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CARE FREES ODD RECORD Suffers First Defeat in Nineteen Starts Over the Hamilton Track. Press dispatches carried the other day the statement that Care Free had met defeat on the Hamilton Ont. track for the first time in nineteen starts at that particular course. This record is one of the most unique possessed by any horse on the turf, and it serves to recall the fact that this eleven-year-old geldings career is, in one or two respects, one of the most remarkable of modern times. In his nine and a half years of racing, Care Free has won sixty-six races, and has been unplaced eighty-one times, but in his last four years, up to 1929, he won forty-nine races and was unplaced only thirty-five times. He won only three races in his first three years of racing, but in his sixth year on the turf he won a total of twenty-one races and was unplaced only five times. That was in piL5. when he was, of course, seven years old. While that was the apex of his winning career, his success continued at a remarkable trend, for a plater, through the next two j ears. In 1926 he won eleven races and was unplaced only nine times, and in 1927 he won ten races and was out of the money in only nine. In 1023, for the first time in four years, he was an also-ran more times than he won, but even as he began to decline he still was good enough to win seven races, finish second in five and third in three out of a total of twenty-seven starts. Even though his phenomenal luck on the Hamilton track has been broken, it is apparent that Care Frees usefulness will continue at least another season, for so far this year he has not been unplaced. He has won two races, finished second in one and third in two in a total of five stars. Care Free is one of the turfs eccentrics. Almost throughout his career he has raced for Mrs. A. K. Alexandra, and legend has it that he will do his best for none other. Several years ago he was taken out of a claiming race by another owner. His behavior at the post in his next start was such that the steward announced that his entry would be refused in future races at that track. Another transaction brought him back to the Alexandra stable and, straightway, the plater resumed his good behavior and he has been in the same barn ever since. It was a most unusual tribute to the plater that he was made an odds-on favorite for his first start at Hamilton this week, and that such surprise was manifested when he finished no better than third. Canada has been his favorite racing ground, but he has won on many tracks in this country — in Maryland, New York and on the winter courses. His record, by years, follows : Starts. Won. 2nd. 3rd. Unp. 1920 10 0 2 1 7 1J121 10 1 4 0 11 ;9J2 22 2 4 5 11 102.5 20 8 S 2 7 i:t_ 4 21 4 3 4 10 PUT, 38 2t 7 5 5 MM 28 11 4 4 9 USf 25 10 1 5 » MM 27 7 | 3 12 1929 5 2 1 2 0 Total 10 yrs.212 66 34 31 81 . a —
