Famous Turf Pick-UPS: Great Prices for Horses of Present Day Compared with Past, Daily Racing Form, 1920-08-13

article


view raw text

FAMOUS TURF "PICK-UPS" Great Prices for Horses of Present Day Compared With Past Bargains on the English Turf. Instances where thoroughbreds sold for a song, trained to racing fitness, displayed championship quality, won fortunes in turf prizes, and resold for fabulous amounts, are being cited by British turf writers in commenting on the recent sale of the two-year-old Inchape for the reputed price of 50,000. The Friar Iiock juvenile, they point out, was practically a gift, being acquired as a weanling along with six mares and six foals by J. H. Rosseter when he purchased his sire from John E. Madden for 00,000. Friar Rock alone was worth this sum, is their view. Atop this, the refusal of Samuel D. Riddle to part with Man o War for any sum has caused an additional ripple among the ranks of Englands racing commentators. This and record prices which have obtained in thoroughbred marts during the past year have drawn the ink from their pens. The purchase of Tracery, Negofol, Prince Palatine, Rock Sand and others for extraordinary figures have caused the dust to be shaken from Britains turf archives and bald facts to be linotyped once more in proof that the islands rich racing history is not entirely barren of romance such as the successes of Inchcape and Man o War as racers, and Friar Rock as a sire, and the sales of the stallions abroad have produced. English examples of odd horse prices in the past are many. Here are some of them with their figures, according to -heir own records: Deadlock was purchased by Captain Machell for a paltry 5. Her son. Isinglass, captured the "Triple Crown," won 85,000 in stakes, and could, in his prime, have been sold for at least 50,000 a return of 34,905 for the original investment. Fifty dollars was the price paid for The Widow, which ran away with the Cambridgeshire and won 00,000 in bets for her owner. Lord Exeter picked up for S900 that grand horse Stockwell, whose descendants won 05,000 in stakes alone in a single year, and who was the sire of three Derby and six St. Leger winners. GREAT NATIONAL WINNER FOR 75. Salamander, bought at a county fair for 75, made nearly a thousand times that amount for his owner, Mr. Studd, when he won the Grand National. St. Gatien, purchased for 5,000 after running a dead heat with Harvester in the Derby, was the son of Rover, once considered a poor bargain at 00; and The Godolphin, whose progeny have won millions of dollars, was rescued in Paris for a few dollars from the shafts of a watcrcart. Persimmon won for his royal owner the colossal sum of 73,030 in seven races. And Persimmon has not a few formidable rivals as a gold mine. Donovan won 75,000 in stakes alone more than his weight in gold before he passed the winning post for the last time; Flying Fox enriched his owners to the extent of 00,000; Ayrshire won 75,000; La Fleche, 72,925; Orme and St. Frus-quin nearly 05,000 each; urefoot, 61, S90; Gladiator, 55,525, and Diamond Jubilee and Ormonde 88,000 between them. Here, then, they point out, are a dozen horses, including Isinglass, who collectively won in stakes alone a sum exceeding ,220,000, representing an average of more than S5,000. Nor do these figures by any means represent the full value of these equine "gold mines," for Flying Fox, after his racing days were over, was sold to M. Blanc tat 90,875; Ormonde, for 50,250, and La Fleche brought 1920.sh3,000 as a brood mare. To these sums should be added the amounts won by their sons and daughters and later progeny, if their full potential value is to be ascertained. Take St. Simon, for instance. In eleven seasons his sons and daughters won something like a quarter of a million in stakes. At the stud, and after a distinguished turf career, Blacklock sired no fewer than 123 winners, who secured stakes to the value of. 229,000; Hambletonian, who won the St. Leger and nineteen other races, was sire of 144 winners ot 90,500; and he vtas one of 109 sons and daughters of King Fergus, "who enriched their owners by 50,000 in days when money prizes were trivial indeed; while Canezou and her sons, Paletot, Fazzaletto and Cape Flyaway captured no less than 23,000 among them. In seven years Isonomys progeny accumulated 77,090; Hamptons 02,200, and Galopins 20,-115; while . Hermits, some years ago, had won considerably over ,750,000. It is thus not surprising that any owners of race horses reap rich harvests on the turf. Lord Falmouth had a turf career of unexampled prosperity, winning no less than ,500,000 in stakes.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1920s/drf1920081301/drf1920081301_8_1
Local Identifier: drf1920081301_8_1
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800