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I I I : j ; ! HARD LUCK PURSUES A. K. MACOMBER Breakdown of Dodge Only One of Extended list of Mishaps Which Have Befallen His Stable. . By J. . R. JelTery. Saratoga, N. Y., August 2S. The breakdown of the star four-year-old Dodge, in Saturdays running of the Merchants ,aiid .Citizens Handicap was the crowning jnisfortunp in the extended list of mis-I haps which have, One by .one, bereft A. K. Macom-I her of the services of all the good horses upon which he had depended to carry his colors in the important stake races of . tho year. It is difficult fop the Old-timers in racing to recall an instance in wfuch so many high-class horses belonging to one stable have gone wrong as has been the case with the Macomber stable this year. It would have been a rash person indeed, who at the beginning of the present racing year would have- predicted that before fall arrived this powerful racing establishment, embracing as it did, such a formidable aggregation of prospective stake winners as. Boots, a champion of last years racing; Ed Crump, another horse, that had made a wonderful reputation for himself; Dodge, one of the best of the, three-year-olds of last year in America: North Star III-., the champion two-year-old of 1915 in England, and Sfcir llnwlv .winner of the Lawrence Realization Stakes in Mr. Macombers colors last fall, would be without adequate representation in the important races for horses over two years old. Ye.t such is. the cise." All of the stars named have gone wrong as the, year progressed with the exception of Star Hawk aiid that colt is under such suspicion that it is doubtful if he gets to the races this year. Mishaps Taken with, Utmost, Philosophy. Mr. Macomber, thorough sportsman that he is, has taken the mishaps which have beset his venture into racing with the utmost philosophy. The diffi-fulties "which have been encountered appear to make . him onlyt the -more sdeterminOd to overeome them. To be sure, he has had soine compensation, too. Boots won the Suburban and Brookdale Handicaps for him before he broke down. Sunboiinet, than which the.rx; probably is no better three-year-old ; filly in America, won the Kentucky Oaks at : Churchill Downs and duplicated her success in the Alabama Stakes here recently. And other members , of the .Macomber e5j,t.ihare been carrying i the colors of their high -esteemed owner to the fore with distinction, including some two-year-olds that recently have been disclosing promising form, t Patrons of racing generally will not be sorry if i some of them should hare the hick to soon win an i important race or two for Mr. Macomber, whoso thoroughgoing sportsmanship has Avon the adinira.-tioii of all. Fears are entertained that Dodges breakdown is permanent and that he will never race again. As competent an authority as Dr. McCully, who examined the horse carefully after the mishap, gare it as his opinion that Dodges racing days are orer. The trouble is in the middle tendon of one of his hind legs.
