view raw text
* — n 4 GOLDEN DAYS OF THE AMERICAN TURF— REMINISCENCES OF FAMOUS RACERS AND PROMINENT TURFMEN i + Keplete with interesting reminiscences and sidelights of the golden days of the turf is a resume of the history of racing at Saratoga and famous races at other eastern tracks in which an eastern turf writer, after referring to the blighting effects of the crusade against the great sport of thoroughbred racing, goes ou to say: "But the Puritan present cannot outride and ride down the cavalier past. As we are watching tonight under the arching Saratoga elms the golden memories of the long ago come trooping back again. We hear the shouts of the thousands watching the battle between Longfellow and Harry Bassett at King Branch re-echoed by more shouting thousands when these splendid champions of a faraway turf meet again at Saratoga. The hoof boats of Salvator over the preuared track ai Monmouth, when a new record for the mile was established, come back to us through the vears as we listen iu memory to the hoof lieats of Springbok and Prettkness. as they race neck and neck past the judges stand ou even terms for the Saratoga Cup. "Those are mellow memories of mellow times, when goiitlem-n drank from the stirrup cup. when gentlemen were sportsmen and sportsmen were gentlemen, and when the American thoroughbred ran true to his form. Those were the days when the first August Belmont and John Hunter and William U. Travers. who together owned and raced the great Kentucky, and James M. Marvta, the first president of the Saratoga Itacing Association, and Leonard Jerome, who won many a dollar on One Dime, and Gen. Stephen Sanford. still looking through his field glasses at the racing of horses of his own breeding at the Hurricana Farm, raced for glory first and money last and then talked it all I over at a dinner at Moons, washed down with an old burgundy or an older port. "FATHER OF AMERICAN TH0R0XIRHBRED." "And then there came that later epoch when the get of Lexington, the father of the American thoroughbred. aud Kentucky and Longfellow and Bonnie Scotland and Virgil and Glenolg and Himyar came to the races, and the butcher brothers of Brooklyn. Mike and Phil Dwyer. were invincible on the race courses of the east from the days of Rlutdamantiius to the days of Hanover. To be sure, the measure of the Dwyors horses was sometimes taken by those turfmen from the Kentucky blue grass, hinn and Woodford and Milton Young and J. W. Hunt Reynolds, and later by James R. Keene. the sturdy and grizzled vice-chairinaii of the Jockey Club. But individual turf history has no finer record, not even that of the Duke of Westminster, or the Earl of Uoscbcry or even of Englands late king, than that kof the Dwyer brothers while their red. bin- sash and red cap were carried by Kliadamanthus, the black beauty that was their first thoroughbred venture: Bramble, Miss Woodford, tieorge Kinney. Barnes. Hindoo. Luke Blackburn. Tremont, Hanover and Handspring. •And then came that western invader. E. J. Lucky l Baldwin, lucky in mining and lucky on the turf, when he brought from the bro.td acres of the Santa Anita ranch in California. 3.000 miles across the continent. Los Angeles, that wonderful daughter of Gleiielg— La Polka, to measure strides with the best iu the east and beat them: Mission Bell. whose tolling as she flashed by the winning post knelled the defeat of some of the smartest fillies bred in Kentucky or anywhere else, and the mighty Emperor of Norfolk, believed by P.aldwin to be the greatest thoroughbred that ever wore plates, aud the game Volante. "And by and by in those olden, golden days came that lusty, crusty, fighting Irishman. Ed Corrigan. with Modesty, queen of the turf of her time: Freeland. which seemed to be fit to race for any mans money on any day and on any track, and Pearl Jennings, she that could race and win straight miles or mile lieats with equal satisfaction to her owner and her backers DAYS OF THE L0RILLARDS AND DWYERS. "Meanwhile the brotiiers Lorillard. Pierre and George L. — Pierre, the master of Kancocas and the owner of the great Parole and Iroquois, the only American-bred horse that ever won the Kpsom Derby, and Barrett and 1nons: George I,., owner of the great Monitor and the unbeaten Sensation and Ferida. which, like old Ben Holladay, could run better the farther she went— were battling for turf honors with the Dwyers and Milton Young and Jeneral Jackson of Belle Meade and Baldwin and Corrigai: and the rest and more than holding their own. And right about here in the turf almanac may be found the turf debut of those two ultra fashionable young gentlemen, Frederick Gebhard and E. Berry Wall. "Both Gebhard and Wall had recently come into l their inheritances. Gebhard by way of honest whiskey and Wall by the ropewalk. Wall was in the limelight as king of the dudes. Gchhnrd. quiet, self-jtossessed. tall and broad of shoulder and as handsome ami well dr-ssed a boulevardier as any metropolis ever kuew. was the owner of Eole. the