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OUTLOOK SS ENCOURAGING Yearling Sales at Saratoga Show Confidence in Future of Turf Better Quality of Material Offered OfferedBrings Brings Spirited Bidding and andGood Good Prices Ity J It Jeff cry crySaratoga Saratoga X Y August VI This happenings of Hie past fov days have been encouraging to those vlio were inclined to be a 1 U anxious as to what might be in slore for the turf under the trying condilions growing out of the great world war Es ¬ pecially have tliey been encouraging to breeders of tiie thoroughbred horrt1 A week ago fears were pressed in some quarters that war conditions wire likely to play havoc with the market for yearlings When the salts that are an annual fea ¬ ture of tin August raee meeiing here began there i KMred to IK a listlessivss ami i lack of demand fur tlie young stock sent in fnau the breeding es ¬ tablishments This gave rise to the fears referred to Comparatively small prices wen realized for the youngsters offered during the first few days for Which the sales were scheduled scheduledBut But in the light of riuh ciucut developments it seems likely that this condition prevailed Iccause Ihe yeriings offered did not particularly appeal to tlie fancies of rosi eetive purchasers rather than for any other reason tpon the appearance in the salcsring of stock that api eared to have outstand ¬ ing merit there was rn instantaneous change in conditions Wealthy palrons of the turf vied with each other for the possession of desirable Indi ¬ viduals JIIM the competition became so keen that the record price of the preceding season was left far behind In 1017 the idghest price paid for a yearling at public auction in thi country was 10000 Tliis price was first exceeded when Sirs Walter M Jeffords of Philadelphia an enthusiastic supimrter of eastern racing paid 15 00 for the Frenchbred colt Switch by Sweeper Znna in the consignment if Mrs II It Duryea tat Thursday evening Switch is an especially taking colt iu appearance The following evening Commander J K L Boss who has one of the most formidable stables on the turf today paid X14500 for a striking colt of fash ¬ ionable Enzlish breeding by Black Tester Primula ml other desirable stock of American origin also commanded fancy prices It had been freely pre ¬ dicted that the Black Jester colt would bring a big price In fact almost every trainer who had seen this colt expressed a desire to get control of him and the wonder is that he did not bring the record price of this season In buying him Commander Boss let it l e known that he was actuated quite as much by a desire to have tlie blood lines represented in his IKdigree for use in the pretentious breeding stud which he is organizing for the iirodnction of his own lacing stock in the years to cofne as because of the oils promising individuality Itut everybody is a unit in agreeing that if such a thing can be foretold in advance this colt will surely develop into a racing magnitudeAs star of tlie first magnitude As a result of the confidence in the future of racing which the iiaying tit such prices for young stock exemplifies there has K cn a distinct im ¬ provement in the general feeling of the racing folk gathered here from all sections of the country There can be no denying that the war with its farreaching possibilities has been casting its sha ¬ dow over the sport and no better tonic could have IKCJI supplied than that growing out of the steady ¬ ing confidence represented iii the prices that desir ¬ able racing stock is commanding commandingSARATOGA SARATOGA PATRONAGE GROWING DAILY DAILYTlie Tlie past few days have also been marked by growing patronage of the racing until now it would appear that the figures are not far behind the wonderful showing made by the sport here last year when the Saratoga Association conducted by far the most successful meeting in all its history 1resent indications are that the present meeting will not be far behind the recordbreaker of 1917 On Saturday particularly the facilities of the asso ¬ ciation for taking care of a large crowd were Iretty well tested testedW W F Poison was finally influenced to accept tlie tempting offer which lie had received for Billy Kelly because of the widespread movement to ex ¬ clude geldings from the imnortant races of 1919 following the lead of Manager John IJachmeister of the Lutoniu Jockey Club in announcing such an innovation in connection with the running of the 1aUiiia Derby nert year coincident with the an ¬ nouncement that the value of this important west ¬ ern threeyearold classic would be increased to S20000 added The Westchester Bacing Associa ¬ tion the Pimlico Jockey Club and the New Louis ¬ ville Jockey Club have given an impetus to tlie movement by announcements that geldings would be excluded froiu certain of their important races in future There is not the slightest doubt but that Billy Kelly would have commanded more than S7500 received for him by Mr 1olson but for the fact that the movement against geldings has assumed such formidable proportions with the likelihood that it will be further extended in the interest of blooded horse breeding in the United States And there is not the slightest doubt that the breeders and owners of young horses from this time on will hesitate a long time before applying the surgeons knife so freely as has been the custom in the past pastIJoamer IJoamer and Cudgel were both withdrawn from the Champlain Handicap on Saturday because their trainers believed that neither would have done jus ¬ tice to themselves in the soft going that prevailed When the entries were made for the race it ap ¬ peared as if the track would be ju good condition for the racing of Saturday but cloudy skies and damp atmospheric conditions intervened to upset calculations
