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The Stock Farms of Kentucky By W S VOSBURGH I THE ELMENDORF STUD Come with me when I go to Kentucky in the autumn said Mr J E Widener WidenerIt It was in the stewards stand during the Saratoga meeting We nad been chattiiu about the breeding of the English brood mares he had purchased Ve assfintefs but little more was said on the subject until one day during the October meeting at Yonkers when Mr Widener remarked remarkedYoure Youre going with us to Kentucky of course courseIts Its an outside chance odds about 3 to 2 that I cannot we replied repliedTheres Theres no racing after this meeting to prevent you youThere There are other reasons reasonsYoure Youre weighed out your numbers up to late to scratch Anyone like you so keen on horses and breeding problems will lind a lot to interest you Come along alongSome Some weeks later came a telegram Please meet Tom Welsh Pennsylvania Sta ¬ tion Xew York Sunday morning 915 He has full directions directionsEvidently Evidently we were expected to ride to orders and following thsni we met Tr n Welsh journeyed to Xorth Philadelphia where Mr Wideners car the LynnewooM was attached to our train and we were off through beautiful Lancaster then Altoona Johnstown then Pittsburgh and retiring for the night awoke the next morning in Cin ¬ cinnati crossed the Ohio River ail were in Lexington by noon noonThe The Blue Grass region of The Blue Grass Kentucky has long been beenRegion Region tne center of race horse horsebreeding breeding The merits of its soil and vegetation have been exploited by industrious propaganda until some people have been led to speak of it as the only place in the world where race horses should be bred The blue grass section is composed for the greater part by the counties of Fay ette Wood ford and Bourbon Fayette fair the pastures Bourbon yields yieldsAnd And verdant AVoodford with its flowery floweryfields fields fieldsThere There stallions graze and laboring oxen toil toilBold Bold are the men and generous the soil soilThat That a great portion of the soil is gen ¬ erous is understood but not all of it There are parts of it called Brighties quite un ¬ productive a sort of puttylike soil of which for prudential reasons we seldom hear When came the general suspension of rac ¬ ing in 1910 and the value of horses fell the farmers looked to tobacco planting and it proved very profitable Tobacco is a terrible strain on soil but the Kentuckians say the land can be reclaimed within a few years yearsIn In one respect the country around Lex ¬ ington resembles Ireland for its absentee landlords A great number of the farms are owned by men who do not reside there Many of them do not see their farms more than once or twice a year The population is cosmopolitan but the old families are mostly of Scottish extraction the names Wallace Ferguson McClelland etc are so frequent as to suggest that belief They are descended probably from that great emi ¬ gration that followed the battle of Culloden where the clans met disaster following the fortunes of bonnie Prince Charlie and sought refuge in America rather than live under the reign of the House of Hanover A considerable portion of the population get their living by the copulation of cattle as Touchstone says in the play the natural consequence of the concentration of live stock furnishing employment for men and capital capitalLexington Lexington is a delightful little littleLexington Lexington cy and as we drove through throughit it awakened thoughts of the great men whose eloquence once rang through its streets Henry Clay John J j Continued on eighth page STOCK FARMS OF KENTUCKY Continued from first pace Crittenden Richard M Johnson John C Breckcnridge James B Beck John G Car ¬ lisle The roads arc excellent and we were soon at Mr Widcners Elmendorf Farm The residence is a substantial and highlyattrac ¬ tive stone structure the stone quarried on the place and was erected in 1903 by the late Mr J B Haggin It is an esthetic abode exquisitely appointed and from the rear a fine view of the hills of Kentucky may be had hadThe The Elmendorf Farm was Elmendorf founded by the late Mr Milton H Sanford of New York in 1S71 when that gentlemans dark blue jacket was famous among racing colors Fillies from the training stable accumulated so fast that he was driven into breeding At first he called it the Preakness Stud after his private training ground back of Paterson N J but later the North Elkhorn His mares were mostly daughters of L exington liis stallions Baywood and King Lear were also by Lexington hence he purchased Glen elg of Mr Belmont Later Virgil entered the stud followed in 1S73 by Monarchist The first crop of yearlings were sold in 1S74 and the stud became famous Iater Mr Daniel Swigert purchased the farm and stock and renamed the farm Elmendorf after a branch of his family It was here Glenelg held court It was here Virgil lived and died and his remains are buried Here the re 1 nownod Hindoo was born Salvntor first saw the light in these paodocks as did Hamburg Monitor Ferida Firenzi Vagrant Vigil etc j The great English horse Prince Charlie by j Blair Athol the Prince of the T Y C of whom was written Hurrah for bonnie Charlie The bravest son of Blair Whereer he goes his wavering foes Melt smokelike into air came across the ocean to Elmendorf in 1SS4 where he sired Salvator and Senorita I ended his days and is buried Mr J B Hag j gin of California who had found the long trips