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SAYS MORELLO GREATER Salvator Believes Him Superior to Eole as a Racer. 1 Summarizes Their Careers and Shows Why He Thinks Futurity AVinncr of 1S92 Entitled to the Honor. By SALVATOR. Some time ago I contributed to Daily Racing Form a sketch entitled, ".Memories of Morello." I observe that it attracted the attention I of n. correspondent of the "Thoroughbred Record," who pays me some pleasant compliments for which my acknowledgements ! but takes me to task for calling the Futurity winner of 1S92 the greatest of the get of Kolus. That title, he contends, rightfully I belongs to Eole. He cites numerous reasons j for this contention, but most particularly the prowess of the son of Eolus and "War Song over long distances and under high weights ; longer distances and higher weights i than Morello ever negotiated. I shall not quarrel with my critic. He is entitled to his opinion, which is a high one of a high-class horse. But I still think Mor-ello a greater runner than Eole, though his greatness was of a different stripe. Here are the two horses careers, in epitome : Horse. Sis. 1st. 2d. 3d. Unp. Won. I j Morello 32 24 3 3 2 .1.V.0.1 Kole f.S 27 . 17 S 10 .i.0ti7.ri0; It will be observed that Morello has the ! j better of it, on paper, in every department. I Holes winning percentage is but 39 plus, i j while Morellos is precisely 75 a vast differ- i I once. It is true that ISole started in more I than twice as many races as Morello GS as against 32 but he raced only two seasons, while Eole raced seven. That of course might I argue Koles superior ruggedness, and this also might readily be conceded. Yet it must I be remembered that Eole never raced at two years, not appearing until he was three. Whereas Morello raced no less than seventeen times at two years, and won no less than fourteen times. The largest number of starts made by Eole in any one season was nineteen, as a three-year-old, and of these he won but eight. It is farther true of Eole that very little use was made of him during several seasons of his turf career. At six years lie raced but twice, at seven years but four times, and at eight years but five times. LOLF. FOALED IX 1S7S. Eole was foaled in 1S7S, Morello in 1S90 twelve years later. During this perioid the scheme of racing in America had been en- : tirely revolutionized. Eole, to my recollec- tion, won the last four-mile race contested 1 over a metropolitan track, the great Long Island Stakes of 1SS1. This event, originally 1 1 at four-mile heats, had at length been re- j ; duced to a dash in deference to the growing opposition to "cruelty to animals." There ! i were only two starters in the 1SS1 renewal, and it was hardly a race. Old Bushwhacker i was Eoles sole opponent; he was a worn-out -race horse and put up a feeble opposition. Eole won in a walk by eight lengths, under 115 pounds, in 7:13Vi, the record for the race 1 being 7:23. by Ferida, and for the distance i at that date. 7:iri,. by Ten Broeck. He 1 raced repeatedly at distances of two miles and upward. By the date of Morellos advent there had been a transformation or, if one prefers, a reform in racing methods. Such races as the Great Long Island Stakes were only mem- ories. Two-year-olds were beginning to i monopolize things, the "big money" in espe- a cial. "We will never know what Morello 1 might have accomplished as a long-distance racer had he flourished ten years or so carli- i or. He seemed able to go as far as he was i asked; he had great strength and courage, . and it is reasonable to believe that had lie not been raced at two, but developed as was i Koh. be would have accomplished marvels t at Kules game. j s I I j i I j ! j I i j i I I I I : 1 1 ; i i 1 i 1 i a 1 i i . i t s On the other hand, we can feel pretty certain that had Eole been ground through the mill seventeen times as a two-year-old he would never have become the grand performer that he gradually ripened into. It is moreover, the terrific ordeal Morello was subjected to as a two-year-old that accounts for his .disappearance from the turf after his three-year-old career. It is significant of his true greatness that he survived this ordeal and raced on to become the greatest three-year-old of the next season as well. As those familiar with the details of his history are aware, Morello was so sick shortly before the Futurity of 1S92 was run that his life was despaired of; the most desperate of chances was taken in getting him ready for and starting him in that event, and his triumph a feat that only a truly marvelous colt could ever have achieved. Great as he