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BUYING YEARLINGS LIKE A LOTTERY. While W. II. Raker and the other members of the racing establishment he presides over bought more than twenty yearlings last season, it was a good investment, considering the fact that two such youngsters as Green Jones and Frigerio wore in the: collection. The largest band of yearlings ever purchased by any one connected with the Kentucky turf and this section way once owned by II. M. Zcigler, the Cincinnati theatrical man. One season at Lexington, the late trainer. Dan OBrien, broke forty-two yearlings owned by Zcigler. There were enough of the youngsters that turned out winners to repay ;he Cincinnati turfnar. for their purchase price, but the investment all around Mas not a profitable one. That season Dan OBrien had in training at Lexington sixty-seven yearlings, forty-two of them belonging to Zcigler and twenty-five owned by the Chicago turfman, John A. Drake. From out of the latter collection came the Futurity winner Savable. This is doubtless the largest band of yearlings that was ever trained in Kentucky in one stable. One of the best buyers of yearlings, taking his record nil around, is Col. W. K. Applcgatc. One season Colonel ApplogatJ even invested in ten yearlings, all of which he bought for fairly cheap prices. Nino of these won races as two-y-ar-olds, and the remaining one was a three-year-old winner; in the lot of youngsters Colonel Applcgatc purchased that season v.-s the sensational Round the World, the best two-year-old filly developed in Kentucky in recent years. Another season out of six yeailings Colonel Applcgatc bought from J. E. Madden for ,000, he secured five two-year-old winners, and one of the number was the famous .bud. whici won the Kentucky Derby in 1U14 in record time for that grout race. Many years ago the elder August Belmont sold three cast-offs as vearlings. One brought 30, another 20, and another 15. The one that brought 30 was Flitter, which won five straight races as a two-year-old. The one that brought 110 was King Crab, that won eighty -four races, and :ic one that sold for 15 was Badge, which won seventy races. Mr. Belmont that year retained upward of twenty yearlings to carry his colors in the big stakes. There .vas not one of that number that Badce or King Crab could not have conceded ten pounds to and easily defeated. Yearlings surely are a lottery, and the history of racing shows that no matter how much money one may invest in horse flesh, it is one line in which the market can lover be cornered.
