view raw text
The Stock Farms of Kentucky By W S VOSBURGH V THE WHITNEY AND IDLE HOUR STUDS Will you come out and see A Visit to our horses tomorrow asked askedMr Mr Whitneys JIr Charles IL Berryman who was spending an eve ¬ ning with us Sir Berryman is the manager of Mr II P Whitneys stud besides having a select stud of his own with the celebrated race horse and sire Ballot as his premier Of course AVG assented and the following morning with the amiable Mr Berryman we proceeded to the nursery that Mr Whit ¬ ney has recently established Mr Whitneys immense holdings including over one hundred brood marcs exceeded the accommodation of his Brookdale Farm in New Jersey and compelled him to find an outlet Broomstick AVhisk Broom II and Johrcn are kept at Brookdale Avith the greater portion of the mares but some fifty are quartered at the Kentucky farm with seven of the stallions The farm joins that of Mr AVidener hence we Avere soon there and Mr Haines the stud master proceeded to show us the stallions Our party consisted of the Messrs Widener Mr Tom Welsh and the Avriter Mr Howard Lewis having gone to Lexing ¬ ton to see his old friend Garry Watts WattsIt It was a rare sight Two win Winners of ncrs of tne Futurity two of the the Classics Dwrycr Stakes and one each of the Belmont Suburban and Hopeful Dis Done the Frenchbred son of Sardanapalc Avas the first shown A fine big horse of power and speed but Avhose racing career Avas short Dominant the hero of the Saratoga season of 15 followed His racing after his twoyearold season added little to his early glory yet he has shaped into a Aery nice horse and being a combination of the two speediest strains of the day Ben Brush and Domino he should be the horse to sire winners of the events for twoyearolds Pennant came out of the stable gaily his head up and his flag flying He won the Futurity of 14 in such style as to leave no doubt of his speed but he proved he could stay a few years later and as the sire of another Futurity AVinner in Bunting that alone is sufficient to insure him a place among the popular sires of the day dayPeter Peter Pan followed and despite Peter Pan ns eighteen years is the pick of the stallions We shall never for forgct his Brighton Handicap of 1907 Avhen half a mile from the finish he Avas the last of the field but came through like a shot winning one of the best races in our recollec ¬ tion As the sire of Pennant Prudery Trys ter Black Toney and Kxodus he has taken the front rank Thunderer the full brother to Kegret as we are reminded has claims reater than relationship for he not only won the Futurity of 1915 but was an un ¬ beaten colt at two Yet during the following year when the candidates for the great three yearold races Avere canvassed racing men shook their heads and asked if the Broom ¬ stickHamburg blood Avas the kind to bring a colt home over the one and threeeighths miles Bclmont course It was however not until as a fiveyearold at Jamaca that he dissipated the idea that he could not stay by leading a crack field with top weight but it was his last for he was led away a broken down horse horseBallot Ballot came next He be Good Old Ballot longs to Mr Berryman and time has laid its hand lightly on the old war horse and winner of over 150000 in stakes including the Suburban Great llepublic and Century twice His Suburban of 1903 with 127 pounds defeating King James 9S pounds and Fair Play 111 pounds Avas a great performance In ISO he Avas in England Avinning the Select Stakes beating Valens Back to America in 1910 he was third for the Suburban Avith top weight 129 pounds He was the best stayer of all Voters sons and in the stud he has sired more serviceable stout campaigning horses than any sire AVC can recall recallChicle Chicle sniffed the keer A Cominq Sire morning air as he Avas led forth but has mellowed and does not indulge in the capers he did as a colt He is not as tall as some of Spear ¬ mints sons but has more quality than most of the get of the Derby AVinner of 1905 In 1921 at Saratoga we remarked to Mr Whitney the need of staying blood bloodI I know but AVhcre can AVC get it asked Mr Whitney WhitneyDid Did you ever try to purchase Buchan BuchanXo Xo you cant get him Astor changed his mind wont sell sellXothing Xothing more was said until last summer Avhcn Mr Whitney suddenly remarked Do you remember we were talking about the need of a stayer stayerPerfectly Perfectly PerfectlyWell Well I believe Ive got the horse I Avas looking for Chicle ChicleYou You probably have Knchantment in mind we returned he looks like a stayer or I should say is built like stayers often are Icngthy and longmuscled longmuscledThats Thats it replied Mr Whitney and if Enchantment isnt a stayer I shall be Aery much mistaken The colts by Chicle have that greater length you speak about and Im beginning to