston was another of the greatest race horses I ever knew. As you know, of course, he was of the same family as Wagner, being by TImoleon, a sou of Sir Archy. He was a rather bright chestnut, with a small star and some white markings on his feet and ankles, but nothing that could be called a white stocking. He was just a shade under sixteen hands high, perhaps a quarter of an inch, but he was a horse of tremendous substance and muscle. "He was a gross horse, although highly finished in every respect. His head was characteristic of his whole make-up. He had a broad, flat forehead, and widespread, muscular jowls, but his head tapered sharply to a fine, blood-like muzzle, with broad, wide-open nostrils. Altogether his head was small, that is, short and fine, in spite of his broad forehead and broad, heavily muscled jowls. 1 "His throttle was broad, clean and finely arched, the windpipe showing clear aud well defined. His neck was rather long and bloodlike, arched in the lower outline, and gracefully, though not over-crested. His chest was broad and deep, and his shoulders were rangy aud heavily muscled, but for all that his forelegs were not overloaded, for his shoulders were extremely oblique and he had a perfect Gothic arch between his forelegs, while not only had he enormous muscles above the arm. but the arm Itself and the forearm were tremendously muscled, and then below a broad, clean, flat-fronted knee he had short and immensely strong cannon liones, backed with an abundance of clean, hard sinew. "His fetlocks were ptroug and sound, his pasterns rather long aud oblique, thus combining with the oblique shoulders to give great elasticity of action and take the shock away from the feet and back sinews, no had. as I have already said, a grand, deep chest, and right behind the foreleg his long back ribs gave him immense lung space. "His barrel, while heavy aud roomy, was an almost perfect cylinder, as it drew back from the brisket, and the weight was carried away back into a well-skirted flank, for he was none of your greyhound thoroughbreds. His loin was not only broad and strong, but it was so heavily muscled that it was actually arched, even roached, so to speak. "His quarters were massive, with good breadth over the top, but his hip points did not project like those of Wagner, and his stifles, which were deep and let away down, were so thick that a measurement across them would have been considerably In excess of his measurement over the bins. His hind legs were straight; his gaskins. while well spread, were enormously powerful, with great muscular development both inside and outside; his hocks were big, clean, bony and perfectly formed, ind his legs between hock and pastern were wide, strong and sinewy. "Boston had a beautiful way; of going, always running close to the ground with a smooth fric-tionlcss stride In which there was no climbing or lost effort. He carried his head rather low when ho was running well extended, but he did uot reach out with his nose as his famous son, Lexington, used to. He carried his tall down, but slightly curled upward at the lower end, and this came to be taken as a likeness of the sire In nearly all the best of his get." Mr. Davis has a vivid recollection of the great Boston and Fashion race, which Fashion won in straight heats, probably because Boston having been in the stud that season, was not properly keyed up for a race at four-mile heats. "This race was run over the old Union Course down on Long Island in 1842," said Mr. Davis in referring to it, " and I remember it as well as if it had been yesterday, though that was seventy-one years ago. That was the first time I ever saw the now famous turfman, Charles Reed. He was making a great deal of stir, and although a young fellow, he was betting heavily and giving free advice to every one he met. "As he had picked Fashion for the winner, I have no doubt he made many friends before the day was over. Every one referred to him as the big English boy, but he seems to have outgrown that name, aud when you come to think it over, you cant wonder at it. "Before I quit talking about Boston, I want to call your attention to the fact that neither he nor his great son, Lexington, was trained as a two-year-old. I always have been opposed to two-year-old racing, and that is why I mention this fact. It is true there was but little two-year-old racing in the good old days,, but that does not mean that two-year-old were not trained. As a matter of fact they were very generally trained, for many thought it made them better for their races as three-year-olds, but neither Boston nor Lexington was even trained or developed as a two-year-old and I think that even the most ardent of the admirers of baby horse racing will admit that they turned out to be pretty fair irace horses. "I always have regarded Doubloon as one of the three greatest horses I ever knew. He was a dark chestnut horse by imported Margrave out of Picayune, by Medoc. He was foaled in 1S45, I think, and he was so mucji like Boston that the description of that famous son of TImoleon would answer for him, except in ono feature. Doubloon was very wide between the forelegs, aud not arched there at all, but singularly enough he did not stand with his fore feet wide apart, as one would expect. On the contrary, his fore feet were close together. Like Boston, he was a horse possessed of marvellous propelling powers, and he was not only a fast horse, but a great stayer, a great weight-carrier and a wonderful horse in deep mud or heavy going. "I very well remember when I was a small boy, wearing a rough-and-tumble suit of homespun linen and sitting on a rail fence to watch a four-mile heat race between three mares which in later years became noted producers. They were Mary Morris, Cub and Ripple. "All three were chestnuts, and all by that good horse Medoc, sou of American Eclipse, which, by the way, was much the same style of horse as Wagner, though liardly as large. Cub was not quite up to the mark in condition, and she quit in the first heat, Mary Morris winning, with Ripple second. Then Ripple won the second heat, and finally Mary Morris won the third heat, and the race." New York Telegraph.
