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JOCKEY C. LANGS SUCCESS | Recalls Victories of Henry Griffin a Quarter of a Century Ago. . NEW TOBK, V Y.. Jan. 7.— That C. Lang, a youth of seventeen who has had only eighteen months experience with horses, should lead the Jockeys of the coaatry in the number of winning mounts in litll indicates emphatically the possibilities for achieving success in the saddle quickly under preaeal racing conditions with its plenitude J of contests at low weights. Biace the period when James Shields developed Henry Griffin the turf famishes no parallel to the career the Canadian lad who rode three winners OB Tuesday last al New Orleans. Griffin was only fifteen when he created a sensation by riding so many wiBBers at the winter tracks, but he Was like a little- old man — wise beyond his years and one of tin- sights of the day was a conference I. ei we-ii Jack Batchelder and the midget when that v derail, who was long past eighty and had brought , to the running turf a knowledge that was rich and varied through his associations with the trot-tern, was running Woodcutter or some of the other iron horses in his string. Griffin graduated to the big courses at once and earned a reputation second to none, first in the colors of Gideon and Daly and later in the silk-; of the- Kleintoii Stable. lie won nearly every one of our great races, aad rode Henry of Navarre, Hastings, llie P.utterflies. Requital. Kecnan. Itama-po. Clifford aad a ho~t of other good ones of a generation ago. He frequently rode fear winners In au afternoon, but his field day was Saturday. August 24, lS.io, at Bheepahead Pay. when he won the first five races on the card, and did not participate in the Sixth It was the- opening clay of the Coney Island Jockey Clubs autumn meeting and tin- Futurity was on the card. Griffin piloted Requital to a victory that was worth $,100 to Messrs Gideon and Daly. He took the opening dash with Kamsin. the second race the Autumn Handicap with Tie- Butterflies, beating Domino and ether cracks: the third with Waltzer and the fifth with the Blemton Stables Dorian. As Requital. The BatterfUea and Waltzer were all from the bum stable, it was a greet occasion for the owners as well us their peerless rider. DAYS OF CELEBRATED RIDERS. These victories were achieved in a period when there were a dozen finished horsemen where we have one today among our jockeys. It was in the golden days of racing before the best American riders went to England and the continent because of legislation adverse to racing and the- framing ef programs which put a premium on Maori d staace and selling races aad their accompanying low weight scale. It was the day of Taral. Sloan. ClaWBOB, Diggott, Littlefield. Penn. the ChtytOB brothers, Perkins, Thorpe, Cassia, Hamilton. Williams. Carr, Saras, OLceary, Powers. Hhrseh, Leas-ley, OConnor. Bergen, Iliil. Lewis and others that would be ranked with the best of our present day riders a they were active at this tine. It is sail of Iing. the newest sensation in the way of a jockey, that he is eager to learn and pos-~es.,.s go.d habits. While these are requisites for BBceesa, there wast also be a natural aptitude for the work. Chief among the essentials that would fall under this bead is the sympathetic appeal which some lads possess. Griffin seemed te eel acquainted at once with every horse he rode and they gave him their best .always. Tod Sloan aNi had this gift and he. like Griffin, had the faculty Of making horses run without the whip. Griffin rarely struck a horse, confining his efforts to beads sad heels in a tight finish and a powerful adversary he was in the last hundred feet of a hard race. James Arthur, to whom Lang is apprenticed, has brought out some fairly good riders in the twenty-five years be has been racial faorees. Bed-rbraea is one of the latest, but away back at the Pair Grenada coins.- |a New Orleans in the days of the late- Charles Rush, when Cantata J. II. Bees Bras He steward and Colonel R. W. Simmons the presiding: judge at that track, Arthurs horses were ridden by a lad named Hidden, who was a jockey of rare promise. Cafortanntely he put on weight so rapidly that his career in the saddle was short. If Lang will listen to his Heater and keep away from bid company, his career should be briliant. as he seems to possess the fundamentals for suc-eess in his chosen vocation. The turf neve: seeded riders so badly as at present. Most of the jockeys of today bav no knowledge of pace, and when it comes to "hands" these who have this qualification arc few and far between.
