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« ! s — . Fancies About Fillies YO TAMBIEN AND OTHERS H By SALVATOR $, i j I , i I I ! • i . i i , . | • • ; W. S. Vosburgh so seldom favors us, nowa-days_ with one of his disquisitions upon turf topics, that when he does so we all read his remarks with more than ordinary appreciation. He is too busy a man, it is to be supposed, to find the time for frequent literary efforts. Beside, he can look back. upon a long career, of which the major portion was devoted to such endeavors — to such purpose that his reward has been the distin-quished position which he has for years past held among the officials of the turf. What an amazing store of experiences and observation he has at his disposal. And, be it said, how wisely and discreetly he makes use of it. 1 know of no other similar example either here or abroad. There be those who from time to time devote those public prints to which they have access to the pastime of criticising Mr. Vos-burghs work as handicapper. It would, of course, be impossible for him to escape criticism in a role that so especially invites it — and perhaps the real wonder is that his apportionments excite so little adverse comment. The handicapper, like the umpire, though of the wisdom of Solomon, the guile-lessness of Lincoln and the vigilance of Becoq, cannot, alas, please everybody. Kven in his most earnest moments he is liable to excite hard feelings in some emotional, misguided breast. But the well-balanced recognize that his capacity in his field, is such that there is only one reasonable thing to do in the premises. To wit — -thank heaven we have him and hope that time will continue to touch him as lightly as he has to date. Having made my amende in advance, I must therefore claim the indulgence due the untutored when I venture to say that in his essay upon "Colts and Fillies," recently contributed to Daily Kacing Form, he has omitted from his "handicap" for so we may justly call his list of fillies which he dubs "Since the Civil war the only great racing females we can recall that were able to race with the colts and defeat them" a name which, it seems to me, of right belongs there, along with the ones he chose for inclusion —his choices being : Buthless, 1S64 : Sultana, 1973 ; Ferida, 1876 ; Thora, 1878 ; Miss Woodford. 1880: Modesty, 1881; Wanda, 1882; Dewdrop. 18S3: Firenze, 1S84 ; Yorkville Belle, 18S!t; Imp. 1894; Beldame, 1902; Maskette, 1!»06 ; Begret, 1912 and Milkmaid, 1916. The dates are of the years in which these great members of the "female sect" were foaled. RACED IX WEST. The name I have missed from Mr. Vos-burghs "group of noble dames" is that of Yo Tambien, the chestnut daughter of Joe Hooker and old Marian, that was foaled in 1SS9. the same year which also brought forth Yorkville Belle. Perhaps Mr. Vosburgh omitted her because he himself saw prae- ticallally nothing of her until in her afterglow-she raced but once in the east as a three-year-old. on which occasion she was cut down on the back stretch, in the Bridge Handicap, at Sheepshead Bay, had to be pulled up. and was found to be so badly injured she had to be stricken out of the rest of her stake engagements for the season. While, as a two-year-old, she never raced east of Chicago. Bred in California, by Theodore Winters. Yo Tambien was engaged as a two-year-old in very few stake events — why, seems a puzzle, considering the fact that from the time she was broken she showed hers-lf to be a thing, as it were, with wings. After racing her a few times in California, Mr. Winters brought her across the mountains and she was campaigned, chiefly in purse events, at Chicago. St. Ixmis and other middle western points, where she won six of eleven starts. Three of her defeats, due to being left at the post, were not true bills. Tin re were some very smart two-year-olds in the west that season and her class among them may be inferred by the fact that in her last appearance she took up 125 pounds at a mile and won without effort from a field of six. giving that good colt Calindo thirteen pounds, exclusive of sex allowance. SMITH STABLES "MEAL TICKET." How often do two-year-olds nowadays win at a mile under 125 pounds? Fair Star was only asked to take up 119 in the Pimlico Futurity last fall. Sallys Alley won it under 116 in 1922 and no male winner of the event has carried to exceed 122. In the Walden Handicap of 1918 Milkmaid was unable to carry 122 pounds and succumbed to War Pennant, which carried 127 — he was certainly a good colt that day. When Wise Counsellor won the Queen City Handicap in 192:! under 199 pounds the performance made him a sensation. In the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes the weights are fixed at 1-2 and 119 pounds for the respective sexes. And so on. Karly in the season of her three-year-old form. Yo Tambien was sold to Chris Smith, whose Kendall stable was then a top-liner. And henceforth she became its mainstay and the "meal ticket" of the entire Smith entour-! age. As Theodore Winters has long been dead, the conundrum, why did he not engage Yo Tambien in the American Derby of 1892. remains unanswerable. In it Carlsbad, Zaldivar and ic-ro finished as named: Azra. that years Kentucky Derby winner, finishing fourth : and Newton, that y ars LatOOla Pel ay winner, fifth in a field of ten. But shortly after she met Carlsbad i W ishington Park in tie- I »rexel Stakes an 1 .von in a canter under 122 pounds; Carlsbad, 127. a poor fourth. Previous to both these even.