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TWOYEAROLD SUPREMACY Greatest of Young Thoroughbreds in American Turf Annals From Sensation 1879 to Mor Morvich vich and Miss Joy 1921 Superiority a Question IJY SALYATOR SALYATORNot Not long ago tlicre appeared In Daily Rac ¬ ing Form an Interesting table of Unbeaten Two YearOlds comprising a list of seven which since 190R had gone through their campaigns undefeated It began with Colin winner in 1907 of twelve straight races and 131007 and ended with Morvich winner In 1921 of eleven straight races and 115231 Can however one claim much on the unde ¬ feated basis for colts or fillies that only start two or three times In a season One suspects not Of the seven twoyearolds listed three or nearly 50 per cent cannot be considered really to have withstood the acid test Regret and Thunderer raced but three times and Ilwfa only twice Their perform ¬ ances to be sure may have been brilliant as far as they went But they did not go far farThe The test of an unbeaten racer Is the ability to live other than a bandbox life and to have met all comers on more than two or three specially selected occasions Of the seven twoyearolds under discussion only three were sweated for the brass on any other system These were Colin and Morvich which as stated raced twelve and eleven times respectively and Tryster which six times ran and won The remaining member Leonardo II Is on the borderland having raced four times timesOur Our first great unbeaten twoye Sensation the son of Leamington and broth ¬ er o Onondaga and Stratford This superb colt in 1879 started in and won eight straight races his earnings reaching the sum of 19670 this being the first time in the his ¬ tory of the American turf that a performer of that age won 10000 or more Duke of Magenta had just failed of It in 1877 when he won 9987 We had had some sparkling twoyearolds previous to Sensation but he was that first impressively demonstrated the possibilities of the age and with him the day of the twoyearold in America may be said really to have dawned dawnedUNBEATEN UNBEATEN ONES OF 27 YEAJIS Between 1S79 Sensations year and 1906 that with which the table taken as my text takes up the narrative we had several un ¬ beaten twoyearolds of which three to my mind outclass any other trio that can be named These are or were Trcmont winner of thirteen straight races in 18SG El Rio Rey winner of seven straight races In 1889 and Domino winner of nine straight races in 1893 Here was a trio of pure marvels whose like has not since been seen seenAs As the twoyearold has become a cult and monopolizes attention to a degree which has never been accorded any other age perhaps I will not be out of order if I offer what I may term my own private gallery of twoyearolds comprising those which according to my judgment are the best America has seen from the day of Sensation to the present I have arranged them ac ¬ cording to their order of appearane not that of the number of races or the amount of money won So here they are Year Horse Sta Wins Won Won1S79 1S79 Sensation br c by Leam ¬ ington Susan Beane by byLexington Lexington 8 8 19070 1880 Spinaway ch f by Leam ¬ ington Megara by Eclipse 9 7 10100 1881 Wanda ch f by Morte iner Minnie Minor by byLexington Lexington 13 85475 1880 King Fox b c by King Ban Maud Hampton by byHunters Hunters Lexington 5 4 17918 179181SSO 1SSO Tremont blk c by Virgil Ann Kief by Alarm 13 13 89133 1880 Hanover ch c by Hindoo Bourbon Belle by Bon ¬ nie Scotland 8 3 14CS5 14CS51SS7 1SS7 Kmperor of Norfolk b c by Norfolk Marion by byMalcolm Malcolm IS 12 87020 870201SSS 1SSS Proctor Knott ch g by Luke Blackburn Talla Tallapoosa poosa by Great Tom 9 0 69780 1889 El Rio Roy ch c by Norfolk Marion by Mal ¬ colm 7 7 40833 408331S31 1S31 His Highness b c by 111 Used Princess ty tyKing King Tom 12 9 106900 1392 Morello b c by Eolus Cerise by Moccasin 17 14 55200 1803 Domino br c by Himyar Mannie Grey by En ¬ quirer 9 9 170890 1895 11 e q u i t a I b c by Eothen Retribution by byReform Reform 0 8 58015 1897 Hamburg br c by Han ¬ over Lady Reel by Fel Fellowcraft lowcraft 10 12 42100 1893 Jean Bercaiid b c by His Highness Carrie 0 0by by Sensation 10 7 05357 1300 Commando b c by Domi ¬ no Kmma C by Darebin 0 B 170890 1303 Hamburg Belle ch f by Hamburg Isiac by Rosc Roscbery bery 7 ft 47125 1901 Artful br f by Ham ¬ burg Martha II by Dan die Dimnont 5 8 67805 1304 Tradition b t by Gold ¬ finch Reclarc by Reform 10 S 44017 1001 Syscnby b c by Melton Optime by Oruie 6 5 40058 1900 Water Iearl b c by Watercress 1carl V by bySalvator Salvator 10 6 42500 1907 Colin br c by Commando 1astorella by Spring ¬ field 12 12 131007 1303 Sir Martin ch c by Og Ogden den Lady Sterling by byHanover Hanover 13 8 78500 1903 Sweep b c by Ben Brush 1iiik Domino by Domino 8 5 41321 1013 Old Uoaebud b g by byUncle Uncle Ivory BcllH by byHiniyur Hiniyur 14 12 18057 1918 Ktcrnul br c by Sweep Hazel Burke by Sempron Sempronius ius 8 0 50137 1919 Man o Wiir ch c by Fair Iluy Mabulmh by Rock RockSand Sand 10 0 83325 1920 Leonardo II b c by byTroubadour Sweep Ktbcl Pace by Troubadour 4 4 3C 1921 Monricli br c by Runny mcdc Ilymlr by Dr Drlccgo lccgo 11 11 115 1021 Mis Joy b f by Peter Quince lYoad Daisy by Pride 12 9 3S Totals 30 200 232 1707180 SlirilEaiK GJIKATNESS METIK NOTION NOTIONTMcklng TMcklng great of the greatest race horses of various classes Is like arranging antholo ¬ gies of favorite songs or stories There Is always abundant reason for disagreement between the