splendid son of Ivdas-War Song; Eolist, by the same sire, ami St. Saviour, later to become a sensational thoriughbred and a sensational sire. The speed aud stamina of Kole were transmitted to Ethelbert and by !iim to those gnat thoroughbreds of today. Fitz Horliort ami Dalmatian. Wall broke into the turf with two horses. Wallflower and Chost. Phew: But it was a swift pace that Gebhard and Wall set. Double eagles to either of them were as dimes, and there seemed to be no bottom to the cash barrel of either. But there was. aud poor Gebhard died in what to him must have been modest lodgings on the iMirder of the gay white way, which he knew and loved so well. "Wall, as the story -omes down through the years, took umbrage at something Gebhard was alleged to have said. He concluded to take up the matter and settle it in the barrom of the Inited States Hotel at Saratoga. Nobody outside of a tew ever knew what really took place, but the plcasantist feeling did not exist between the two young men and the outcome of it all was a lot of talk about a match race lietween Kole and Wallflower. The match was not arranged and so far as history records that was I lie last personal en counter between Gebhard and Wall. But it was not long after that Eole scored a memorable triumph when fiom post to finish he won for his owner the famous match race against Milton Youngs Getaway at Saratoga on August 12. lS.sl. Getaway was the favorite, but Eole won the match by four lengths. "John Morrissey. champion prizefighter of the world, congressman and first lessee of the Saratoga track, having lieen gathered to his fathers. Charles Keed succeeded to the ownership of the famous Saratoga Club and became lessee of the Saratoga track. He had made the experiment of raising thoroughbreds in the north country at the Meadow Brook Im in ..„ ||.,. eastern shore of Saratoga Lake. Altlejugli he haaarM PeeMa* i""1 I-owlnnder from England and had among his mans the great Thora and H-ilop-u. tkc enture was not a success. Then he iba:.d..m d the north country farm, went to Tennessee, bought Exile and sent to the races such horses as Dobbins and Yorkville Belle. GENERAL STEPHEN SANFORD OF AMSTERDAM. "Gem r;.l Stephen Sanford bad lK"ti experimenting in the breedim. of thoroughbreds at Amsterdam. N. Y.. with indifferent success. In the Saratoga Club one night U l pot the general over in a corner and told him he could never get siz- and strength and speed in Imrses bred in a cold climate. ticneral Sanford was :l determined man. He usually carried through to success that which he had planned, lie bad made up his mind to raise winning ihoronghbr ds on l,is own farm, even if that farm was in Mohiwk V::lley and they had to plough out the roads in winter to 1-t even log sleighs pass. So. |iiit cl.iracteristi-ally. it r-plied to Bet d: " Unil. you wait and sec. I shall not only breed winner-, at Iliirri-ana, but I shall send to the races breakers of records. I give you my word and I keep my word. "General Sanford was a gentleman of the old school Bad "1 great dignity. When k« made that statement to Charles Keed it was to him the equivalent of giving hi* bond. It was absolutely necessary, therefore, to make good, aud the general did. "In the old days the Sanford purple and gold stripes were sported by horses entered by plain S. Sanford." For some reason or other the general concluded to let the tail wag the dog and for several years before the generals death all of the Sanford horses were scut to the races as owned by former congressman John Sanford, Ueueral Sau-fords only son. — ■ + "The combination of father and son made more than good the statement made by General Sanford to Charles Ueed years ago. Tiie Sanfords bought the great Clifford and Isidor and some other stallions ami installed them at Hurricana. and then they bought La Tosca of Pierre Lorillard and other royally bred matrons, und when they got ready they sent to the races a C.huctanundu and a Molly Brant aud a Caughnawaga and a Rockton. The Sanfords did not believe in early racing. They began their campaign at Saratoga. General Sanford had as much regard for his thorouKbbreds as an art collector would have for peachblow vases or other rare Chinese ixircelains. Along about 1901 or 191KJ he had a colt- maybe it was Rockton —that had shown phenomenal speed in its trials, and Hay ward, son of the famous old jockey, who trained the Sanford horses at that time, thought that he I had a Futurity winner. Not long after the stable had arrived at Saratoga, Kocktou, if that were the colt, bucked his shins. General Sanford heard of it. At the track the next day he sent for Hayward and told him to send the colt back to the farm. •But. General. said Hayward, bucked shins dont amount to anything. He will be well iu a few days and well win the Futurity. Hayward. said tiie general. I told you to send that colt home. I think I have made my meaning quite clear. The colt, with a few hairs off his shins, was sent buck to Amsterdam and there was no