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Here and There on the Turf High Prices for Horses. Hildreths Shrewd Tactics. Zevs Mud Running Ability. Three-Year-Old Premiership Unsettled. The impetus which the Saratoga meeting has given to the thoroughbred market continues to increase as the meeting draws to a close. Gifford A. Cochrans purchase of Goshawk from Harry Payne Whitney Saturday for 0,000 comes as a sort of climax to an unusual series of two-year-old deals during the present year, while Mr. Whitneys offer of 00,000 for Messenger, though refused, is an excellent index to the trend of the market. Just exactly what has brought about the great change in thoroughbred values which has made 5,000 a small price to pay for a good race horse seems to be a question. The commercial and industrial conditions through the country, and the world, for that matter, are not particularly prosperous, but a man who wants a certain horse apparently is willing to go almost any limit to possess him. The result is that the turfman or breeder who happens to have in his possession good horses of racing age and stake quality is able to pile up the profits while the boom is in full swing. John E. Madden, with his sales of Dunlin, Bud Lerner, Emotion, Surf Rider and McKee, this year has received a small fortune in return, for a few horses, none of which is a champion. Mr. Cochrans offer of 25,000 for Bunting, the remaining Whitney candidate for three-year-old honors, would have aroused wide comment a year or so ago, but in the present scale of purchases, sales and offers it causes hardly a ripple. Bunting may or may not be worth 25,000 he has not been highly enough tried against the best of his age this year to show his real class but Mr. Whitney is not likely to dispose of the son of Pennant. His sale of Whiskaway was a good business move and, at the same time, a fine thing for racing. Whether or not the mind readers, who assume that Mr. Whitney disposed of Whiskaway" only after assuring himself by trials that Bunting is a better horse, are right. The fact remains that for the present Whiskaway is the leader of the three-year-old division and has a reputation which -is worth at least the amount paid. Trainer Hildreth of the Rancocas Stable has been maneuvering his three-year-old Kai-Sang into a strategic position for the coming stakes of his division. He has carefully avoided allowing the son of The Finn to finish first in any stake race which would mean a penalty in later important races; allowing his stablemate, Little Chief, to go along and pick up the penalties. The reason why trainer Hildrcth has been able to carry out this plan so successfully is that the best horses of his age have stayed in their barns while the stakes so settled have been run and there has been nothing in the fields that Little Chief, which is not a wonder horse, could not beat under his light weight. If it had not rained at Saratoga Friday night, Kai-Sang would have had cither a penalty or a beating as a residt of the Travers Stakes running and the three-year-old situation would probably have been more jumbled up than ever. As it is, the Travers Stakes decided nothing, except that the Rancocas Stable had two horses carrying its colors that could beat A. R. Lawsons Sweep By without much trouble. Mr. Vosburgh-s rating of the Rancocas three-year-old as the top weight of the divi sion still remains to be vindicated or disproved. But if Kai-Sang can go on escaping the penalties which his chief rivals have already picked up by their earlier victories there is little likelihood that a true test of his merit can be had in the coming stake races for his age until late? on. The victory of Zev in the Grand Union Hotel Stakes probably can have little bearing on the settlement of the two-year-old championship. The track conditions of Saturday were so bad that mud running ability alone decided the result. Zev, on the face of past form, did not exactly seem to belong in such a stake, but his mud running was conspicuously brilliant and he won. Several horses which would probably bring much more if sold than would Zev, finished behind him Saturday, but that one race under such conditions can have little effect either on the value or the standing of the victor or the vanquished. Zev remains what he was before a good second rate two-year-old which becomes a whirlwind in the mud. The only one which really loses caste by the race is Martingale, J. S. Cosdens son of Martinet, which was noted for his mud running previously. He showed that though a good mud runner, he could not keep up with Zev. Since he has sometimes failed to race to his best form on a fast track, Martingales value is largely discounted by his defeat in ! the mud Saturday, otherwise the two-year-old rating cannot be influenced particularly as a result of the Grand Union running. The failure of the chief contenders for the three-year-old crowh to face the starter in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Saturday, when a heavy rain changed the track conditions over night, makes it unlikely that the question of supremacy can be settled at the present meeting. The Huron Handicap of ,000 guaranteed is the only remaining three-year-old stake of the meeting. This is to be run Wednesday, but it will probably not attract the topnotchers.
