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J HUGGINS LAUDS ST. SIMON HORSES. New York, October 17. The veteran trainer John Iluggins, who trained ATolodyovskl for the late AVil-liam C. Whitney when that American, turfman won the Epsom Derby in 1901, has gone to his Texas ranch to spend the winter, in accordance with this custom of recent years. AVhen asked the question before leaving for the south: "AVliat was the best horse you ever trainedV" Mr. Iluggins replied promptly: "I havent any idea, but I can tell you the best horse I ever saw, and that was Persimmon. I have seen many good race horses, some really geat ones, but I have no hesitation in pronouncing Persimmon the greatest of them all. Persimmon was a big horse, that is, u tall horse, fully seventeen hands high, I should think, but his younger brother, Diamond Jubilee, was considerably stouter for his height. I do not mean to say that Persimmon was slender, much less weedy, but he had long legs and not a little daylight under him. He had a brilliant turn of speed and he could stay any distance. There was a fast colt over there which was afterward imported to this country. I saw him winning at five and a half furlongs or thereabouts, and lie seemed to be invincible, but I saw him sent out to work with Persimmon one morning for not more than three-quarters, and Persimmon simply lost him right from the first jump. "I have no doubt that the wonderful successes achieved by Persimmon, Diamond Jubilee and other immediate descendants of St. Simon on the turf have had much to do with the high favor in which tlte St. Simon strain is held in England, France, America and elsewhere, but of course, some of the sons of St. Simon have been brilliantly successful in the stud, and that has shown that the value of the strain is persistent. Rabelais, by St. Simon, is one of the great sires in France. Diamond Jubilee is working wonders in South America, and there are successful sons or grandsons of St. Simon in every country where they are breeding race horses, but St. Simons are not without their faults some of them have abominable tempers and the St. Simon strain is not without formidable rivals. "I like these lasting and persistent crosses," he continued. "When they show racing quality in one generation after another, like Polymelus, tracing straight back through good ones to Stockwell, and that Blacklock strain which runs from St. Simon back through Galpin. Aidette and AToltigeur, and Isinglass going right back through Isonomy, Sterling and Oxford to Birdcatcher, it means something. "The Bend Or strain is one which seems to be steadily coming to the front, and as it constitutes an out-cross witli that of St. Simon as well as the Oxford-Sterling-Isonomy-Isinglass family, the latter having only one Stockwell cross through isola Bella, the dam of Isonomy, the union should be a good one. Polymelus, one of the most fashionable English sires of today, goes straight to Stockwell in the male line through his sire, Cyllene, Bona Aista, Bend Or. Stockwell, with but one intervening cross of Sterling which comes through Arcadia, the dam of Cyllene and the daughter of Isonomy."
