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OLD ROSEBUD ONCE AGAIN Famous Cripple Expected to Return to the Races in 1919 Too Lame to Start This Year Resume of His Wonderful WonderfulRacing Racing Career Old Rosebud will race again next year This announcement will quicken the pulse of racegoers for Old Buddy as lie is affectionately called it to the turf what Matty is to baseball a popu ¬ lar idol He was too lame to race in 1918 1918It It will be Old Buddys second comeback stunt if his career If he wins half the number of races lie did in 1917 he will have accomplished a new record of performances Mich as no other horse has to his credit His performances give him a niche in the hall of fame reserved for mighty thcrangh lireds but should he again top the list of handicap winners such as he ilid in J17 he will go down in turf history as the most remarkable horse that was ever foaled in America Old Itosebud has been no favorite of fortune The ills and ailments of nice horses have rested heavily on him from his twoyearold year 1913 to the present time when his years number seven He has been a cripple for four years And yet in s 5te of his physical han ¬ dicap he has lieatcn the best nice horses in the United States and Canada established records in a number of important stake events and in one year that of 1917 won more handicaps than any other horse horseASSETS ASSETS OF GOOD HORSE HORSEThw Thw Jhing assets of great iinportnwo to arace liorse were conducive to liis success extreme speed great courage and fine action These essentials he possessed to a great degree Whether they would have been brought to the surface in the hands of in ordinary trainer is a matter of conjecture But fate placed him in charge of Frank I Weir a thoroughbredsIt tonuotch trainer of thoroughbreds It was Weirs skill that brought Old Rosebuds speed to the front and his skill plus patience that has enabled Old Buddy to come back to the turf twice after he had broken down badly tiful was regarded as a hopeless cripple by many trainers trainersOld Old Hoscbud raced in 19131417 when he was two three and six years old respectively Each year his winning camr was cut short by his ten ¬ dons giving way When n nice horse breaks down as horsemen say he does not literally break The sheath which holds his tendons tears and the tendons stretch and become loose and flabby like the elastic in a wornout garter The leg bows or curves and lets down behind He is then broken down and only heroic treatment the use of redhot irons can straighten the leg again againOIJ OIJ Itosebud began his twoyearold career in Mexico at the Juarez track He came up the line if the circuit winning race after race took the Canadians into camp and then at Saratoga made the eastern champions eat his dust dustAs As i threeyearold fie won the Kentucky Derby of 1914 and hung up a nice record of 203 That was not approached by the great horses that won this event in the three following years Regret George Smith and Omar Khayyam Uegret won in 205 George Smith in 204 and Omar Khayyam in 204 Old Itosebud won witli his head in his chest never being fully extended during any stage of the mile and a quarter route routeIt It was during his race for the Withers Stakes lt llclmont Park that he broke down He was making his run and just drawing into a winning lead when the sheath ruptured on his near foreleg and he hobbled home a cripple He was turned out in a paddock for three years and then came back in 1917 1917MADE MADE RECORD IN 1917 1917Last Last year Old Buddy started twentyone times He won fifteen races finished second once and third three times being unplaced only twice This rec ¬ ord has never lieeii equaled by a sixyearold geld ¬ ing He Iteat all the Ixst horses in training Hoamcr Borrow Hodge Boots and The Finn He won more handicaps conceding big weight to his rivals than any other racer and thus earned the title of Handicap King A few of his victories were the Carter Frontier Inaugural Delaware and Bay View ViewTwo Two of the remarkable things in connection with Old Kosebuds career are that he has never been beaten by a poor horse and that he has never been ridden by a firstclass jockey Boamer and oilier great horses at times have run some bad races and have Iwen beaten by poor liorses Old Buddy never When this happened there was a reason he was a cripple in the race racePeak Peak who was ruled off last year for his ride on Judge Wingfield at Belmont Park was Old Kosebuds pilot Peak at his iKst was never better than a firstclass exercise or stable boy Old Itosebud won his races by sheer merit without help liut frequently hindered by his jockey jockeyOLD OLD B TDD IN HIDING HIDINGJust Just where Old Itosebud is turned out is a secret that tminer Weir guards carefully Weir just before he sailed recently for Cuba said saidOld Old Itosehud will come back to the races next year Where he is Thats a secret that I cant tell But he is well and will be ready to give Koamer and Cudgel a battle for the handicaps next yenr He is turned out in a big paddock with a lot of fillies He was fired last year and the opera ¬ tion was successful His legs an all right again His attendant writes that he must have traveled n thousand miles in his paddock last year He just fools with the fillies when they have im imJ romp tu races by allowing them to lead him for J mlf the length of the paddock He then throws HJ his head as much as to say Its time for you girls to fall in line and follow me Old Hosebud is the kind of horse that one sees once in a lifetime continued Weir reminis cently and then he fails to appear in the lives of home nieu He is certainly the fastest horse I ever trained or ever saw If he had been sound there is no telling how fast he would have run a mile II is drawbacks have been physical physicalSHOWS SHOWS DAZZLING SPEED When I brought him a twoyearold to Sara toed in 1913 McTaggart who had been riding Stiotnboli a winner on the Long Island tracks said Dont bet too much on Old Hosebud to beat Stromboli flyThat for Mr Belmonts gelding can fly That is how the jockeys regarded Stromboli But I opened their eyes oiie morning when I gave Olfl Buddy a1 trial Tom Ilealey trainer for It T Wilson told me that threeeighths in thirty six seconds was the best any youngster had trav ¬ eled eledThe The Saratoga track was then slow about three seconds slower to the mile than it was last year I brought out Old Itosebud and with the boy holding his head he worked threeeighths in 33 Say that fairly took Ilealeys breath away He was so impressed with it that he stood and looked at Old Kosebud for fifteen minutes Two days later Old Itosebud beat Stromboli so far that he was lost Jn the dust dustLAMENESS LAMENESS KEPT A SECRET SECRETOld Old Itosebud pulled up lame that year but I never told anybody about it and it was never men ¬ tioned in print That winter I thought it advisable to sell him 1 owned a life interest in him and suggested to Col Applegate that if we could get 25000 for him it would be a good sale But by an error the story was printed that we had refused 30000 f9r him and this killed off other offers About this time Hodge was showing some fast trials Ud everybody was talking about him as the Kentucky Derby winner winnerWell Well Im glad we didnt sell for Old Buddy won the Derby beating Hodge easily He showed how fasthe is by running the mile and a quarter in 203 the fastest time ever made for the Derby When hebroke down at Belmont Park his career seemed ruptureI at an fend It was a bad rupture I fired him and turned him out Next year I took him up and examined him He was still bowed I fired him again with the irons and again turned him out Nature I said will do mgre for him than the irons Time will strengthen the tendons t Nearly three years of rest did the trick and he came back in 1917 and won 31720 Time is now I helping him to round into condition again ATchanipionV Who knows
