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-- - Flyers and Plodders I BY SALTATOB . . : I "Writers who discuss the twin questions oi speed and staying power in the thoroughbred race horse make a point of stressing the alleged fact that horses of extreme speed I. e., "flyers" are of a different type and in many ways the antipodes of those with great stamina i. e., "stayers." They endeavor to establish, or at least they labor the point, that they differ in conformation, in action and in the totality of their characters, being in these regards sharply contrasted. , In this attempt they have, as a rule, fallen Into the habit of denominating the stayer a "plodder" and following this up with disparaging criticisms based upon this epithet. Which illustrates the tendency of modern times to prefer a verbalism to a fact, and phrases to realities. Let us take a case in pont. With Exterminator out of training, there is no horse on the American turf today, when he feels like running kindly and sticking to his job which unfortunately he cannot always be depended upon to do that can outstay Mad Hatter. In proof of this we may point to various of his performances. He has twice wort the Jockey Club Gold Cup, at Belmont Park; in 1921 running the two miles in 3:22, with 125 pounds up, and in 1922, with the same weight, in 3:22 the record for the distance being the 3:21 of Exterminator, with 128 pounds up. He ran Exterminator to a head in the Saratoga Cup at a mile and three-quarters last season. He won the Bowie Handicap, at a mile and a half, in 2:31, with 120 pounds. And so on. Yet Mad Hatter is also one of the most brilliant milers of the day, havng won the Metropolitan Handicap twice in 1921, with 127 pounds, in 1 :37 ; and again in 1922, with 129 pounds," in 1 :36. Not only that this present season he has won the Toboggan Handicap, with 128 pounds up, runnng the three-quarters in 1:10, equaling the Belmont Park track record for the distance. MAD HATTER A FLYER. Is Mad Hatter not a flyer"? Assuredly he is. Is he not also a stayer? Just as assuredly, yes. Is he a "plodder"? Most emphatically, no! "Where, then, does the "flyer" vs. "plodder" argument come in? And what is a "plodder, anyhow? A "plodder," unless I have read those who write of them so authoritatively amiss, is a horse without extreme, or "flying" speed; that can, however, maintain a plodding rate for a long distance and thus win events over such distances. Old-time racers, it is contended, were all "plodders," and owing to the fact that most races nowadays are run over short distances they would today not even be selling platers could not pay their way in "the bushes" or at the "merry-go-rounds." Is this true? Or were not. these horses rather of the type of Mad Hatter horses possessed of the speed of "flyers" but able to "go on." That is to say, sprinters with "a difference able to run short distances at sprinting rates, but, owing to their superior gamencss and stamina, able also to win over the longest routes. It is difficult to arrive at the exact truth of this proposition, because of the lack of sprinting races in the "good old days." But if we will read the accounts of many of the old-time long-distance races we will discover that while the contestants "plodded" a good part of the way the race was decided by a sprint at some point in it, preferably the finish. It must be recollected that the sprinter is not at all a modern type. Certainly he is not here in America, which had many famous quarter horses before it had any four-mile heat heroes. Breathless, flying speed has always been one of the American thoroughbreds assets. Not long ago, in some comments upon the characteristics of the old-time race horses, I alluded to the recorded fact that Robin Grey, sire of Lady Grey, the third dam of Lexington, while a four-mile race horse, was on one occasion matched against a famous quarter horse and, although not considered in the best of con-, dition at the time, beat him. Robin Grey was foaled as far back as 1805. TYPES MINGLE. Lexington was considered not only the best stayer of his day, as evidenced by his four-mile heat performance which so long remained the best record he was also considered the fastest horse, for a burst of speed, that up to that time America had seen. Many stories and legends have been current of his qualities in this regard. To stigmatize such a horse as a "plodder" is not an exercise of intelligent criticism. The reverse was the truth. St. Simon could sprint five-e:ghths so fast as to "lose" his competitors. In the Goodwood Cup, at two miles and a half, he beat the second horse, Ossian, by twenty lengths, "with the third starter, Friday, "beaten almost