think Ive found the horse I needed neededChicles Chicles winning the seveneighths Cham ¬ pagne Stakes at two and the Dwyer Stakes at three indicated staying powers Avhich his sire certainly had Mr AVhitney had another Spearmint horse in Johren an evident stayer Chicles son Enchanment seemed to us about the best colt of the year and his other son Cherry Pie Avas not many points behind him All Gold was the last of the All Gold stallions shown In England they haAe a prejudice against chest ¬ nut coated sons of Persimmon of vhich All Gold is one but then so was Xinfandel All Gold is a fine hcrse highly tried a AVinner in England but performed badly here He has bred some good performers and is himself of the same breeding on his dams side as Fair Play AVith such a pedigree he is an at ¬ tractive proposition but Avhether a horse will succeed as a sire is a matter in Avhich it Is never safe to balance probabilities AVe know the what but not the Avhy AvhyThere There must be OAer forty The Whitney mares in Mr AVhitneys pad Mares pocks but AVC Avere denied a aclose close inspection of them due to their perversity in galloping off Avhenever approached They are mostly young mares Tanya and Miss Hamburg being the only old ones A Avild rabbit started up before us and some of the party declared it Avas a good omen but after Aainly trying to get a close view of the mares and they each time charging aAvay in full gallop like a battalion of caalry we abandoned the chase and sought the field where the weanlings Avere gatliercd gatliercdThe The weanlings number about aboutThe The Weanlingsthirty of which eighteen are arecolts colts and are a Avellgrown Avellgrownlot lot Ten are by Peter Pan only one Continued on eleventh page STOCK FARMS OF KENTUCKY Continued from third page filly among them Thunderer and Chicle each have six Pennant five Johren has two Unlike their mothers they are a so ¬ ciable lot walking over you and biting at your coat Among them is a very fine colt by Peter Pan from Tanya by Meddler Tan ¬ ya was one of the best race mares of her age winner of the Belmont Stakes There is also a rattling fine colt by Pennant from Enchanting by St Victrlx a chestnut with considerable white about him A brown filly marked with a star by Chicle from Rowes Bud by Broomstick is a real beauty and so is the brown filly by Chicle from Flying Witch by Broomstick marked with a blaze and both hind pasterns white The Chicle Wendy filly is promising Were quite fond of our Broomstick mares said Mr Haines Most of these are Broomstick mares theyre young and are good milkers milkersMr Mr Whitneys success as a breeder has equaled that as a turfman Unless it be Mr Madden no other breeder has in recent years produced more winners and many of them winners of important events It might be said no other breeder breeds so many horses but it must be remembered tliat his ex ¬ penses are enormous and compel him to seek every fair means to make his racing pay ex ¬ penses which it is doubtful if they do Mr Ilowe his trainer told us last season that he was often ashamed to render his monthly account so great were the expenses incurred It is or should he a matter of congratula ¬ tion that we have an owner willing to assume such expense and we should hail his success with pleasure His brother and his sister inlaw are also coming rapidly to the fore Barbary Bush a colt now in the Greentree Stable was not only the finest twoyearold last year but the finest colt of that age we ever saw a giant in stature and a wonder in development and unless appearances arc deceptive the other branch or tlie Whitney family has in this colt the weapon with which to turn the blue and brown flank when he sports the pink and black of Greentree GreentreeIf If you want to see a real The Idle Hour show place and sporting es Stud tablishment go and sec Idle IdleHour Hour Farm we were told The fame of Idle Hour had long been familiar to us through the racing of its colts under the white and green of Mr K R Bradley It as established by Mr Bradley in 1900 and is located on the Frankfort pike a few miles west of Lexington Originally known as the Ashgrove Farm it was long the prop ¬ erty of the late Colonel W L Simmons and here it was that the trotting sire George Wilkes made a name second to none as a she of trotters trottersWhile While prepared to sco a finely finelyAn An Olympian ordered farm it quite exceeded exceededAbode Abode a expectations as we passed passedthrough through the massive stone gate ¬ way and drove along the road leading to the buildings Snow white fences girdle the fields and paddocks dotted with stately trees affording ample shelter for the young stock in warm weather The residence a baronial mansion of the colonial type is flanked by attractive flower beds with giant trees loom ¬ ing up in cloudcapped majesty Beyond are