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INCIDENTS IN W. B. JENNINGS CAREER. Trainer of Macomber Horses Raced Pearl Jennings, Proper, Dainty and Other Track Stars. Louisville. Ky., April 8. — Trainer Walter B. Jennings, who is coming to Churchill Downs in the next few days from South Carolina with the string of horses owned by A. K. Macomber. is one of the most finished and expert trainers of horses on the running turf today. In the string Jennings is to bring here are three foreign -bred candidates for the Kentucky Derby, namely, Hesperus, Star Hawk and The Cock. Among the two-year-olds he has in charge is Hollister. which is a brother to the Derby candidate Hesperus, and. like that colt, is by an Epsom Derby winner out of an English Oaks winner. Jennings came in the early days to the turf from the town of Moberly. Mo. He first attracted attention as the owner of the noted mare. Pearl Jennings, which, doing her career on the turf, won a total of 5,332 in stakes and purses. He bought this daughter of Lelaps in Kentucky when she was just entering her two-year-old form, she having been bred by the late W. S. Payne, near Lexington. At the same time he purchased Ten Strike from the late Maj. B. G. Thomas. He won the Tennessee Derby with the latter and raced that horse during his career on the turf, but sold Pearl Jennings to E. Corrigan in the autumn of that mares three-year-old form. A short time later he took in a friend as a racing partner, who had agreed to buy of W. Cottrell. Rock and several other youngsters, provided they met Jennings approval when he looked them over. In the meantime this man had been offered for 00 each three two-year-olds by Glengary which were at Kennesaw Farm in Tennessee. Jennings had then seen Rock and the Cottrell band and he wired his partner that he would rather have Rock for ,500 than the three two-year-olds that could be bo.ugl:t in Tennessee. His partner, however, wrote Jennings that he thought that three chances were better than one and he had concluded to buy the Glengary two-year-olds. Then if Jennings persisted in securing Rock he would buy him also. Jennings luckily concluded to pass up Rock, which never won a race, while the three Glengary youngsters proved to be a profitable investment. One of the number, after he had won several races with him, he sold for ,000. and one of the other two. both of which were fillies, he sold to Milton Young for a broodmare for ,500. This mare is known in breeding annals as Bonnie I.ee. and l ecame the dam of Dr. Rice, the Brooklyn Handicap winner of 1894. After Pearl Jennings the next noted horse Jennings acquired was ieorge Oyster, which was a two-year-old in 1887. the year that such cracks raced at this age as Raceland. Emperor of Norfolk. Los Angeles. Tea Tray. Bandusia. Ballston. Bella B.. Sir Dixon. Prince Royal. Cascade. Fordham, Rlithesome. Guarantee, Kingfish. Badge, King Crab, Now or Never. EM H.. Geraldine and Magnetizer. Jennings secured this colt from J. O. Watts, a breeder in Illinois, and also j»ot the good racer Frank Ward at the same time. He sent to buy these two for him the well known turfman W. K. Kirwan. who is now in business in this city and owns L. H. Adair. After George Oyster had shown brilliant racing form, having run second in the Holly Stakes to Omaha, in the Sapphire Stakes to Geraldine, and in the Great Eastern Handicap to Raceland, with Gallifet running third. Jennings sold the son of Voltigeur to trainer James Rowe, acting for the elder August Belmont, for 5,000. The colt did his best running as a two-year-old. having been taken sick in the winter of his three-year-old form, although in the latter season he ran one sparkling race in the Spindrift Handicap, when he finished second to his stable companion Raceland and beat the famous Tristan and other good horses. Though bred in Illinois, George Oyster was as good looking a colt as was ever foaled, and had he not been taken sick would probably have proven one of the greatest three-year-olds on the turf in 1888. To turfmen of today Jennings is best known as the trainer of such brilliant recent racers as Proper, Dainty. Briar Sweet and Bendoran. With these four cracks he won on the turf in stakes and purses a total of 25,150. When racing shut down in California Jennings quit the turf for the time being and did not come out in the open again until he went to England to buy the horses he now has in charge for Mr. Macomber. His success throughout his career as a trainer of horses running back now for more than thirty years makes good judges greatly respect the chances of the Macomber candidates for Kentucky Derby honors. Jennings saw two of these race in England before he bought them for Macomber and his well-known judgment of horses indicates that in entering them for the Derby he believed them to have a chance with any of the cracks that raced in America as two -year -olds in 1915. In the training of these Derby candidates he has taken them to the south in a warm winter climate, to give them their early training for the big race. For this reason they may be even now thoroughly acclimated and, as a consequence, ripe and ready for the finishing touches when they arrive at the Churchill Downs track. It is safe to say that the one of the trio that he sends to the post on May 13 will be as fit as any horse that carries colors in the event this year, as no man knows better than this horseman just what a three-year-old has to be to run a mile and a quarter at his best in the middle of May. More than three decades have passed by since Jennings raced any horses in Kentucky. He has. however, always regarded this state with a friendly spirit, as it was here he got his first start on the turf when he picked up Pearl Jennings and Ten Strike, two which paid him back a hundred fold on his investment. In spite of having won for him over 5,000 in stakes and purses. Proper was about the hardest luck good 1-orse that Jennings ever raced. He would have won the Brooklyn Handicap if he had not been unlucky enough to stack up in that race against two such stars as The Picket and Irish Lad. Then in the next year he tried to win the Suburban Handicap and was unfortunate in falling against the great mare Beldame. In several other of his big stake starts he also happened to go against high-class racers that he was asked to concede weight to and had to be contented with securing second place. With the luck of many other horses in his favor. Proper would now be enrolled among the 00,000 winners of the American turf. Jennings is quoted as having said recently that if either Hesperus, Star Hawk or The Cock, Ma-combers three Kentucky Derby candidates, show him before that race what Proper at times exhibited to him, then he will think his string lias as good as won the Kentucky Derby of 1910.
