Continuous Cuban Racing: No Intermission at the Oriental Park Track for Sixteen Days, Daily Racing Form, 1916-12-28

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CONTINUOUS CUBAN RACING NO INTERMISSION AT THE ORIENTAL PARK TRACK FOR SIXTEEN DAYS. Mistakes of Trainers Regarding the Prowess of Their Horses Society Awaiting the Horse Shows Coming With Impatience. By T. K. Lynch. Huvaiiii. Cuba, December 27. From the time when daily racing arrived on December 123 there will be sixteen straight days of the sport, both Christmas and New Years falling on Monday, which is usually the olT day in the regular season. This will give the lovers of the sport an opportunity to enjoy their favorite pastime to the ut- most. It will be welcomed by the tourists, who have generally complained at the lack of some method of diversion in the absence of racing. It is a rare thing to find so many high-class race horses coming from a small breeding stud, as that of AV. F. Schulte. whose Argvle Farm, near Louisville, Ky., has been the birthplace of V Alleviate. Zienap, ISatts, Lyrist, Flora Pomona, Flora AAilloughby, Grand Mary, Yazd, Ziephen, Cliding Hell, Dodge, Franklin, Berlin and Sedan. The last named four will be remembered by racegoers of the present day, particularly as tliev are all by the same sire, Jim Gaffney. Mr. Schulte still owns the dam of all four, and has evcrv reason to expect a long price for the produce of each of them if they come through soundlv to their yearling form. Dodge was unquestionably the equal of any three-year-old out last year, and. as he is especially good on a heavv track, it is thought that he should win more than his share of the big handicaps next spring for his enterprising owner, A. K. Macomber. Mr. Ma-comber, by the way, is endeavoring to lav his plans so that he will be able to spend a" few weeks in Havana this winter. He is at present on his 20,000-acre ranch in California. Another well known racing man who will take a vacation in Cuba this winter is John E. Madden, of Kentucky. Mr. Madden is a breeder of both thoroughbreds and trotters, and has one of the show places of the Blue Grass territory, near Lexington. It will be his first trip to Havana. Trainers Make Mistakes. As an illustration of how trainers frequently underestimate Worses in their possession, it will be of interest to racegoers to know that AV. P. Reed, who trained Refugee and Owana. and sold the fotmer to AV. Fenwick, bet on his fillv to beat the former occupant of his stable. On Suudav after the race. Mr. Reed was willing to admit that his judgment had been in error. In the same connection, it is a matter of record, that John "Ward, who trained Dodge and Franklin, in both their two and three-year-old form, thought until going to Saratoga in August, that Franklin was the better horse. It was not until Dodge had demonstrated his superiority in hard fought contests that Mr. Ward was willing to admit his mistake. The long meeting of the Cuba-American Jockev Club, which began on December 0 and will continue until March IS, is now well under wav. The class of horses is better than at the two previous meetings, and the attendance has been of the most gratifying character to the management. The crowds on .Sundays, the banner day of the meeting, have surpassed anything ever seen at a race meeting in Cuba, the most representative people filling the clubhouse and boxes to repletion. Those who were charmed by the climate last winter and who returned, accompanied bv their friends with the expectation of finding the same balmy air, have not been disappointed, as the weather has been simply perfect. What with bathing and golf in the morning and the races i in the afternoon, the days have slipped bv. making it difficult to realize that we are on "the eve of the new year. Horse Show Eagerly Awaited. Society is all expectant over the approach of the big Cuba-American International Horse Show, which is scheduled to begin on the eve of February 24 at Oriental Park. This show, which is to be held under the auspices of the Cuban government, and which has received through the Department of Agriculture a grant of 5,000, will be attended by the most prominent horse show enthusiasts in the United States and Canada, and its value to Culm will be almost incalculable, as the best types of the various breeds will be seen In their highest state of perfection. President Meuocal. who is a progressive of the progressives, is greatly interested in the breeding of all sorts of live stock and has at his Chaparra and El Chico Fincas some fine specimens of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. He is particularly anxious to develop the native horse to a point where he will be available for army purposes, and with this end in view, he has already placed stallions of pure blood in the various provinces where native mares may be bred to them at a nominal sum. These mares, which are small, through the inbreeding of generations, are originally from Arabian stock, and they have the blood which, when crossed to the thoroughbred, should produce something fine. The first cross from such a union should make a polo pony, and the best of the mares when bred hack again, should produce cavalry remounts of the highest type. Cuban Government In Horse Breeding. For the past ten years the Cuban government has been buying its horses and mules in the ITnited States, but the type of the former, which are so necessary for army purposes, has virtually disappeared, because of the inroads made by the agents of foreigns governments, which have "taken more than a million head of cavalry and artillery horses from the various states in the Union since the war began. Capt. Luis F. Beltran was designated as a purchasing agent by the Cuban authorities last summer, for the acquisition of six hnu-dred mnres of the type to produce army horses. Cajit. Beltran spent nearly two months in various parts of the United States, and was unable to fill his order completely, his purchases aggregating something like 550 head. He had his own ideas of quality, and declined to take anything that was not up to the mark. His experience only strengthened President Menoeals opinion, that the time had arrived for Cuba to produce its own army horses. It is therefore certain that many of the stallions aprt mures, which will be seen at the coming horse show will remain in Cuba. The people of this island have had most wonderful crops for the past three years, and they have sold their sugar at war-time prices. The banks are bulging with money and everybody is prosperous. Accommodations will be. made to take care of a tremendous crowd of visitors from the ITnited States during the show, and President Menocal has consented to the use of his summer palace in Marianao. which is only a few hundred yards from Oriental Park. It is expected that some of the most pronii-neut of the exhibitors, among whom will be Judge William II. Moore, Reginald C Ynnderbilt, James Cox Ilrady, John R. Townsend. Sir Adam Reck and Alfred D. Maclay. as well as some of the members of the working committee, will make their home in the palace during the period of the show. The general inunager of the exhibition, Samuel Walter Taylor, editor of the "Rider and Driver, reports a most enthusiastic reception of the project in New York. Many persons prominent in society. Mho take an interest in horses have expressed their intention of attending in their own yachts. Among these are Messrs. Robert E Tod, owner of the peerless saddle mure Sceptre winner of championships at the National in New York and elsewhere, and "William H. Zeigler, who is pushing Judge Moore and James Cox Brady hard tor honors in the hackney class.


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Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800