out of sight." He had just previously won the Ascot Gold Cup, also at two miles and a half. Rayon dOr was so puissant a distance runner that after he had won the Prix du Cadran, two miles and five-eighths, and the Priz Rainbow, three miles and an eighth, at Paris, nothing would start against him at Newmarket for the Post Stakes, two miles, or the Prince of "Wales Stakes, two miles and a quarter. Yet so great was the pure speed of Rayon dOr that he also won the Great Challenge Stakes, at three-quarters, beating .Placida, one of the fastest mares in England ; Americas great gelding, Parole ; Lolly-pop, a notable "flyer," and others. Longfellow flourished just about twenty years subsequently to Lexington. He was considered, and ranks in history as, one of the premier distance horses "of his era. Yet when he and Kingfisher locked horns in the Saratoga Cup they ran the first mile in 1 :40 a rate of speed up to that time never approached in this country in races at just that distance indeed it was almost twenty years later before Stuyvesant, the first horse to run a mile race in 1 :40 in this country, performed that feat. This shows "what terrific speed Longfellow possessed and Kingfisher as well. Longfellow, it might be mentioned, never in his life started in a race of less than a mile, and these races were at mile heats in a dash a mile and a half was th shortest distance he was ever stripped for. Ten Broeck also never ran at any distance less than a mile, and very seldonx at that distance. When he was turned loose - against time tQ see how fast he. could run a mile he did it in 1 ":39 3-4, which stood for thirteen years unbeaten. - It is manifest that had .Longfellow, Kingfisher, Ten Broeck and other horses of that era , been trained to race short distances at high rates of speed they would have been just as champion-like as "flyers" as they were over cup courses. Olitipa ran a half mile in 1S74 in 47 3-4 seconds, which remained unbeaten for fifteen years, until, in 1889, Geraldine, over a straight course, ran a half mile in 46 seconds. Olitipa was long considered a speed marvel and her half cited as the most brilliant exhibition of "flying" speed ever witnessed. Yet Olitipa was able successfully, as a three-year-old, not only to win at a mile and a half, but a mile and three-quarters, in the Ladies and Hunter Stakes over the trying old Jerome Park course. Similar instances might be cited, practically ad infinitum. Instructive examples, in especial, could be quoted from the careers of such past champions in the Antipodes as Carbine and latter-day ones as Eurythmic, illustrating their possession of both flying speed and long-distance capacity. There still remains to be considered a third class of race horse, intermediate between the "flyer" and the "plodder." This is the "rater." He or she does not possess quite the terrific burst of speed of the "flyer," but demonstrates the capacity to sustain a high rate of speed over long distances. A standard example of this type was Firenze. She and Salvator were stable companions, and among her contemporaries were Hanover and Tenny. At sprinting, or so-called "middle" distances, the latter pair could always beat her. If the route lengthened to or beyond a mile and a half look out for her! But, as a matter of fact, Firenze possessea great speed. As a" two-year-old 1886 she ran seven furlongs in 1:28, one of the fastest races at that distance ever up to that time credited to a runner of that age. Matt Byrnes stated in an interview that he once sprinted her a furlong in her work to see how fast she could run one and she did it in 11 seconds certainly great speed. But Firenze, like many racers which demonstrated a capacity to "go on," was never trained for" sprint races and a special effort made to develop her "flying" qualities. ENDOWMENTS DIFFER. Horses differ much in their natural endowments. Many thoroughbreds can run as fast and as far as two-year-olds, and carry as much weight, as ever afterward. Others, while sensational at two, train on and increase their capacities at three and four. Still others, moderate in their early careers, develop amazing speed later on and surprise everybody, including their trainers, by what they do. Summing everything up, it may be declared with as much confidence as we ever dare assume in the endeavor to analyze the race horse and his attributes, that no mere "plodder" ever attained turf greatness. Favored by some special circumstance or condition, one may have, from time to time, pulled off a notable race in a more or less; fluky way but not more than that. To become great on the turf speed, flying speed, is practically a necessity, and has been from! a