was at three, however, it is improbable that he was ever quite. the same after that Futurity race as before it. The real superiority of Morello over Eole, however, lay particularly in this that he was a perfect racing tool, and Eole an imperfect one. Morello was a colt of fine disposition, plastic in his trainers and jockeys hands. Eole, on the contrary, was a tough horse to either train or ride. He was of herculean frame, near hands tall and of titanic brawn and mould- what would nowadays be termed "a whale of a horse." As for temper, he was a "werry bad mi." Not far from a man-eater, in fact. The task of ordering him for the races was a difficult one, because he was not only so hard to control, but ran best when high in flesh ; his enormous frame had to be well clothed with it in order for him to live over the long distances and under the high weights that he carried. This was in strong contrast to the ordinary practice forty years ago; and, especially when racing l:e?ide the two geldings Monitor and Parole, which so often opposed him, he looked gross and almost mountainous. I have not the data at hand, as I write, but as I recall, he was not of the rare horses of his day that raced in blinkers, then shunned as "the rogues badge." Sometimes he felt like run-I ning and sometimes he didnt. And when he didnt well, he didnt. That was all. In con-I sequence he was never a popular horse, de-J spite the many grand performances to his credit. But he was a conspicuous example ; of a horse with "guts" when he was in the mood, there was no stopping him. He gave one the impression that he would have gone through a stone wall, had one been in his path, that was too high to be leaped over. LOLK JUST MISSKD GREATNESS. Eole is one of that class of horses to which !; I referred in Daily Racing Form some time j ago horses that were wonders in their day, but, lacking just the final supreme qualities, j : failed of acquiring that reputation which j j keeps green their memories. I confers that j 1 it had been long since I had thought oft him, until the communication of my critic above referred to brought him once more to : mind. I i What I always think of when Eoles name I is mentioned, however, is not so immediately j i his splendid performances as an episode in ! his career that is a part of the "anecdotage" It of the turf. The owner of Eole, when that i horse was at the neight of his fame, was i an ardent admirer of a celebrated luminary of the stage, a visitant to our shores from 1 across the water. This lady was not only!: of extraordinary beauty after forty years 1 the legend of her loveliness still glows but 1 1 an ardent devotee of the turf. It was among the things which lent piquancy to her per- i i sonality and career that she was also, in 1 1 private life, the wife of a clergyman! That i is, at that period she was. Eater on he J faded out of the picture and was, I believe, t succeeded by a spouse with a title. " ; GREATLY INTERESTED IX EOLE. !, a But, at any rate, this fair lady, Eoles 1 owner being immensely interested in her, re- ; paid the compliment by becoming immensely interested in Eole. And the devoted pair i were often seen together at the races when Eole was down to start as, indeed, also upon i ether occasions. As I recall the incident, it i was one afternoon when they were attend- I ing the races at Fhepshead Bay or was it Jerome I ark? and had been, for one reason 1 or another especially conspicuous, that they 1 were accompanied from the grounds, upon t their exit, by an impromptu procession of a t somewhat ribald character, to the accompani- i i i I 1 1 t t ment of an astounding verbal fusilade. Nor was this all. The metropoltian press served up the incident piping hot next morning, neglecting no possibility of either detail or local color. The cause of this amazing outburst was, be it said, cur ancient friend, Mrs. Grundy. It was to appease her supposed indignation that the assault hud the tirades, the occasion and its aftermath, evolved ! All which will indicate, to the reader of the present day, the fact that "modes and morals" for humankind have changed as much as racing systems, in New York, since forty years ago. It was at this time still a big village, quaintly puritanical in most of its sayings and doings, and with so many more self-appointed censors, and so much more influential, than today, that only a veteran can have any idea of the difference. Such an incident as I havo recalled would be not only impossible, let us say at Belmont Park in 1924, but quite unthinkable. And so "the great world spins forever down the ringing grooves of change,"