Futurity to the Sanfords credit. WONDEFLUL LONG-DISTANCE RACES OF OLD. "In that wonderful land that is bounded and ixipulated by memories of the turf one may not wander without seeing all over again those wonderful long-distance races, like the Westchester Cup at Jerome Park, at two miles and a, quarter, where George l. roril lards Monitor, with Costello in the saddle, took the measure of McElmeels General Monroe, ridden by the daredevil Fitzpatrick. and of Eole, guided by Billy Donohuo. or the Monmouth Cup. at two miles and a quarter, at the old Monmouth course, where Monitor again beat Eole by a scant length, Costello and Donohue again being the jockeys. "Then there was the Champion Stakes in the autumn of LSS3 at Monmouth Iark. at a mile and a half, when old Billy Hayward, then in his prime as a jockey of the first water, piloted Monitor to victory again, beating brother Pierre Lorillards Parole, with Feakes, the trailer, up. with Eole bringing up the n-ar in one of the greatest three-horse races ever seen in this country. "In that sain memorable year of 1SS3. at the autumn meeting at Monmouth, the Monmouth Stakes was run for at a mile and a half on August 25. A three -year-old youngster of the name of Ceorge Kinney, with the famous jockey and now well-known owner and trainer James McLaughlin, wearing the colors of the Dwyer brothers, threw his gage into the ring to Eole, to Iroquois, to Monitor and to the Dwyer brothers Miss Woodford, most famous | er-haps of all the grande dames of the American turf. While thousands cheered him on to victory George Kinney made good his gage, beating Eole by a length and a half and Eole beating Iroquois, the English Derby winner, by half a neck. "On the following day there was a renewal of the Monmor.th Stakes, in which ihe starters wen? Eole. George Kinney. Monitor. Drake Carter, then owned by Pierre Korillard. and the same owners Iroquois. Jood old Eole this time taught the young Ceorge Kinney better manners. In spite of all the skill of McLaughlin. Eole beat ;eorge Kinney by a length and a half. Then there were those battles in the Baden Baden Cup. at three miles, at Saratoga, most memorable of which perhaps was the defeat of Charles Reeds great Thora by the Kentucky mare. Kida Stanho|ie: and those ra-es for the groat l«ong Island Stakes, with the Woodlawn vase as a ■paeW prize thrown in. at four miles, were Eole once boat G. B. Brysons Bushwacker, that curious quadruped combination of uncertain breeding that looked like a barrel with the head, tail and legs of a horse added to finish the cartoon. In that race the Coney Island Jockey Club added a special prize if Lexingtons record for the distance was beaten, but it wasnt. PEERLESS MISS WOODFORDS GREATEST RACE. "Then there was that other race for the great Long Island Stakes -greatest perhaps of all — when the peerless Miss Woodford, under McLaughlins patient anil affectionate guidance, ran two lieats of two miles each and beat Drake Carter and Modesty three lengths iu the first heat and four lengths in the second. But old days pass and new days come, and one is brought up sharply with a reminder that the Victorian age and the nineteenth century are closing. Two stars more brilliant than all the others shine iu the turf firmament. Hanover, the greatest son of Hindoo — Bourbon Belle, ami the unbeaten Tremont. both owned by the Dwyer brothers, are sweeping everything before them. "Hanover begot Hamburg and a new turf magnate was begotten with him. John E. Madden, previously known only on the trotting circuit, became the own-r of Hamburg ami Hamburg became the king of the turf. Hamburg had his day and then the black whirlwind. Itomino. son of Himyar and Man-nie »;ray. came on to carry the white and blue polka dots of James K. Keene to victory in the principal stakes of his time. But one must not pass by the record of Domino without giving full credit to Richard Crokers Dobbins, which made him hustle as lie never hustled before, and to Henry of Navarre, which gave him a good sound beating. "With the coming to the races of Hamburg and Domino, what might lie calld the dynasty of highest speed on the American turf was established through Hanover ami Himyar. Hamburg was by Hanover, Hanover by Hindoo. Hindoo by Virgil aud Virgil by Vandal. Domino was by Himyar, Himyar by Alarm, Alarm by Eclipse and Kclipse by Orlando. James R. Keene bought Domino from his breeder. Maj. K. ;. Thomas. When the black whirlwind broke down he was sent to Mr. Keenes Castletou Farm and be -gan his career as a sire under the wise direction of Maj. Foxhall Daingerfield. Mr. Keenes brother-in-law. And what a splendid lot of colts and fillies Domino sent to the races. There was the mighty Commando and Cap aud Bells, that wen the English Oaks. Mr. Keene giving all the fillys winnings h, the stakes to British charities. Then there was Disguise, that wou the Jockey Club Stakes in Eug land for Mr. Keene, and Colin, by Commando, that was never beaten in the two years that he met all comers. great line of winners for any one man to breed from a single sire. W. C. WHITNEYS RACING DEBUT. "Madden retired Hamburg and sold him to Marcus Daly, whose untimely death put an end to tl* Montana miners dream of establishing the greatest ■4MB farm in the world. Not long before tiie di* l»ersal sale at Madison Square Garden of the Daly stock. William C. Whitney had served notice that he was going to retire from all active business at sixty, and iu preparation for that retirement he took to the turf. The former secretary of the navy and the man who did much to make Grover Cleveland president, didnt knnw much about thoroughbreds at that time, and for the first y-ar or two his horses ran in tie.