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LUCKY HOURS STANDING High Place Is Conceded to the Sterling Three-Year-Old. 1 Remarkable That He Was Able to Race at All Following Unfortunate Accident at Belmont Park. NEW YORK, N. Y.. December 23. In going through the list of the high-class performers of 1922 the expert cannot fail to give a high place to the sterling three-year-old Lucky Hour, by Ferole or Hourless undoubtedly the latter from Lucky Catch, by Trap Rock, which performed with such signal success in the colors of the Lexington Stable. While Lucky Hour won six good races and was second in three others, it is not because of this showing alone that he will be held in such high regard by the racing historians of the future. That he was able to race at all following the accident at Belmont Park at the very outset of the spring campaign, which would have brought him into contact with Kai-Sang. Pillory, Snob II., Whisk-away, Morvich and other good colts of the year, was remarkable. Bunting he had already vanquished during the Maryland campaign, and could read his title clear in so far as that good Brookdale three-year-old was concerned. The kick which the colt received from his stable companion. Southern Cross, struck him full in the face, breaking down the bony structure and fracturing the frontal sinuses. It was thought for a time that he could not live. That lie was nursed back to a position where he could race with something of his former brilliancy is a joint testimonial to the skill of Dr. R. W. McCulIy, who operated on him, and to the patience of trainer Waldron. who was fatihful in following the instructions of the veterinary expert. Many pieces of bone were removed from Lucky Hours head and he raced with an open wound covered by a gauze hood for practically the entire autumn season. While Lucky Hour lost the two great prizes of the year for which he was pointed the Latonia Championship and the Washington Handicap he gave evidence of such quality in both of them that he came out of these races with his reputation for speed and gamc-ness undimmed. BRED BY AUGUST BELMONT. Lucky Hour was bred by Major August Belmont at his Nursery Stud and was sold along with other colts and fillies, including Chatterton, My Play and Missionary, to the Lexington Stable as a yearling. His dam, a sister to the good horse Lucullite, is from Lux Casta, the wear and tear daughter of Donovan, that raced so well in the colors of the late Henry T. Oxnard. As a two-year-old Lucky Hour was not rugged and he came to hand late in the year, starting in only five races, of which he won three, was second once and once unplaced. A dark bay with black points, his shapely head set off by a star, his racy lines attracted the attention of the experts the first time he appeared in public. On that occasion he ran greenly and finished fourth to Ray Jay, June Grass and Snob II. He won his next two starts easily at Empire City. Lucky Hour got his first real test as a two-year-old in the Pimlico Futurity, in which he ran second to Morvich. The colt was hardly ready for a mile test. He outran his opponents, which included Kai-Sang, to whom he was conceding weight, and looked a winner a hundred yards from the finish, only to tire and be beaten by the thoroughly seasoned campaigner and dead fit horse Morvich. No three-year-old was more talked about during the winter than Lucky Hour ; and though he did not grow much he went into the spring campaign a good looking colt of Continued on twelfth lUKe. I : t 0 0 LUCKY HOURS STANDING Continued from first page. fair size, with speed in every line of his rakish make-up. Early in the spring, when Major Robert L-. Geary and Marshall Field were seeking to strengthen their stable, there was some talk of the transfer of Lucky Hour and Missionary by Hourless, for 50,000. That was the figure at which they were held by Edward F. Sims and his partners. Had Lucky Hour escaped injury and been ridden with judgment in all his races he would have been vorth the entire sum asked for the pair. Lucky Hours three-year-old career comprised eleven races, of which he won five and was three times second. He won a purse of five and a half furlongs and defeated Rocket in a sensational race at three-quarters, being cut off and koncked about until his chances seemed worthless. His amazing speed, however, turned defeat into victory, and the Whitney colt lent the performance luster by coming to Belmont Park and defeating the best sprinters for the Toboggan Handicap. That Bunting beat Lucky Hour for the Chesapeake Stakes, at a mile and a sixteenth, was so purely a matter of luck that the public has always conceded the superiority of the Nursery-bred colt at the weights carried that day. Schuttinger got the colt in repeated pockets, lost a stirrup and then failed to win the race by the narrowest of margins. With the Belmont Stakes, Kentucky Derby, Preakness and other rich prizes coming up for decision within a period of three weeks and the colts owners and trainer sanguine of winning at least two of them the news that Lucky Hour had been crippled was received with unfeigned regret by every lover of a good, game thoroughbred. The loss of such a competitor in races like the Belmont Stakes was severely felt. Months of rest, particularly six weeks spent at Saratoga among the pines, brought a much speedier recuperation than anybody had hoped for, and though the wound in his forehead was stilt open the colts general condition was such that he was prepared for his autumn engagements. SPARKLING PERFORMANCE. In his first start at Belmont Park in September Lucky Hour ran a mile in 1 :3G, with 117 pounds up a sparkling performance by a three-year-old at any time. Going to Havre de Grace he won the 0,000 Potomac Handicap, at one and one-sixteenth miles, in 1 :46, carrying 122 pounds to 127 on Bunting, whom ho beat a length and a half. His next effort gave Lucky Hour a secure place among the good horses of the year. It was in the Edge-mere Handicap of 0,000, at a mile and an eighth, over the Aqueduct course, and he defeated two such cracks of the handicap division as Mad Hatter and Sennings Park in 1:50. of which the first mile was run in 1 :37. In this thrilling contest, in which Sennings Park with 120 up was the pacemaker for nearly seven-eighths. Lucky Hour carried 117 pounds and Mad Hatter 126. From the top of the stretch there wasnt a neck between Lucky Hour and Mad Hatter, both running under whip and spur and in winning by a head Lucky Hour gained the encomiums of one of the largest throngs of the year. How Lucky Hour lost the Latonia Championship to Rockminister, by Friar Rock, is history. After running the first mile in 1:37 and the mile and a half in 2:29, he gave way in Uie final strides to the ably ridden Jones representative, on which Garner gave a superb exhibition of horsemanship. It was the consensus of horsemen present that Lucky Hour was the best horse in that race. Bunting, supposed to be invincible, on that day was among the beaten. A week later Lucky Hour was back in Maryland to run in the Washington Handi- cap, for which his impost was 120 pounds. His opponents included Exterminator, the best of the handicap division, with 132 up ; the English crack Paragon IL, 120 pounds; Capt. Alcock, 110 pounds; Paul Jones, 10G, Polly Ann, 103, and Oceanic 101. While Oceanic won, the hero of the race was Lucky Hour, which was beaten only half a length, defeating Paragon II. by two and a half lengths, with Exterminator out of the money. While he won the ,000 Southern Maryland Handicap with top weight, his races in the Edgemere and Washington Handicaps, when he defeated four such sterling old horses as Mad Hatter, Sennings Park. Exterminator and Paragon IL, entitles Lucky Hour to a place among the great three-year-- olds of recent years. That he was last in the Thanksgiving Handicap means nothing to these who witched the colt race this fall. It was simply Nature asserting herself after a series of unprecedented demands upon her reserves. A winters rest may bring back the steel-like quality to those long pliant muscles which drove him so fleetly and smoothly over any sort of a course..
