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Here and There j on the Turf The Blighty West. J His Comparative Failure as i a Sire. Hurry Ons Restoration of His Line. 1 Weights for Mondays Stake 1 Race. j . West Australian was one of the greatest horses of British turf history. As the first j winner of the Triple Crown of the Two Thou- 1 sand Guineas, Derby and St. Legcr his fame is bound to endure. So great was the admi- ration he evoked in his days of racing that j he was dubbed "The Mighty West" by the . English patrons of the turf. Yet he was : nearly a failure in the stud. Not entirely, but ! in comparison with his towering fame as a j racer. Oddly enough it is in the United States j that his best line has been preserved. His son, Millington, raced well in this country and, being renamed Australian, became a j highly successful sire and founded one of our now dominant families which, coming j down through Spendthrift, Hastings and Fair ; Play, showed its highest recent development in the magnificent Man o "War. In the meantime a thin line descending from West Australian has existed in England without being prominent or fashionable, although presenting an occasional good race horse. This is the Solon line of West Australian, which a few years back furnished in Hurry On an unbeaten horse. Hurry On raced as the property of Mr. James Buchanan, who is now Lord Woolavington. Hurry On is by Marcovil Toute Suite and as a three-year-old in 191G started in six races and won them all in the style of a high-class race horse. Now, right at the outset of his career as a sire, he has given every indication of becoming a remarkable progenitor of high-lass horses and this year finished second to Lemberg in the English sire list. One of the anomalies of breeding is the way in which the lines of famous sires almost disappear and suddenly have their revival through an unexpected male descendant. Thus it seems now the house of West Australian is to have its greatest fame in England through his lusty male line descendant, Hurry On. Curiously enough a collateral male line seems to be gaining strength and impetus in this country. This comes down from West Australian through Solon, Arbitrator, Kil-warlin and Ogden and finds its most flourishing exemplar in The Finn. This young scion of Ogden has already vindicated the sagacity of John E. Madden in selecting him for a Hamburg Place stallion. In sending such as Kai-Siig, Oceanic, and Zev to the races this year he has said plainly that first place in the American sire list may well be awaiting him in the not distant future, a measure of celebrity his dalidy, Ogden, never attained, although himself a succes in the stud. With the announcement of the weights for the New Years Handicap, there comes new interest in the opening day feature of the Fair Grounds meeting of the Business Mons Racing Association. This is a mile and a sixteenth race with an added value of ,000, and is the first of the rich stakes to be offered during the meeting at the old track. The best horses on hand are engaged and Best Pal has been accorded the place of honor with 126 as his burden. Comic Song, winner of the Christmas Handicap, and a rarely good winter performer, is not far away with 123 as his impost, and Bon Homme is next on the list under 122. Old Tippity Witchct is in j under 119 pounds, and if the track should be muddy he will ba greatly favored. He is an honest little fellow that usually comes to his best form in the winter. Then Maxim ac, i one that raced brilliantly at Bowie, is at the same notch with Radio, when each is required to take up 116 pounds. William A., one that has been showing mixed form, has been handi- j j capped at 115 pounds, and under that weight is required to give Missionary a pound. Cherry ; Tree is abd in at 114, then comes Copper Demon at 111. From those weights the handicap scales down to some of the good three-year-olds under burdens of less than 100 pounds, and it would ssem from the arrangement that the field wiU be both large and representative.
