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GREY LAG AFTER KENTUCKY PRIZE S. C. HILDRETHS EPSOM DERBY POSSIBILITY A DANGEROUS CANDIDATE FOR KENTUCKY JOCKEY CLUB STAKES TO BE RUN AT CHURCHILL DOWNS TODAY By EXILE Sam Hildreth made noniistake when he bought Grey Lag.. The son of Star Shoot and "a Meddler mother a wonderful combination in American racing is a fast and honest young horse and is more than an Epsom Derby dream should he go on. John Madden entered Grey Lag in the English classic of 1921. Hildreth is an ambitious man and there is much honor in an English blue ribbon victory. The colt has run twelve races this year and been unplaced but twice. For Max Htrsch Grey Lag won two of seven races and ,987.50. He was unlucky to lose the Futurity. Because he was, Hildreth bought him. For him Grey Lag has never been unplaced and has won two of his five races in the black and white and ,715. Of course, that is far below the price paid for the colt 0,000, It is reported. But he seems to be worth that. Horse prices in this country are not as high as they should be, considering thei earning power of a great one. But there is a gamble about greatness, tomorrow is usually less than today on the turf, and a Man o War comes only once in a decade or two. Grey Lag will have an opportunity to show his grdatness in the Kentucky Jockey Clubs Stakes at Churchill Downs today when he meets Tryster and other crack juveniles for the richest juvenile prize of the Kentucky fall season, the winner of this-newly-established race to receive approximately 5,000. Here is Grey Lags pedigree, full of the best lines in thoroughbreddom : , . I Oxford 12 E , S Sterling 10 12 whisper 12 E f Isonomy .......19 1n - Stockwell 3 E Isinglass . .V 3 J hay, 1S75 Bella isoline 19 E . bay,V1890 : T " , 4jLord Clifden 2 E Wenlock -j WeniocK 4 8 . I Dead Lock J Mineral s E grt - I Malpractice j Chevalier dIndustrie. . 2 13 2 Dutchmans Daughter. . 3 H. M ; I , Touchstone ;14 E - t o v. 1 Newminster .... 8 g j Hermit 5 J Beeswinff 8 M S , Astrology .. 9 J -chestnut, 1864 I Seclusion j Tadmor 12 H SS? chestnut. 1887 Mjv. a , j Miss Sejloa .5. , S. w--ltella.- i -to Sraf ford 8.J0 Melbourne ....25 M i, b ii-i -wis - . , .-"- : Daughter of GaroebQX,.8.Jr V-d- K.!t?8,l -. 3 E - x, Maid of Masham... ... 9 E . H- -yV. - , ,. j Blair Athoi a 10 E B"3 Y gt.,Gatien . . .16 j The Rove oCrinon C E 3 . . - bay, 1881. 1 i ,,?, " " j Kingley Vnl 8H re to Meddler-.-:. iJ - St.Editha Lady Alice 16 E bay,-i890 J Lord Clifden .......... 2 E Potnroh "trarch 10 10 0 th. I-Busybody J Laura 10 E f , j gplnaway -j Macaroni .14- H s a - - s . j Queen Bertha 1H Doncaster- . 5 E . : Bend Or i J , l 2 "3 - , r-Orvieto 1 J Rouge Rose 1H and r - ."bay, 1888 Napoli ... .... J Macaroni 14 H Spectrum . .13 A i Sunshine 1 H V? - , Melton . 8 J Master Kildare 3 E . . I -False. Sight J ..vv- Violet Melrose ,8E . N j Mirage .......... j Siecnlnm 1 E Euonyma 13 E Imported. Star Shoot, sire of Grey -Lag, was a remarkable horse In more ways than one, for though he turned-out any number of winners during his stud career, his best efforts were left for his declining years, when he sent fortli a real top sawyer in Sir Barton, whose first racing success, it may be of interest to recall, came about in the running of the 1919 Kentucky Derby. Sir Bartons improvement was really startling, and now that Grey Lag has found his racing legs, he also may develop into a horse of the highest class. At any rate, his breeding suggests this, and it is more than probable that he will live to confer many posthumous honors on the five-times leading sire, Stair Shoot. The results of this seasons racing are absolutely convincing proof that it pays to breed only to and from the best. Some day I intend to go through the list of 1920 stake winners and ascertain to which of the different families they belong; in fact, I have already made a beginning, and so far as I have progressed I find that well-nigh all of the big winners of the present season are members of one or another of the Bruce Lowe families. Star Shoot himself claimQd membership of the Maid of Masham branch of the No. 9 family, which now is productive of mauy really first-class sires. The rise of the Maid of Masham family, as a sire family, postdates the passing of Bruce Lowe, otherwise he would certainly have included this line also as a sire family, for is it not the family of -the Derby sire, Cyllene, of St. Hilaire, St. Damien, Winkfields Pride, Friar Rock and his half-brother, Fair Play? Star Shoot now stands fourth on the winning sire list and third to Meddler and Rock Sand on the winning brood mure sire list, the sons and daughters of Star Shoot having- at this time won in first moneys alone over 4,000, and his daughters have bred the winners of over 08,000, this being an achievement hard to duplicate and one only possible for a really well-bred horse. Only yesterday, when in conversation with a clear-sighted and knowledgable horseman of wide international experience, it was remarked that there was but little use looking outside of Meddler, Rock Sand, Star Shoot, Voter and descendants of Glencoe for brood mare sires. Of course, I myself should include descendants of Spendthrift and Bonnie Scotland. The conclusion, however, is that it is only the lilood which counts in brood mares, and Star Shoot, on account of his breeding, is just as famous as a sire of brood mares as he is as the sire of winners. Miss Minnie,, dam of Grey Lag, is a daughter of the undefeated Meddler. Really the success of daughters of Meddler as brood mares is the best sort of proof that different lines of blood are best adapted for different purposes, hence Bruce Lowe with his sire and running lines and it is also plain that some horses are better brood mare sires than others, for the reason that their pedigrees, show them to be strongly fortified in just those strains of blood, responsible for the appearance of the great and good brood mares of the past. The pedigree of Meddler is built uroii a foundation of Petrarch, Macaroni and Kingston, and what better brood mare blood is there to be. had? Grey Lags granddam, that good race mare and daughter of Orvieto Spectrum. These good race fillies, however, frequently fail to Reproduce their own turf excellence, but the good that is in them almost invariably crops out in the third and fourth generation after them. When Mr. Clarence Mackay had Spectrum at Kingston, I was more or less disappointed in her failure to send out a first-class horse, but the good that was in her, backed by a dash of Meddler, is now making itself manifest in her grandson, Grey Lag, and Spectrums sire, Orvieto, a son of Bend Or and Napoli, dam also of Laveno and Ponza, by Macaroni, and following this comes False Sight, by the Derby winner Melton, and this the Vega, by Stockwell branch of the No. 13 family.