-, however. there had b.-eii run at Carfield I v k an event then of absorbing interest. This »ai ine Garfield Park Per ajr, a race famuli Id worth i.iJO0. making it the richest .n.a .- ear-old I event of that season, with the sol ■ exception | of the Realization and the LoriUarl Stakes. both won by Tammany, the form- i being worth about $::::.immi mid the latter :•! out 1.-o mi. It was run under the worst ] . ssible conditions, the day being one of the stormiest Chicago saw that summer, with rain falling in torrents and the track a qonguitr*. The contest, therefore, was a severe ;-d. al for all the cemt -status, as the weights « .• • I igh and the class abnormally so. Azra and Newton, the Kentucky and La- tonia Bcrby winners, both starttd; Edward Corrigan sent three to the post, headed by Huron, thi- colt that had split His Highlit ss and Yorkville Helle in the Futurity the pre-i vious fall ; Wadsworth. which previously that season had won five stake races in s.:ci -e.-sii ii without defeat at Lexington, Louisville, Latonia and St. Louns ; Blitzen, whose fame as a campaigner will never die — he that season, in his three-year-old form, won twenty-three races ; these, together w ith the filly Calindo. Wightman. Notus. Loudoun and Felerno, made up the field of twelve. Despite the terrible weather, an immense , crowd was present and the betting was equal in volume. The Corrigan trio were favored at even money ; Wadsworth was at 5 and Yo Tambien at 7 to 1. The filly was asked to take up no less than 127 pounds, giving Wadsworth five pounds actual weight and Huron and Galindo the same ; Azra, also carrying 127, and Lew Weir, 129 — this colt had just previously won the Chicago Derby at Hawthorne and other tracks. Almost at the fall of the flag Yo Tambien took the lead and the farther they went the more apparent it became that she could never b? caught. Neither the weight nor the track appeared to bother her in the slightest and. while Wadsworth made a desperate effort at the end he was beaten a half length, while she had not been asked for all she had. This race must rank as one of the most impressive exhibitions ever given in this country by a three-year-old filly of the ability to meet and defeat the picked members of the male sex. There were three D.-oy winners behind her, and, in view of the high weight carried and the deep mud through which she ran, Yo Tambiens performance was indeed superb. She went out in front and made the pace herself, from flag to flag — something that only a truly first class racer dares attempt. COMPARED WITH MODESTY. When we add to this that shortly after she made a show of Carlsbad, that years Vmerican Derby winner, it removes the last doubt of her ability to more than hold her own with the opposite sex in classic events. Had she been eligible to the American Derby, there can be no logical doubt of her having also won it — the fact that she was not has left the name of Modesty to descend n history as the only female on its honor-roll. Mr. Vosburgh includes Modsety on his list of Americas great mares, but I think few men who saw the two mares perform, when at their best, but believed Yo Tambien distinctly the better of the pair. The careers of the daughter of Joe Hooker and the daughter of War Dance, in their entirety, bear out this estimate. Yo Tambien won forty-four races in seventy-three starts, while Modesty won but thirty-five out of eighty-two. Mr. Vosburgh. in his essay, hopes that constructive racing legislators of the distant future may enact rules tending to equalize the two sexes and thinks "it would not be too much if females were granted, prior to September, an allowance of seven pounds, or even ten pounds, when three years old and upward." Had such conditions l»een in vogue in the era of Yo Tambien, one can only wonder what kind of a show she would have made of the Derby winners she smashed up so remorselessly when conditions were the reverse of those which our official handicapper proposes. ENIGMA OF THE SEXES. As to why modern fillies are so inferior to colts — that is a problem upon which I have often cogitated; and even, in time past, commented upon in the pages of this paper. Tis a truly shrieking anachrononism in this, the Age of Jazz, when the speed of feminity has increased so incredibly as to leave the mere males of the species, like the panting Time of the poet, toiling after ft in vain — while as for robustness and campaigning power, do we not see the dames and damsels of today daring zero weather and the utmost might of Boreas clothed only in half a yard of chiffon and a pair of pumps V While the stronger ? sex apparel themselves in the heaviest woolens that can be imported, protect their pedals with brogans and even then, were it not for the ministrations of the bootlegger, that friends of perishing humanity, would succumb to the rigors of the climate. Yes, the problem of lifting the fillies to a parity with less fillies is indeed a troubulous one. Edith Cavell, Black Maria and Princess Doreen have made valiant attempts -but little more. What we need is a Feminist Movement in both racing and breeding. Perhaps then our constructive legislators will find it unnecsesary to extend any allowances to females, but be glad, as are most male tipeds, nowadays, to ask for a few | themselves to even up to the score.