period antedating the births of all turf-1 men now living. The nearest approach to it with which a horse can "get by" and yet not have it, in its full sense, is when one is a first-rate rater, like Firenze. Exterminator leans toward this type, but it must be re- B membered that ho is also a good enough flyer to have won the Harford Handicap, at six furlongs, under 132 pounds, from Billy Kelly, one of the most brilliant sprinters of recent seasons. In watching Exterminator I have been struck with his great similarity, as a racing machine, to Advance Guard, the great stayer of twenty years ago, whose superior has not since been seen until Exterminators advent. His action is almost precisely similar, so are his ways of racing. Their long, raking, space -devouring stride prevented them from getting away from the barrier like a sprinter, but when fully extended and settled to their work their speed rate became tremendous. Nature is always making reserves, even when dowering her most favored products with high qualities and it is seldom that a horse can scamper away from the barrier at breathless speed and yet be so game and courageous and otherwise mentally and physically qualified as to be "also a supreme long-distance- performer. Probably no horse, unless it was St. Simon, was ever more highly endowed in this double character than was Norfolk. Since 1865 he has held the record for three-mile heats 5:27 and 5:29 and doubtless lie will ever hold it. Yet so intense was Norfolks speed that when he started in the Jersey Derby at Paterson, as a three-year-old, in 1864, he had the race won before going half a mile it was a mile and a half and after that just galloped. And among his opponents were such horses , as Kentucky never beaten except in that one race, Tipperary, etc., etc. And Norfolk was Lexingtons most successful son at the stud. In America his blood has almost been allowed to die out completely, but in England the reigning two-year-old sensation, Mumtaz Mahal, a wonderful "flyer," has a close cross of it. Norfolk was the exact reverse of the "plodder" in all ways. In temperament he was much like St. Simon an excitable, impetuous horse, difficult to control or to rate. There was not a dull particle in his make-up and. to quote the quaint phrase of an old-fashioned writer, he was a "most intense composition." DUAL ROLES FOR CHAMPIONS. The greatest of race horses are both flyers and stayers. And in ths respect they resemble greatness of all kinds. If one sizes up the men that have been greatest in big things we will also find that they possessed the power to turn off little ones that nobody else could equal. The dramas of Shakespeare are considered the greatest sustained achievement in the literature of the modern, as distinguished from the ancient, world and scat-ered through them are little songs and lyrics, often but a few lines long, that have never been surpassed or equaled. Similar things are true of practically all the major poets, in all languages. With prose writers it is the same. Victor Hugo, Balzac, Tolstoi, Tour- j guenev, Dickens, Thackeray, Hardy, Meredith, Hawthorne, Henry James and on down to Kipling, Hewlett, Conrad and others of today not only are their full-length novels the worlds masterpieces their short stories, sketches and contes. tossed off as by-products I of larger labors, are of similar estate. In I the arts it is still the same the great paint- I Continued on fifteenth pace. I FLYERS AND PLODDERS Continued from fourteenth page. ers and sculptors of the Renaissance not only excelled in the majesty of their conceptions, but could beat the "little masters" at their own game. .The greatest operatic and orchestral composers have given the world brief compositions that have never been surpassed. Even when it comes to mere "virtuosity" as contrasted with the creative faculty, it is always the same story. .The greatest singers and players turn at will from the heaviest to the lightest works in the repertoire and outrival all competition. There remains to be recorded, however, the fact that in the race horse the rule seldom works both ways. A thoroughbred that has been noted as a stayer may, after repeated supreme efforts and continuous campaigning have taken their toll, no longer able to go so far as before, "evolute" into a wonderful sprinter. This is because all the time he was really a flyer. But the sprinter almost never can bo developed into a stayer. The descent may be negotiated from the greater to the less, from the high to the low. But the -ascent from the less to the greater not twice in a million times can it be made successfully. The case of Roseben, once more, is typical, and will always remain so.
