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HAPPENINGS IN KENTUCKY ESTABLISHMENT OF WHITNEY STUD IN BLUE GRASS REGION IMPORTANT OCCURRENCE. Hcadloy and Millers Monopoly of tho Star Shoot Yearlings J. N. Camden to Expand His Operations in Racing. Kentuckhins are well divided in their allegiance to the winter tracks this season. Many are now at New Orleans, while another delegation is now on its way to Havana, where "Curly" Brown and Frank Bruen are planning to conduct tho best meeting in the history of Oriental Park. There are good many of the cheaper horses from the blue grass state at Tijuana, and the old guard Is back at Juarez, the course which furnished winter sport when racing was dead in every other part of North America during the winter. The steady Increase in tracks has been reflected to a certain degree in the nurseries of Kentucky. When racing began on the upward trend a few seasons back, there was a dearth of good horses and, ns fast as the crop expanded, the number of tracks? increased, keeping the nurseries going at a lively clip. Incidentally, the price of thoroughbreds increased in proportion. Some war prices mav be received within the next few years if conditions hold. At present the prices of thoroughbreds have been kept down due to the fact that Americans have been able to go abroad and pick up good horses at medium prices. But when the war is over there is sure to be a tightening up all along the line. One of the most notable expansions in Kentucky is the addition of the Harry Payne Whitnev horses. Heretofore he has not gone in for the nurserv end of the sport in this part of the countrv, but limited his efforts to his Brookdale Farm, at Red Bank, N. J., but this fall he has sent eighteen mares and they are now at Hiuata under the care of Charles 11. Rorryman, who for years as head of the Haggin interests in Kentucky had the management of the great Elmendorf Stud, which at one time was as great as any in the land. There is a current rumor that Harry Payne Whitney will send Peter Pan. son of the great Commando Cinderella, by Hermit, winner of 10,450 on the turf, to Kentucky as head of his nurserv in Kentucky. Mr. Whitney paid 8,000 for Peter Pan at the dispersal sale of Castleton Stud. Peter Pan is a member of the great family of thoroughbreds which the late Maj. F. A. Daingerfield built up and earned more on the rnco track than any other family in the history of the turf. In the shipment of high-bred mares to Kentucky Mr. Whitney sent such as Ascension, Queen of Hearts, Polly Flinders and others. If the youngsters which John E. Madden recently sold to llal Price Ueadley, of Lexington, and W. P.. Miller, of New York, run according to their breeding, the veteran stallion. Star Shoot, is moro than likely to head the list of winning sires for some time to come. Twenty-seven of them are by Star Shoot. Among the band of youngsters is a foal by Star Shoot Miss Granville, and another out of Flora Pomona, which will be watched with interest on the turf. There is another that may surprise the followers of the sport. This royally-bred youngster is by Star Shoot Sweet Marjoram, dam of Bring-hurst. Johnson N. Camden, former United States senator from Kentucky, has been making preparations to get back a formidable stable on the turf. He has been paying a great deal more attention to blood strains of late, and the master of Hartland Stud may be expected to show something worth while in a few years. He has been crossing the strains of the English-bred horses he could get with the American strains. His latest addition to his stud is an imported mare. Wilful Maid, by Sundridge Marian Hood, by Martagon. She arrived in this country the past month. She is a half-sister of Polymelus, the stallion which has led the list of winning sires of England for some time. There is a great deal of interest being shown in the decision which Judge Samuel B. Kirbv will hand down, probably next week, in the case of John Hachmeister, general manager of the Douglas Park and Latonla Jockey Club, against the Kentucky State Racing Commission, over the ruling of that body fixing the minimum purses to be given 011 Kentucky tracks. It is the contention of Mr. Hachmeister that the commission has the right to mak? a ruling that so much must be offered in purses each day by the tracks, but he denies the right of the governing body to decide just how much each purse shall be. The case occupied one day in local courts, with Judge Kirby presiding. At the conclusion of the case and the arguments having been heard, he took the case under advisement. His decision is looked for early this week. The decision, it is understood, hangs on the reading of the act passed by the legislature, which empowers the commission to handle all racing and its conditions. The meaning of the word "conditions" is to be decided by Judge Kirby. The attorneys representing Mr. Hachmeister contended that by the word "conditions" the act meant that the commission was to hold the power according to distance, changes of weight in the scale and age of starters. Attorney John T. Shelby of Lexington, who aided in representing the commission, declared that the word "condition" was of the blanket variety. He helped Col. John R. Allen of Lexington, draw up the act. Walter Brannon, who for the past eight rears has been with the stable of the late V. J. Pons of Madison, Tenn., arrived in Louisville last week and relieved LIgo Brewster of the care of the Pons horses quartered at Churchill Downs. Brannon was a stable boy with Pons when the latter was general manager of the course at Jacksonville. According to Brannon, Pons, though a large loser in recent years on the turf, left a comfortable fortune to his family at his dcatli. The Pons breeding establishment will be maintained at Madison, Tenn., with Judge Wright and Tony Bonero at its head. A son-in-law will take charge of the nursery. Letter to Memphis Commercial Appeal.