- name of Sydney Paget, Nobody every accused Mr. Whitney of being dull-witted, and he brought to bear on his racing stable the same business foresight that had made possible the consolidation of all the street railways in New York and the formation of Ike American Tobacco Company. Paget seemed to have carte blanche to buy anything on four legs that he wanted and pay for it what he pleased. With the help of Paget and Madden Mr. Whitney gathered together a great stable. When he wanted a horse he bought it and the price was no object. He paid what many ni-n would regard as a handsome fortune for Nasturtium, for Endui-ance by Right, for Blue Girl, for Ballyhoo Bey. for tJunfire and for Yankee. "It didnt take more than a year or two for Mr. Whitney to acquire suqff icient knowledge of the turf to run his horses in his own name. Then he wanted to send to the races those of his own breeding. So he acquired a splendid property in the heart of Kentuckys richest blue grass, bought on Maddens advice Hamburg at the Daly dispersal sale, established him at the head of his stud and named the farm Hamburg Place. That is where Madden is raising the horses that he is now sending to the races. Matters of finance had developed in Wall street, differences between Mr. Whitney and Mr. Keene. Mr. Keene was sending home bred horses for the richest stakes of the turf and winning them. Mr. Whitney went right after him with the produce of Lis own farm. Uauibuii: did as well for Utu honor of the Virgil family for several years as Domino did for that of the line of Eclips-. 1 P from Hamburg Place to meet the best of the east and west came the great Burgomaster and Bumble Bee. that met so untimely a death at Saratoga; Inflexible and Artful, thought by many to be the fastest horse or mare that ever looked through a bridle and that beat the mighty Sysonby in the Futurity. "But it was with a horse of his own breeding that Mr. Whitney had his spiciest turf contest with Mr. Keene. Then came in the Futurity of 190 . and its aftermath, the Flatbush Stakes, in the same year. Mr. Whitney was so sure that he could win the Futurity with Ballyhoo Bey if the colt g"t "If well that he brought Tod Sloan over from Ein-laml —Sloan in those days being notoriously quick at the barrier -a nil. .-ccording to the story, gave Sloan *." .00t for the job. Ballyhoo Bey won and Mr. Keene finished second and third with Olympian am Tommy Atkins restiectively. Neither Mr. Keene nor his son Foxhall were satisfied that Ballyhoo Bey could beat Tommy Atkins, which they thought was the best two-year-old in the Keene stable. The following week Ballyhoo Bey and Tommy Atkins met in the Flatbush Stakes and Atkins was trimmed again, but there were loud protests that the Keene horse had lieen interfered with and that the race had not been truly run. Keene partisans and Whitney partisans Liecame belligerent and there was talk of .i match for almost any stake. As usual, nothing came of all the heated outfiour of words. Tommy Atkins soon afterward was shipped to England, where he had been entered for the Derby, but the ill-starred colt died of pneununia, either on the way over or shortly after arrival. Ballyhoo Bey never started again. In due time lie was sent to those luxurious winter quarters which Mr. Whitney had built for his horses at Westbury. L. I., alonj, with Blue Girl, Nasturtium, Endurance by Right an«J Goldsmith. "John Hisgins was training the horses that Mr. Whitney had s.-ut tc England. He made a special trip ovci the ocean to look over the Whitney two-year-olds and pick out of those nominated the on- he thought most likely to win the English Derby. He hesitated for a time between Nasturtium and Goldsmith ar.d then picked out the former because of Mi wonderful size, conformation and apparent staving qualities. But the sea fog came ashore at West-bury and got into the lungs of all the best yuun;;-sters Mr. Whitney had. Neither Nasturtium nor Endurance by Right ever ran aftjr the two-year old season. They had become hopeless roarers, as had Ballyhoo Bey. Goldsmith and Bine Girl. "But when one has wandered down the years of turf history and romance to the early years of the present ceiitury — only eight or tea years .igone tba tale has no longer the interest of the olden year* aul it were bttter closed."