the brood mares paddocks affording a sylvan scene sceneAs As if some congregation of the olves To sport by summer moons had shaped it itfor for themselves themselvesIt It is at once an Olympian abode and be ¬ speaks the fine taste of Mr Bradley al ¬ though we cannot think he shows the same taste in the nomenclature of his horses With becoming modesty he has in his stud book given us a picture of his farm and given it the title that distance lends en ¬ chantment to the view In that too we differ with him for while viewed from a distance it is highly attractive it is even more so at close range The training track ought to be a joy to any horse tried over it a superb stretch of ground through a grove of trees that relieve the monotony of vision so general in such places A pretty little chapel testifies to its owners Christian ¬ ity and the huge watertower from which waves the Stars and Stripes does the same for his Americanism Yet Mr Bradley finds scant time to enjoy this delightful estate which is under the management of Mr C Barry Shannon a most efficient young man whose heart is centered in his duties and who received us with the greatest courtesy North Star III winner of North Star III the Middle Park Plate at Newmarket in 191C was shown first of the sires The stable has a great deal of pride in this horse and perhaps not without reason He is a red chestnut with a large star sired by Sunstar from Angelic by St Angelo son of Galopin granddam by Hampton Mr Macomber pur ¬ chased him in England of Mr J B Joel and brought him to America intending to win the Kentucky Derby but he broke down before the race and Mr Bradley purchased him at Saratoga the same season He is a smooth good looking horse with a handsome head rather heavy neck fair shoulders and stands high on the leg but he has a good barrel and deep back ribs His first crop of colts coltsj j inclined to be leggy but latterly this is less noticeable Blossom Time is the best of his get that have shown but Betty Beall and Be ¬ lieve Me Boys are good ones while Oil Man has been a frequent winner winnerBlack Black Toney which shares Black ToneytMe honors with North Star III is a whole colored brown foaled 1011 by Peter Pan from Belgravia by Ben Brush and thus combines the two of our greatest speed lines Domino and Ben Brush He breeds rather more toward the Peter 1an side of his pedigree if we observe his colts closely He has a fine spread of quarters and does not cut off behind the croup so much as North Star III does Already he has hasmade made his mark in the stud as the sire of Miss Jemima and Black Servant ServantThe The yearlings are a creditable Mr BradleyVot ilr Shannon had them pa Yearlinqs raded for our inspection and treated us to a learned and in ¬ teresting history of each from the day it was foaled Among them we noticed a chestnut by North Star III from Killanna imp Killeaugh grandson of Kendal which from his manner we inferred he liked rather more than the others There is also a brown by McKinley the French sire from Fribble by Sundridge a chestnut by Polymelian from Dreamy dam of War Cloud by Persim ¬ mon and a bay filly by Broomstick from Bellisario by Hippodrome granddam Bitu rica by Hamburg It will be seen that while he has two stallions of established reputa ¬ tion Mr Bradley does not hesitate to send to outside sires when he considers he has a mare more suitable to them than to his own That was the policy of Lord Falmouth who while he always had stallions at the Merewith Stud bred to many others and his success as a breeder has assumed the dignity of a proverb proverbMr Mr Bradleys buildings are Fine Buildings Buildingsone one of the principal features at Idle Hour ot nis rm The stallion stables the yearlings stables the racing stables are the most complete of their kind to be found but the great granary and feed barn is the most impressive of all This mammoth structure three stories high is lighted by fourteen windows on the ground floor and seven on the second where he could store enough feed to keep Uie stock for a year or mere The oatbin is prob ¬ ably the largest ever built at least no one has ever seen a larger one oneNot Not only in racing stock but in sheep and cattle Idle Hour is well equipped the herd of Jerseys being one of the finest imagi ¬ nable The dairy barn can house thirtytwo rows The supply of milk may be understood when Mr Shannon states that last season they often gave as much as twentyfive gal ¬ lons per day to the charitable institutions in the vicinity The bull in residence is a great prize winner but we fear he is not a very popular animal for when Mr Shan ¬ non half jocularly asked one of his colored assistants if he thought he could bring the bull out just to show the gentlemen the man pondered for a few minutes and shook i his head to the great merriment of the party
