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Here and There on the Turf Macomber Sale a Success. French. Brood Mares Bring High Prices. Mates for Luke McLuke. Blots on Correct Jockeyship. If there were any lingering doubts of the healthy condition of the thoroughbred breeding interests in the United States they were surely set at rest at Durlands academy in New York Friday night, when forty imported horses were sold for a total of 40,750. Most of the offerings were brood marcs and all were sent to this country from France by A. K. Macomber to be offered to the American breeders. An average of ,51S.75 for this consignment was more than was expected when the mares were landed in this country. It demonstrated that the breeders have a high regard for good foreign-bred mares. Brood mares, many of them carrying foals, are seldom show animals, and the Macomber band, had it not been for their fashionable blood lines, would not have attracted much attention. Most of them were big rugged matrons and had the cut of ideal mothers, but it was their ancestral blood that was selling, and it was this blood that made the sales such a satisfying success. They had some fatiguing days on the boat coming from France, but it had been a remarkably successful shipment, for every one of the forty was in condition to go into the sales ring. They had been kept at Belmont Park since their recent arrival, but Mr. Macomber and Christopher Fitz Gerald, who managed the selling for him, arc to be congratulated on the manner in which they were shipped, as well as the manner in which they were sold. Breeders from every section were on hand for the sales, and all were looking for bargains, but when the most desired one3 were offered the contest for possession drove many of the intended bidders out of the running. George Strate attended the sale for J. H. Rosseter, and had marked several in the catalog that he intended buying. He said after the sale was all over that he had hoped to buy a carload of mares, and he wound up with only one, when he paid ,200 for Foreshore, a five-year-old daughter of Sea Sick and the Hanover lino Foresight, by Halma, a son of Hanover. They were others with commissions to buy who had no chance by reason of the high prices that ruled. Kentucky led in the buying, and what was of real importance was that the sale will be followed before long by the announcement of a new western breeding farm of importance. It was for this new thor-ughbred breeding venture that J. O. Keene made four of the most important purchases of the sale. These mares, it is intended, will be mated with the Ultimus stallion Luke McLuke. In making his selections Mr. Macomber had Luke McLuke in mind and the mares he took were all strictly of foreign blood, which, mated with the son of Ultimus, will combine the Hiinyar line, made so tremendously successful by the late James It. Keene, with an out-cross of the best foreign blood obtainable. His first purchase, Princess Mafalda, is a daughter of Alcantara H. and Marion Delorme, a daughter of Bay Ronald. War Love, another, is a daughter of Prince Palatine and Sun Glass, a daughter of Isinglass. Both of these marcs were bred to Maintcnon in France. The third is a three-year-old filly Addie, by Sea Sick Adeliza, a daughter of Maintenon. She was not bred. The other, Sand Blast, is a daughter of Maintenon and Sand Flake, a daughter of Trenton. The mating of this one with Luke McLuke will give the produce a double cross of Trenton, for Midge, the dam of the Ultimus stallion Luke McLuke, was also by Trenton. This mare was bred to McKinley, a son of Macdonald H. and Mrs. Despard. While it is seldom a horse is sent to the post without his jockey carrying a whip, probably a larger percentage of races have been lost by the injudicious use of the whip than any one realizes. Few indeed are the present day jockeys who know anything about the correct use of the whip. Most of our riders are unable to use a whip and at the same time hold up a horses head. To go to the whip and at the same time relax a sustaining hold on a tired horse is fatal. He is liable either to swerve or stumble when he loses this support and the whip accordingly brings about his defeat. Continuous flogging of a horse can never do much good. One or two sharp blows with the whip, to rouse the horse, is all that is of any value. Flogging afterward is senseless cruelty. Many a horse has become a confirmed sulker by reason of the injudicious use of the whip. Some of the best horses will not run from the whip, while others are notably good whip horses, but even the good whip horse needs only the rousing that comes with a couple of blows to awaken him to his best efforts. Time and again the boy that has sense enough to sit down and depend on a hand ride on a tiring horse will beat the horse home that comes up under the whip. All jockeys should ride out their mounts to the last stride, but to beat a horse with the whip when he has no possible chance for any share in the purse is both senseless and cruel. Again there are riders who in a fit of temper use the whip on their mounts. But the jockey who loses his temper in a race does not belong and he ought to be properly punished when he is guilt. Still another exhibition that has come at times is the whipping of a horse after the finish. This is just another exhibition of temper and is inexcusable. While mentioning faults of jockeys, there is yet another of which many boys have been guilty and, in some cases probably, guilty thoughtlessly in the snatching up of a horse after it has crossed the finish line. Many a time a good horse has been seriously injured by such treatment and the thoughtless rider may have meant no harm whatever. Instead of permitting the horse to gallop along until he can be pulled up gently, he is snatched up short as soon as the race is over. This frequently gives the horse a severe wrench, while a horse so pulled up is in imminent peril of being jumped on from behind by a horse that may be following him.
