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W. K. VANDERBIL TS GREAT HORSES MAINTENON AND PRESTIGE BEST OF FRENCH THREE-YEAR-OLDS NORTHEAST AND SEA SICK ALSO OF GREAT QUALITY By C. C. RILEY, Tie fact that W. K Vandprbilt headed the French list of winning owners, five.;. times.. In .the nine jrears from 1900 to 1914, inclusive, carried with it the implication that lie must have possessed some "truly great race horses. He Wild. It was his good fortune to own two noble, throeyear-old colts in 180, and it vas due" to them that In that year he for the first time headed the list of Frances winning owners. The colts in question were Maihtenon, by La Saglttaire Mareiu, by Springfield, and Prestige, by Le Pompon Orgueillense by Reverend. Of the two . Slain tenon was best and one. of the greatest horses of French racing history, but Prestige was an unbeaten winner- of nine . races when a three-year-old, as well as an unbeaten winner of seven races heh a two-year-old. Maintenon was Jircfl by Gaston Dreyfus at Havas du Perray and was bought by Mr. Vanderbilt at the Deauville yearling sales, of 1904 for 23,100 francs, or ,775. Considering that he won Over 00,000 when a three-year-old, he was about as great a bargain as our Man o War proved to S. D. Riddle at ,000. Prestige was bred by Monsieur J. Ravaut and seems to have been acquired privately. Maintenon, a chestnut in color, was backward in development and was not raced when a two-year-old. At three he ripened slowly and only took one of his first five races, . Then he began a wonderful career and won such great prizes of the French turf as :the Prix Lupin, Prix, du Jockey Club French Derby, Prix du President de la, Republique, Prix de Longchamps, Prix William the Conqueror, Grand Prix de Deauville, Prix. Royal Oak, La Coupe dOr and the Prix du Cohseir Municipal. The only time this brilliantly successful career was interrupted was when he ran unplaced in the memorable race for the Grand Prize of Paris, which was won by Spearmint. All told. Maintenon on 05,372.40 that year. Prestige won 0,478, so together the two good colts brought in 05,850 of the 45,900 that placed the stable first. Both afterward rendered Mr. Vanderbilt valuable service in the stud. The next year was a comparatively lean one for the stable, but in 1908 it came back in great glory and led the stables of France for that and the next three years. It was. a well equipped stable in all departments in 1908 with many winners, but its brightly blazing stars were the two grand three-year-olds Northeast and Sea Sick. Both were bays. Northeast a son of Perth and Nordepfeld; Sea Sick a son of Elf and Saf Saf. Both were great race liorses. Northeast gave Mr. Vanderbilt his only victory in the greatly coveted. Grand Frix de. Paris, lie was something Of .an outsider in the betting at 9 to 1. Edmond Blancs fine filly Medeah, winner of the French Oaks and until then unbeaten that year, was the favorite, at .2 to 1, while Others preferred to Northeast in the betting were Quintette and Contrns, coupled at 3 "to 1, and Grill Room and Conquistador, coupled at Cy. to 1, and Sauge Pourpree at 8 to 1. Nevertheless, ably ridden by J. CHilds, Northeast won from Sauge Pourpree by a half length in a rousing finish, with Souvigny third, a length farther back. Mr. Vanderbilts gratification was en- hanced by the fact that he. was the breeder of Northeast. His other Star. Sea Sick, was bred by Gaston Dreyfus and cost Mr. Vanderbilt 24,000 francs at the yearling sales of 1000. In all, as a three-year-old. u Northeast won live races and 0,240. Of the two it is probable Sea Sick was best, for he went on to great deeds in racing as a four-year-old, n while Northeast did not. As a. two-year-old in 1907 he was riot raced miich, winning two of his four essays. At three he won six of his ten races, was second in three and ran unplaced in the Epsom Derby, won by the noted :fllly Signorinetta. He won the Handicap Optional as early as Marcli 7 at Maisons LaHltte, the Prix Lagrange, Cinquanto Unieme, Prix Bienniel, Prix du President de la Republique, La Coupe dOr and dead-heated with the line colt Qnintefte for the Prix du Jockey Club the French Derby. His money won that year was 1920.sh4,250. This he supplemented with 4,495 the next year. His last race as a four-year-old. was ji victory in Frances longest distance flat race, the Prix Gladiateur, .at three miles and seven-eighths and run over the Bpis de Boulogne track at Paris. The Vanderbilt stable led again In 1909. Its singular good fortune in possessing a succession of f grand three-year-olds still persisted. Its star of that age was the bay colt Oversight. Bred by Mr. J .Vanderbilt, this was a son of the American sire Halma. by Hanover, and the English mare First Sight, 1 by Isinglass, Scarcely inferior to him was another three-year-did. Negofol, by Childwick Nebrouze. 1 bred by Count de Lastours and bought by Mr. Vanderbilt at 4he Deauville yearling sales at a great i bargain for ,000. As a sire he is well known in this country through his fine son Hourless, and, having been purchased for stud service in Kentucky, will, be letter known in the future. He won only three of j his twelve races when a three-year-old, but one of them, was the rich French Derby, in which he defeated Edmond Blancs fine colt Union, the subsequent Grand Prix de Paris winner, Verdun, and sixteen more of the best colts in France, including Oversight, which finished third to him -.nI Union. Oversight : started in eight races, and won six of them, the Prix Delatre, Prix Lagrange, Prix Daru, Prix la Rochette and the Prix Lupin. Along with Negofol he was unplaced in Verduns Grand Prix de Paris. ; Negofol raced no more after that, but Oversight was a high-class four-year-old and at that age won ; eight of his twelve races. All told, Oversight won 13,000. Although the leading owner, in 1910 and 1911, Mr. Vanderbilt did not possess any conspicuously great .three -year-old in those years. He had good ones that did their share in maintaining the reputation of the .stable, but nothing like the bright stars of the. previous years. His best in 1910 was probably the chestnut colt Reinhart, by Illinois II. Helnette,, which won the Prix du Pare des Princess. Prix du Chantilly, Prix Royal Oak and something over 0,000. He ran second to Nuage in the Grand Prix de Paris and third to Or du Rhin and Renard Bleu in the French Derby, and was a good but somewhat unlucky colt. In 1911 the stable "possessed no three-year-old deemed worthy of contesting the French Derby or Grand Prize, so for the first time in many years it was not represented in those great races. Subsequently Mr. Vanderbilts stable did not again liend the winning list, but always figured prominently . in each years racing ventures, aiid from time to. time won, good races with such three-year-olds as Aiken, Sammy Sands, Meigs, Tchad and others of merit. Tchad, a son of Negofol and the French mart Tola, by Raillcur, was a capital racer and Won the French Derby of 1919 for Mr. Vanderbilt, One , feature of the Vaiiderbilt stables record was that, it seldom had a high-class Ally in racing, but in 1917 he had an extra good one of his own breeding in Brumelli, by Maintenon Bourne, which, as a three-year-old, won nil of her four races, being the Crlterium dEssai des Pouliehes, Prix de Phebe, Prix des Trois Aus and Grand Prix de Trois Aus. She was easily the best filly of her year in France. Unluckily, because of the war, no French One Thousand or French Oaks was run in her year, and there was no great amount of money to be won in French racing, that year.