picker and the reader who glancing down the lists finds conspicuously absent horses which to him were Idols types of supreme excellence while on the other hand he Is apt to find included others which to his way of thinking have no right to bo there It will be this way I have no doubt with my roster of twoyearolds which of course is a personal selection However it represents an earnest attempt to illustrate the twoyearold greatness of the era under consideration considerationThere There are thirty stars in my gallery of which twentytwo are colts six fillies and two geldings As it originally stood tho list comprehended but twentynine I rounded it out to an even thirty by adding the namo of Miss Joy One must keep pace with tho spirit of the times and while Miss Joy may not rank with the other five fillies included namely Spinaway Wanda Hamburg Belle Artful and Tradition still the racing public of 1921 assuredly believed so I give her the benefit of the doubt Many turfmen will per ¬ haps wonder why Regret does not also ap ¬ pear But to tell truth Regret was the heroine of one of the worst twoyearold sea ¬ sons of the twentieth century And beyond that she raced but three times timesThere There have been certain seasons when th twoyearolds were simply dazzling and It was difficult to resist giving a whole group of them places on the list Take for in ¬ stance 188G a true annus mirabilis In this respect Among its twoyearolds were two unbeatcns Tremont and Hanover An ¬ other colt that lost but a single race and that a false one King Fox And back of this trinity Kingston Firenze Terra Cotta Lizzie Krepps and half a dozen others all real stars starsSUPERB SUPERB THREE OF TEAR 1001 1001Again Again there was 1904 when Artful Tra ¬ dition and Sysonby finished onetwothreo in the Futurity I venture to say that never before nor since did three such highclass performers catch the eye of the judge as they passed the post together In that event The nearest approaches were the Proctor KnottSalvatorGalen finish in 1888 and that of Maskettc Sir Martin and Helmet in 1908 In the case of 1886 I have contented my ¬ self with taking Trcmont Hanover and King Fox omitting Kingston with great reluct ¬ ance and as he won but two of his six starts In that of 1904 I could not see my way clear to omit any of the Futurity trio named so they all appear In 1906 there was another glittering galaxy of twoyear olds I had to take one and leave the oth ¬ ers so 1 picked Water Pearl undoubtedly the colt of the year until he went amiss In midseason prior to which he had done wonders That season also brought us such juveniles as Electioneer Salvidere Court Dress Ballot Peter Pan De Mund Oran Superman etc etc etcWhen When the trying tackle IB poor it is difi cut to gauge greatness That was what as stated counted Regret regretfully out of it I did not allow it to weigh in the case of Old Rosebud which to be sure had noth ¬ ing much to beat but won his dozen out of foruteen starts in such smashing style that no doubt of his class could remain remainIt It is difficult not to let the aftercareers of twoyearolds influence our judgment of their merits but I have tried to consider those above as twoyearolds solely More than a few of them failed to train on but that cannot properly affect their earlier glory One of these was Tremont a colt that deserves perhaps to rank as the great ¬ est twoyearold America has seen He came out in a year gemmed with great ones but none of them was within many pounds of him He made everything that started against him look common even when they left him at the post it made no difference If Tremont ever had an equal it was per ¬ haps El Rio Rey rather than Sensation Domino or Colin He was quite a diffier ent type from Tremont except in the way in which he could simply smother everything that tried to contend with him He could and did fall to his knees and then get up and go on and run over the others othersGREAT GREAT BROTHERS FROM THE VEST VESTEl El Rio Rey and Emperor of Norfolk are the only own brothers in the list also the only pair of performers out of the same dam Both were by Norfolk from Marion by Malcolm A volume might be written about the breeding of these thirty twoyear olds but a few lines must suffice I have designated all imported animals that appear as sires dams or sires of dams and anyly sis shows that as between them and the na ¬ tiveborn the latter have by far the best of it itThere There are nine by imported sires and a tenth Sysonby that was himself imported unborn leaving twenty or two for one the get of Americanbred sires On the other side tho maternal but three out of the thirty are from imported dams with Syson ¬ by again coming in as imported when his dam Optime was carrying him Tho sires of dams count as follows By American sires twenty by foreign sires ten This peculiarly is exactly the same ratio in which the sires of the performers themselves aro divided dividedI I find that Leamington Sensation and Spinaway Norfolk Emperor of Norfolk and El Rio Rey Hamburg Hamburg Bello and Artful and Sweep Eternal and Leon ¬ ardo II are the only sires with more than one representative Marion as aforesaid is the only double dam Lexington got tho dams of both Sensation and Spinaway lie form the dams of both Tradition and Re ¬ quital No other sire has more than one dam to his credit It is interesting to noto that Reclarc herself a flying filly at two was not only the dam of Tradition but tho third dam of Eternal as well Continued on tenth page