across the continent tiresome and taken j up his residence in New York purchased Elmendorf added to it and built upon it He j brought the cream of the Rancho del Paso Stud from California and installed it here and since his death Mr Widener has ac j quired the property of which Mr George Terry is manager j As we descended the A Belgravian Trio hill in the rear of the residence three brood broodmares mares a gray a brown and a bay were browsing They were the trio of importa tions recently arrived hence in quarantine Reine des Peches is a sevenyearold mare Mr Widener purchased at the Newmarket December sales of 1921 when she brought COOO guineas She is by Roi Herode sire of The Tetrarch from Perfect Peach by Persimmon Perfect Peach is the dam of Stefan the Great the Middle Park Plate winner She is a mare of line size and bone both fore and hind quarters iron gray But her middle piece a light gray In a few years she probably will be pure white In 1921 she foaled a colt by Pommern and was bred last year to Gay Crusader De maris is a beautiful brown eight years old by Sunstar from Lesbia Middle Park Plate winner 1906 by St Frusquin from Glare As Glare was the dam of Flare One Thous ¬ and Guineas winner 190G and of Lady Jjightfoot the dam of Prince Palatine we can truly exclaim with Mr Squeers Heres richness particularly as it traces to Foot light by Crtmornp and the Paraffin Rouge Rose family which produced Achievement Lord Lyon Bend Or Ladas etc Damaris was purchased at the July sales 1921 for 4800 guineas Her daughter Marissa is a winner and she has a Swynford colt in Mr AVideners stable in France Dark Sapphire is a dark bay nine years old by Dark Ron ¬ ald from Samphire dam of Wrack by Isin ¬ glass granddam Chelandry by Goldfinch great granddam Illuminata by Rosicrucian This is another of the Rouge Rose Paraffin family which has been the bulwark of Lord Roseberys racing fortunes Dark Sapphire was purchased at the December sales of 19I for 5000 guineas by Mr Tom Welsh who as a graduate of the Universities of Chantilly and Maisons Laffitte is a lluent French scholar reminds us as we leave the paddock that Reine des Peches means Queen of the Peaches PeachesSweeper Sweeper was snugly snuglyThe The Winner of the ensconced in a roomy roomyTwo Two Thousand nox where he could couldGuineas Guineas listen indifferent to the thewhistling whistling of the chill chillwinds winds without aid as he was led forth his coat gleaming like gold testified to its warmth The winner of the Two Thousand Guineas and Dei by favorite of 1912 is a beautiful golden chestnut with both hind pasterns white Lacking the size of Cudgel or Whisk Broon II he is yet the most bloodlike of Broomsticks sons His dam Ravello II the mother of two splendid colts in Frank Gill and Sam Jackson was by Sir Hugo the Derby winner of 92 a son of Wis ¬ dom while her dam Unco Guid was by Uncas son of Stockwell Sweeper has a handsome head great length from gullet to chest welllaid shoulders is a trifle high at the withers has great power in quarters and gaskins tail set rather high He is rather hollowbacked but not so much so as his ancestor Glencoe of whom he has seven crosses all through Pocahontas sons Stockwell and Rataplan After seing Sweep ¬ er we know from where Golden Broom derives his color and caused such a sensation in the Saratoga sales ring in 1918 when Mrs Jef ¬ fords disdaining all advice bid him up to 15000 and the following spring told the handicapper Dont you handicap my horse horseon on his looks if you do hell always carry top weight Mrs Duryea from whom Mr Widener obtained Sweeper dotes on him anil the day we were there Mr Widener received a telegram from her saying Remember me to Sweeper and give him a lump of sugar Maintenant the young youngA A Gentleman of stallion a chestnut France 1913 bred in France by byMr Mr Widener is also lo ¬ cated at Elmendorf He is a son cf Main tenon from the Americanbred mare Martlia Gorman by Sir Dixon granddam Sallie Mc ¬ Clelland by Hindoo and tracing to Iroquois dam Maggie B B This is a grand young horse He won the only race in which lie started We remember it well It was at Aqueduct and before the race it was known all over that he had been very highly tried It was his first time out and he ran very green said his trainer after the race If he can run green like that what will he do when he doesnt run green we asked Beat nearly anybodys horse answered Mr Lewis who knew of his trials But it was not to be for later when we asked why he had not started they said He hadnt been doing well We knew what that meant and lie never again carried the colors In his race he ran all over the track but his speed was so great he beat his field with the greatest ease He will be a useful horse to Mr Widener for while no doubt Sweeper will have nearly all the mares there may be some which will not breed well to him It often happens so Years ago Picayune was so celebrated a mare that in volume 2 of the American Stud Book its compiler added to her registry This was one of the best brood mares in America My old neighbor Mr Charles Wheatly often told me that such was the fame of Picayune that it was said she would throw a race horse if bred to a stud monkey She bred famous winners to Margrave Glen ¬ coe Yorkshire Lecompte Sarpedon Wag ¬ ner and Boston but bred to Lexington she always produced a failure and yet Lexing ¬ ton was a far greater sire than the other horses Maintenant should be an excellent outcrcss as his sire is a son of