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RECALLING FAMOUS RACER AND SIRE. Death of Edwin S. Gardner Brings Recollection of Himyar, Sire of Mighty Domino, Edwin S. Gardner, the noted turfman and breeder, whose death took place Tuesday at his Jiome in Tennessee, was the owner of the Avondale Stud in Suiuner County. It is recalled that it was at that famous breeding establishment where Himyar, the great race horse and sire, died in 1900. Himyars deatii was due to old age, for he was foaled In 1875, and lacked only u few days of being thirty-one years old when he died. It is doubtful if there was ever another horse which retained his vitality so strongly to such an age, for Himyar Avas in service in the stud of his owner even when thirty years old. Himyar was bred by Major B. G. Thomas in the Dixiana Stud at Lexington, Ky., and was sold by his breeder to Mr. Gardner. Himyar was a beautiful bay horse by Alarm Hira, by Lexington, and the Kentuckians who almost to a man believed he would win the Kentucky Derby of 1878 were tremendously shocked when lies ran second to Day Star, but it was only through a bad ride that lie lost, coming so wide into the stretch us to lose much more ground than he was beaten by. As a sire he was one of the most successful of the- last quarter of a century, giving to the turf such celebrities as Domino, which alone would have sufficed to render any sire famous; Correction, a great race mnre, Plaudit, one of the best horses of his time and now a successful sire; Hyphen, Havoc, Coburg, Halton, Frolinwtn and a host of other remarkably fast horses, good sprinters and milers in the main, although many of his progeny were up to staying any route set. Major B. G. Thomas High Opinion of Himyar. A few days after the deatii of Himyar, Major B. G. Thomas, the renowned breeder, who bred and raced Himyar, said: "Himyar should have been retired with an unbeaten turf record. He never lost a race but that there was a good excuse for Ids being beaten. Take the Kentucky Derby for instance, when Day Star beat him out. The starter left him nearly flat-footed at the post and at one time he was fully fifty yards behind the leading horse. With this disadvantage in the earJv part of the race, he closed up on Day Star in the stretch and gave him a battle royal for the money. Then there was the Elkhorn Stakes, in which Connie F. defeated him," said the major. "That day the track was a sea of mud on the inside, while there was a hard walking path on the outside of the course. Bob Swim got Connie F. on the hard outside and the boy on Himyar held him close to the rail in the deep going. At that he had only to pull to the outside on entering the stretch and walk home, but his jockey kept him in the mud and slush and, as a result, he was beaten. He lost the Distillers Stakes to Mendelsohn simply because his jockey waited too long to make his run, and in the Louisville Cup, won by Volturno, his defeat was due to the same sort of riding, which enabled Commie F. to beat him in the Elkhorn Stakes. With all the bad luck which followed him during his racing career, .lie won all told fourteen races, many of which were stake events." When asked how ho regarded Himyar as a racehorse compared with J. It. Keenes Sysonby, Major Thomas said: "Well, I have never seen a horse I thought could beat Himyar when at his best, unless it was his 5on Domino, but then I have not seen Sysonby since, he was a two-year-old and my health was too poor last year for me to make a trip east. Domino was perhaps a faster horse than Himyar, but the sire I guess could beat Ids sensational son over a long I distance of ground."
