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COACHING CLUB AMERICAN OAKS To Bo Fostered to Secure Right Type of Mares to Enrich Our Thoroughbred Families NEW YORK N Y June 22 The Coaching Club of New York whose president is F K Sturgis chair ¬ man of The Jockey Clubs bureau of breeding is doing a praiseworthy act in fostering the running of the Coaching Club American Oaks whose fourth offering on the closing day of the spring meeting of the Westchester Racing Association served to introduce in the winner Cleopatra the type of race mare which through her progeny should en ¬ rich the thoroughbred horse families of the future in the United States StatesMr Mr Sturgis who is a practical horseman hav ¬ ing for many years bred splendid coaching types at his country estate has brought the breeding bureau to a high state of excellence His fellow members of the Coaching Club could not help im ¬ bibing some of his spirit and the turf is richer for it through the placing upon the roster of its great races a feature which corresponds to the English Oaks an event that has had so much to do with the development of the British thorough ¬ bred bredOur Our idea in offering the race said Mr Sturgis shortly after the daughter of Corey ra had shown her superb quality was to encourage breeders and owners to develop their fillies to race over a course that would bring out the quality that makes for progress in the upbuilding of our thorough ¬ bred families From the winners of such tests as the Coaching Club American Oaks we believe in the course of time will come many of our best performers on the track and in the stud Although the field was small the members of the Coaching Club are well pleased with the increased interest manifested by both owners and public in the run ¬ ning of this event Cleopatra is an exceptionally fine individual and her performance helped to demonstrate one of the objects of the race and offered an interesting proof of the ability of three yearold fillies to take up their weight and run one mile and three furlongs in the spring springAMERICAN AMERICAN TURF TO BENEFIT BENEFITThe The turf of America will In ultimately much benefited Jjy iemiifiJkViaCnimrF MrrtmuKi Inasinueh as by it breeders can form the best judgment as to the strains of blood qualified to produce horses of speed and en ¬ durance A good estimate of the future may be wisely based upon the study of the past In Eng ¬ land the history of the Oaks forms a prolific field for research and we find in the list of this race the dams and granddams ci many a Derby win ¬ ner A volume could be written around I ho deeds of the progeny of Mendicant Blink Bonny Cruci ¬ fix Queen Bertha and Cobweb alone but th re ¬ sults of the Epsom Derby in 1018 and 1020 being fresh in the minds ot everybody we shall take them to illustrate our point The 101S winner Gainsbor ¬ ough was a son of the Oaks winner Rosedrop while the recent running of the race gave striking evidence of the efficacy of breeding to mares that are highclass performers Spion Kop the victor was by the Derby winner Spearmint and his dam Hammerkop was a winner from two to six years of age including the July and Criterion Stakes as a juvenile and the Cesarewitch and two re ¬ newals of the Alexandra Plate at Ascot in later years Archaic second for this years Derby is from the Oaks winner Keystone II This noted mare had already produced in the filly Keysou the winner of the St I Ieger eger of 1010 Electra the dam of Orpheus which ran third for the Epsom prize iRhind Spion Kop and Archaic has for his dam Electra by Eager and while she did not win the Oaks she annexed another of the spring classics the One Thousand Guineas GuineasVALUE VALUE OF SUCH RACES PROVEN PROVENWhen When you consider that of the thousands of mares bred each year the proix rtion of Oaks win ¬ ners is infinitesimal the results achieved are startling In one hundred years there cair only be one hundred winners of the Oaks but the pages of turf history are emblazoned with the deeds of these one hundred and their descendants Surely this is proof of the value of such races as we are encouraging encouragingIt It is the hope of those who have the best in ¬ terests of racing at heart that breeders by looking backward into racing history will be prompted to make a careful selection of she dams to which they breed The Coaching Club American Oaks and races of kindred character will serve as a guide and test and while the development must neces ¬ sarily be of slow growth it will be none the less sure and the gradual selection of the fittest will ul ¬ timately obtain Standards will advance steadily until we shall have developed the staying type of distance horses so much desired and so badly needed neededWe We hoiH1 said Mr Sturgis in concluding that as years go by more and more interest will be shown in this race and a greater number of entries secured It will become a beneficial as well as an attractive event productive in this country of results similar to those which have been so evident in England
