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THE CAREER OF THE DOMINION HANDICAP WINNER OF THIS YEAR ! With a Futurity Stakes winner her sire and a double Oaks winner her dam. Flora Fina had running blood in her veins to amply account for the prominence she gained in a strenuous racing campaign this year. Flora Fina cannot be ranked with the recognized great mares of American turf history, but her natural endowment in the way of hardihood, a good order of speed and ability to. stay any distance are not to be gainsaid. Her sire, Ogden, won the Futurity of 18!G for Marcus Daly and, besides being a good race horse, proved a highly successful sire when sent to the stud. Only last month one of his best sons. Sir .Martin, won a good stake race at Manchester, England. Her dam, Flora Pomona, won the Tennessee Oaks at Memphis and the Latonia Oaks at Latonia and was, in all respects, a capital race mare herself. Some theorists are of the opinion that our thoroughbreds would be all the better if not raced as two-year-olds. Whether the idea is correct or not, those who believe in it can find in Flora Fina an illustration on their side of the argument. She was not raced as a two-year-old or a three-year-old. making her first start in a race at Charleston, S. C, January ISO of this year and then finishing third to Winifred D. and Dustpan in a race for maidens at three-quarters of a mile. Her next race brought about her initial success. This was in a dash of seven-eighths of a mire at the same track February 11. She opened at 30 to 1 in the betting, but closed at 15 to 1 and won by a head from Towton Field in 1:28, with Hoffman third and four others unplaced. She won once again at Charleston, taking a mile dash, March 15, over a slow track in 1:44, in which she defeated such as Paton, Early Light, Merry Lad, Supervisor, Monocacy, Ilenpeck and Mud Sill. Then she was brought north and, starting against decidedly better opposition at Lexington. April 20. won the Phoenix Hotel Spring Handicap at a mile and a sixteenth. The race was over a heavy track and tins starters and weights were Flora Fina, 104i; Any Port, 102; Princess Callaway, 100, and DoneraK. !0. Princess Callaway was an odds-on favorite at I! to 4, but Flora Fina won easily from Any Port by a length and a half, with Princess Callaway third and the subsequent Kentucky Derby winner a beaten-olT last. Then to show that she could do as well over a fast track she defeated Joe Stein, U Steppa, Flying Feet, Cousin Puss, Impression and Manager Mack, at a mile and twenty yards. May 1, in 1:41 and on May followed this up by winning the Camden Handicap at a mile and a quarter. The starters were Flora Fina. 10:; pounds: Manager Mack, 107: Gowell. 103; Any Port, 10S; Donerail, 103, and Lord Marshall, 105. Dtinerail was the favorite at 17 to 10. but at the end of a good race Flora Fina won from Manager Mack by a nose, with Gowell third and Donerail next to last. The race was run in 2:05. It was Donerails running in this and other Lexington races that caused him to be close to 100 to 1 in the Kentucky Derby-day betting and rendered his success in that event all the more inexplicable. Following this race Flora Finn was beaten in a sequence of six races and won nothing at the Churchill Downs and Douglas Park spring meetings exctpt place money. It was not until at Latonia, June 14, that she was able to score anotuer win. This was in a race at a mile and a sixteenth, in which, in a strenuous finish, she got up in lime to defeat Henauet by a head in 1:44 after the latter had covered the first mile in 1:3S. The third horse. Samuel R. Meyer, was only another head back in this fast-run race and five good horses were unplaced. June 17 Princess Callaway beat her by a length at the same distance in 1:44, but on June 28, again at a mile and a sixteenth, she defeated Swaimanoa, Princess Callaway, Fellowman and Little Father in 1:44. She won no more at Latonia and was taken north for a campaign over the Canadian tracks. Her lirst start there was at Windsor, July IS, and. carrying 104 pounds to 107 on Samuel R. Meyer and 120 o:i IVate Glass, she won at a mile and a sixteenth over a heavy track in 1:52. Then she ran unplaced in one race at Windsor and two at Hamilton, but in her last race at the latter place ran third to Hamilton and Flabbergast in the Hamilton Cup, at a mile and a quarter in 2:04, beaten five and a quarter lengths. As the result of this somewhat indifferent racing it was quite in keeping that she wasa 15 to 1 outsider when the valuable Dominion Handicap came on for decision at Fort Erie, August 0. The starters for this coveted mile and a quarter event, the order of finishing and their weights were Flora Fina, 1U2 pounds: Donerail, 10S: Flabbergast. 107: Hamilton. 110: First Sight, 112; Jenny Geddes, 07; Lochiel. lo2, and John Furlcng. 104. First Sight, at 2 to 1, was the post favorite, while Donerail was at 3 to 1 and Hamilton at 3y. to 1, one of this trio being deemed sure to win the race. Hut Flora Fina went into the lead in the tirst eighth and, successfully playing the part of hare to hounds, held her advantage to the end and woTreasing up in the fast time of 2:01. Tills crowning achievement of her career was her last winning race and her "ast start was when she ran second to Pandorina in the Kentucky Endurance Stakes at Churchill Downs, Oetolier S. Then she was sent into retirement until next year with the following creditable record: Year. Ajre. Sts. 1st. 2nd. 3rd. JJnn. y. Won. 1013 4 33 0 7 5 12 S12.205 r . . . I Solon j West Australian. f Arbitrator t Hirdcatcher mare. fKilwarlin J Tr,c Heart J Musjid. j I Mary Jane. Lord Gougl. jGIadiateur. I Hasty Girl j I Rattaglla. f 0"den j " Irritation J King of Trumps. " " I Patience. "I . f Rend Or j 1oncaster SJockwcH. I . Marigold. o l Oriole J . Rouge Rose J Thormanby. i , , EUen IIonu . Cambuscan J Xcwminster. 2 - UenIa. Tlle Amw; Ps -a J ... La Favorlta J Monargue. . . Constance. o v" C Lord Clifden i Newminster. -Petrarch 1 The Slave. 2 . " "I . Laura i Orlando. fllonst. ....... j, Torment. f I I Skirmisher J Voltlgeur. a I-Pomona n I Gardham mare. I Flora Pomona I Vertumna i Stockwell. -i Garland. , Phaeton. j King Tom. I f Te Rrocok J Merry Sunshine. Fanny Will- Fanny Holton J Lexington. ougMiy 4 xantura. , , Vauxhall j Lexington. I Ll,cla Verona. i Lucy Haxall j Revenue. Virginia Payne.
