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EMPIRE STATE BREEBIMG Receives Impetus by the Futurity Victory of Sallys Alley. BY C. J. FITZ GERALD NEW YORK. N. Y September 25. Lovers of the thoroughbred will sec in the victory of Sallys Alley in the Futurity Stakes at Belmont Fark on Saturday, September 16, the promise of a return to the conditions which at one time marked blood stock breeding in this state, making it rank with other commonwealths in the production of race horses of quality. It is a far cry from the days of American Eclipse, which was born at Dosoris in Queens County, Long Island, to the present, with a winner of our greatest two-year-old race coming from Broome County, but in between many fine horses have been produced in the Empire State; some with brilliant records on the turf at all distances up to four-mile heats, while others have enriched posterity by their qualities. New York should be hallowed ground for every lover of a good horse thoroughbred or trotter. It was to this state that imported Messenger came in 1792 to help in the improvement of the clean-bred stock of the United States, and found a distinctive type in the American trotter, whose superiority over all other harness performers is acknowledged the world over. American Eclipse was another early favorite among the horsemen of this state. He was foaled at Dosoris, Long Island, not twenty miles from the scene of the triumph of Sallys Alley, and was by Diomed. whose name is fotfnd in the pedigrees of our best thoroughbreds, and harness horses as well. His dam was Millers Damsel, a daughter of Messenger. Eclipse was aj great race horse, conquering the Southern champion Sir Henry at four-mile heats when he was nine years of age a limit of racing usefulness rarely reached by the present day thoroughbred. American Eclipse was a sire of note, getting the famous four milers Ariel, which was bred on a farm at Flatbush that is now a portion of Greater New York; Black Maria, another famous campaigner, born in Harlem, also a part of New York City; Shark, noted race horse and sire, and sold in 1830 for 7,500; Medoc. Fanny and many others. Ariel won forty-two races out of fifty-seven starts, seventeen at four-mile heats. BIRTHPLACE OF 3COTED HORSES. The regions roundabout the New York of that day and across the Hudson in New Jersey, where the Stevens family took a keen Interest in the thoroughbred, were the birthplaces of noted thoroughbreds upward of a hundred years ago. Impoited Trustee, a sire of Fashion, which lowered the colors of Boston in a match for 0,000 between the North and South, stood at the Bathgate Stud in "West Farms; Mango, by Emilius, winner of the St. Leger in 1837, also stood at Bathgate. A few miles away, at Throggs Neck, John Hunter had his Annieswood Stud with Francis Morris as his neighbor. Mr. Hunter, whose love for the turf continued to the last, and whose slim, dapper figure was conspicuous at Metropolitan courses until a little more than a decade ago, bred at Annieswood in 1869 the horse Alarm, through mating Maud, by Stockwell, with imported Eclipse. The blood of Alarm, coming down through his son Himyar, the sire of Domino, plays a strong part in the foundation of a noted racing family of the present day. Disguise, one of Dominos sons, which raced with distinction abroad, sired Sal Volatile, the dam of Sallys Alley. It was therefore fitting that the white -faced filly from up the state should score so signal a triumph in territory which her forbears trod so lightly many generations ago. A maternal ancestress of another present day crack, Kai-Sang, also came from the Hunter Stud. This was Nannie McDowell, by Leamington ; that great sire having made the season of 1871 at Throggs Neck, siring Aristides, Olitipa, Rha-damanthus and other good ones. It was from the Morris establishment at Throggs Neck that Ruthless, winner of the first Belmont Stakes in 1S67 came. She was a daughter of Eclipse and Barbarity, by Simoon. Other good ones bred by Francis Morris, grandfather of A. IT. and D. H. Morris, and a famous sportsman of his day and the backer of Richard Ten Broeck in his invasion of the British turf with Prior, Prioress, Starke and other American horses, were Remorseless, Regardless, Relentless ind Merciless. At Fordham, Leconard Jerome bred Electric, the great-great grand-dam of Ben Brush, founder of the Broomstick family. Across Long Island Sound at Babylon, August Belmont was meanwhile doing his part in the way of blood stock improvement in the Empire State. From his Nursery Stud came Count DOrsay, Woodbine, winner of the Alabama Stakes, .and other filly stakes and whose name appears in the pedigree of The Finn, sire of Kai-Sang, Bud Lemer and others; Fiddlesticks, Countess and Duchess, the latter one of the best race mares of her lime and the dam of Clifford. Prince Royal was also bred at Babylon. There were others, but those named above were stake winners and racers of parts which carried the maroon and scarlet to victory. With the purchase of St. Blaise the Belmont breeding activities were carried to Kentucky. The Morris Stud was taken to Texas, and by the middle eighties there was little blood stock production in territory that was , once largely devoted to it The Hunter, Jerome and Bathgate establishments became memories. It is fortuitous, therefore, that this triumph by a native-bred in the chief two-year-old feature of the year should be i scored at this juncture when the tide has : apparently taken a turn and new recruits are coming along. Two of the most recent of these are R. L. Gerry, who is going to establish the stallion Fayette and some well-bred mares not more than 100 miles from where Sallys Allley was born, and Marshall Field, who will breed thoroughbreds at Lloyds Neck on Long Island. The latter location ; is historic ground, as it was there that Nelson Lloyd in 1817 bred Post Boy and other fine race horses by mating Garland, by Duroc, with Henry and American Eclipse. It was close in-breeding in the latter case, as the grand dam of both Garland and 1 American Eclipse was Millers Damsel, by Messenger. These recruits, in addition to the already established activities of the Sanford Stud at Amsterdam, the Kilmer establishment at : Binghamton, James Butlers Eastview Stud I at Tarrytown, Gifford A. Cochrans Runny-mede Stud at Mount Kisco, C. L. Whitings s Stud at Avon, and the Breeding Bureau of ; the Jockey Club, and the Federal Remount : I s ; Service, operating in the Genessee Valley and at Troy, Derby, Newburgh, White Plains and other points would indicate that the thoroughbred is coming back strong in a state where he was once so well and fa-; vorably known.