Le Sagittaire he by Le Sancy son of Atlantic by Thor manby the line that produced The Tetrarch the pur sang as becomes A Gentleman of France according to Mr Weymans novel From Sweepers box to toThe The Elmendorf he brood mares paddocks Matrons s but a step and we were weresoon soon with the Elmendorf matrons Rose Pcmpon Martha Gorman and Charity Lass are in a separate paddock far down the hill but the next paddock shows plenty of old faces reminiscent of the days of silk and satin Memories the little brown daughter of Rabelais recalls a stirring finish at Aqueduct with Stitch in Time as she pricks her ear at our intrusion Gold Tassel another old favorite in the days when it was numbers up lingers near the rail Sans Tache the dam of Purity ambles off and joins Black Brocade in a preliminary can ¬ ter through the field La Bayonette the Frenchbred daughter of Vcrwood which lias given hostages to fortune for the Elmen ¬ dorf jacket in her big Hourless weanling in yonder paddock raises her sweet head and gallops off in a hurry when some one asks Tom Welsh to speak French to her herHock Hock Merry a sister sisterAmonq Amonq the Brood to Man o Wars dam damMares Mares llas done her bit in infoaling foaling a splendid colt coltby by Fair Play and the hopes of the stable are high at the possibilities of a brother in blood to the Glen Riddle hero and future triumphs to the red and white stripes oola the dam of Pickwick like Mr Pini passes by as if offended by some remark about old Pickwicks ringbones Cous Cous joins her where they find a bit cf grass to their liking Mrs Malaprop is as her namesake would say as headstrong as an allegator on the banks of the Nile and resists all efforts to approach her while Wingold and Louvois are chumming together at the foot of the hill with their backs to the north wind that sweeps over the fields The weanlings at Elmen The Weanlings dorf number seventeen It is remarkable how docile and yet how aggressively familiar weanlings are after leaving their mothers who are usually resentful of attention The youngsters crowded around us nibbled at our buttons and walked on our toes following us wher ¬ ever we went They wont be so fond of us this time next year when we saddle them observed Mr Tom Welsh Two colts by Hourless sons of La Bayonette and Duchess Lace were particularly aggressive The La Bayonette colt is the largest of the entire lot a sturdy big black the Duchess Lace is a brown There is also a chestnut by Hourless Gold Tassel and a filly by the same sire from Black Brocade Fair Play has three representatives the pick being a chestnut colt from Rock Merry a chestnut filly from Sans Tache and a bay filly from i Love Blink There is a chestnut by North Star 1L from Zoola a Lemberg Rose Pom pon two Wracks a Sweep a Black Toney I a Danger Rock a Horron and an Olambala 1 It was quite dark and The Reception growing very cold as we re j Room paired to Mr AVideners rcsi rcsii i dcnce glad to seek the genial warmth of the log fire blazing on the hearth and the ample repast the master of Elmen dorf had provided What cared we for the cold weather without when as we adjourned i to the reception room the log fire snapped I and crackled throwing out a warmth that re ¬ laxed the muscles and invited that feeling of content that follows Witli mementos of the post and paddock on every hand there was I the inspiration for horse talk Mr Her rings portrait of Mendicant looked down up ¬ on us from the far end of the room her neck I arched her ears back and recalled her sale i as a yearling when she and Queen Mary I were in the same lot one destined to win the Oaks of 1C and foal Beadsman the other to foal a Derby winner in Blink Bonny as well as Bonnie Scotland Balrownie Broom it law and Haricot West Australian the Derby winner of 53 is in a corner by the door in full gallop with Frank Butler up all nose and side whiskers Naturalist has a place in the hall and French racing pictures abound aboundThe The racing library is ex The Library tensive while the collection of photographs of horses and men at Sheepshead Bay Morris Park Jerome I Belmont Gravesend and Saratoga taken by the late Mr Mcmincnt fill seven large j scrapbooks recalling many familiar scenes A player piano furnished delightful music between hc conversation And the conver ¬ sation Reminiscent naturally Mr Howard Lewis waxed eloquent over the deeds of El Cuchillo Caligny Relluf Skibbereen and other cracks between the flags Mr Wide ¬ ner described the last race for the Grand Prix de Paris Mr Welsh paid tribute to Naturalist and how I won the Futurity with Ormondale OrmondaleSome Some one mentioned a rumor that Jack loyner had tried a Trompe le Morte year ¬ ling a reeker at Belmont Park whereat eeryone looked at Mr George but his face only presented an inscrutable immobil ¬ ity perhaps he did not hear it There was horse talk aplenty Which was the two yearold of the year Goshawk No Enchantment Will Grey Lag stand train ¬ ing What will be top weight for the Suburban How about Sallys Alley Oh Messengers the colt youll have to beat Prince Palatines reserved as a pri ¬ vate stallion Cleopatras going to Brown Prince Is Kumnier going to ride again for Cosden come to us as we sit by the lire But it is now bedtime and as they say in the play bills at the theater the cur ¬ tain was lowered to indicate the passing of i a few hours but as we retired Mr George Widener remaiKou You and I will drive over to Pans in the morning and isit Simms and Hancocks places
