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• «. SERVICE KITS SALE FAILURE Winner of Stewards Cup Not for India Because of Reporters Error. LONDON. England. March 1. — But for a curious incident Service Kit. which won the Stewards Cup at t;oohvood, would have been winning in India. Service Kit is by the French lying Set — Cat Cleugh, by Wolfs Crag. He is an extremely fast horse and now at hurdling. His Stewards Cup win was a great surprise and caused official inquiry. Here is the curious incident: At the Newmarket December Sales las: year he was one of a draft of horses in training from the Ogboiirne Stable. A reserve of 888.888 was placed on him. but this was not reached by the bidding. Pat Hartigan thereupon offered liim to the British Bloodslock Agency for S..IMM. This offer was sent forward to their representative in Bombay, who presently cabled that h» had found a buyer for Service Kit. A few hours later another cablegram arrived canceling the ilea. Eventually there came a letter explaining matters. The Indian buyer of Service Kit was a native sportsman who. almost immediately after lie had agreed to purchase the horse, picked tip an English paper containing a report of the December Sales. In that report he read that the British Bloodstock Agency bad bought Service Kit for ,000. Naturally enough, he jumped to the conclusion that he was being "rushed." and forthwith repudiated his promise to buy. Had he exercised a little patience .•mil made some inquiries, he would no doubi bae acted differently. This is what happened: Service Kit was Lot 177 in the December Sales catalog. At the last moment a two-year-old filly, Maretlc. was included in the draft from Ogboiirne, unci she became Lot 177A. The agency bought the filly for ,000 and the reporter for the paper made the mistake of recording the transaction in his catalog in the space alongside Lot 177 — that is to say. Service Kit. Many weeks elapsed before these matters could be investigated and satisfactorily explained. In the meantime poor Hartigan had died, and in April Sen ice Kit again came up for sale at Newmarket. It was then that Joe Baylis. the bookmaker, bought him for 88,198 and still owns him.
