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R T WILSON AS A BREEDER President of Saratoga Racing As ¬ sociation Quite Successful His Theories of Mating Has Pro ¬ duced Horses of More than Ordinary Quality New York July 15 No breeder in the United States taking the number of mares in his stud into consideration csui show a greater measure of success than licliircl T Wilson the president of the Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses While Mr Wilson had until recently only about a half dozen mares he has always hail a horse of more than ordinary quality racing under his colors that was the outcome of liis fiwu theories in mating while in Campfire and Hannibal he scurcd two highclass horses horsesThe The general public will never know how good a liorsa Campfire was said Mr Wilson a few days ago in discussing the possibilities of the son of Olamluita Nightfall as a sire He was never greater than when he broke down and the morning he went wrong I think he could have worked faster over Belmont Park than any imrsc that was ever trained there While lie did great things as a two yearold when he topped the list of winners in this ciiimtry he was in my opinion destined to aecom Iilisi still greater things later in his career careerI I have always had my own opinion concerning Campfirc resumed Mr Wilson and nothing will make me believe that he was not a sufferer from what we would call autointoxication in the human family It was this which interfered with his train ¬ ing anJ kept him from taking the same pride of place as a threeyearold which he occupied at two This year he appeared to be himself again but now Jiisrscing career js ended and the public will have to rciiicmlwr iiim as n great twoyearold I loot or liiui to make good in the stud just as Olambala has v There arc breeders in this country who have been Iirone to overlook the greatness of some of our American families while unduly exploiting the merits of others We are all ready to concede the potency of the Bonnie Scotland and Hanover fami ¬ lies but back of Hanover and Hindoo there was a mighty horse a horse of great individuality whose qualities have come down through genera ¬ tions of good horses I refer to Virgil son of Vandal and grandson of the Immortal Uleucoc This horses blood to my way of thinking has as much to do with making Hanover great as did his Bon ¬ nie Scotland dam damVIRGIL VIRGIL LACKED OPPORTUNITY was used as a hack and buggy horse being driven ilKiit the streets of New Orleans by the late Col It W Simmons who frequently told me that the horse could show a three minute gait on the trot He could jump and he could run far and fast Had he had an opportunity equal to other sires I could name whose place in turf history is almost a blank his name would be on everybodys lips He lived to get In Hindoo a phenomenal race horse and sire while a sister to that horse threw Firenze a mare whose equal for her inches this country has never seen seenI I am well pleased to have an infusion of Virgils blood so close up in Olambala and Campfire went on Mr Wilson and think much of their merit came through it Olambala lias it closer perhaps than any horse in the country his dam Blue and White t eing a daughter of Virgil It is a strain which has nicked with English blood in a truly remarkable way as is shown in Campfires per ¬ formances and were I an English breeder I would swk it with every confidence The Glencoe strain is what England lacks today They need a desirable mtiToss just as emphatically as do we in the United States and while we have drawn from their store ¬ house more freely in the past it would not surprise me if after the war there should be an active de ¬ mand for out best American mares for foreign ac ¬ count Bhoda B which had this Virgil strain through Hanover threw the English Derby winner Orby and what she has done others of the same trilie should be able to accomplish accomplishThis This exchange of blood said Mr Wilson in conclusion Is t good thing for the thoroughbred of the future The wellbred marcs which our breed ¬ ers have secured of recent years from abroad repre ¬ sent strains which were uupurchasable before the war and they cannot fail to make good when mated with the Ixst of our sires and when I say best I say it advisedly with the idea firmly placed that the American sire will hold his own with the imported if given an equal opportunity to demonstrate his Worth
