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J. E. WIDENERS ELMENDORF FARM Twelve Hundred and Forty-Seven Acres of the Finest Blue Grass Land in Kentucky Birthplace of Hamburg and Peace Chance LEXINGTON, Ky., April 3. Elmendorf i Farm, 1,247 of the finest blue grass acres in : the state of Kentucky, has been the property of that sportsman and benefactor of : the American turf, Joseph E. Widener, since 1921. The Philadelphian that year acquired the 231 acres, which formed the nucleus of : the present show place and thoroughbred nursery. The tract gradually was increased and improved to its present importance in the scheme of things, bloodstock breeding. The land is a portion of the 3,000 acres once owned by the late John E. Madden, who in turn had purchased the ground from the James Ben Ali Haggin estate. The 3,000 acres which were the property of the master of Hamburg. Place have been split up among Elmendorf Farm, Dixiana, Greentree and C. V. Whitney farms. Of the four farms, none is more handsomely appointed than that presided over by the Belmont-Hialeah chieftain. Some of his Kentucky neighbors have jokingly remarked that one hardly can see the Widener thoroughbreds residing there for the shrubs and trees. According to Miss Daysie Proctor, who ranks with Miss Elizabeth Daingerfield as one of the lands most erudite horsewomen, Elmendorf first was owned by the Swigerts. A member of Colonel Swigerts family married an Elmendorf, thus the name of this farm. The property then passed into the hands, respectively, of the Enrights, Hag-gins, Maddens, and so to J. E. Widener. HAMBURG AND PEACE CHANCE. It is the birthplace of many famous horses. Perhaps the first of these was Hamburg, a bad-kneed fellow but a justly celebrated race horse and the sire of such as Artful,. Dreamer, Borrow, Hamburg Belle and Lady Hamburg II., dam of Chicle and Dis Done. Peace Chance, winner of the 1934 Belmont Stakes, probably deserves rank as the finest horse bred at Elmendorf by its present owner. Elmendorf fronts on the Paris Pike and is directly across that road from the farms of C. V. Whitney, Mrs. Payne Whitney Greentree and J. H. "Jock" Whitney. Its entrance, high-stone pillars surrounded by trees and shrubs in wild but eye-filling disarray, is one of the most imposing in the region. Just inside this gate is the "cottage" containing the offices of Miss Proctor, and there begin the miles of concrete roads winding through the farm. Only a short distance beyond the entrance is the first of the two stud barns. Each is an ornate stone structure, containing two large, light and roomy boxes with the usual runway through the center of the buildings. Chance Shot, sire of Chance Sun, Peace Chance and Haste, occupying the box in the first of these barns. Each has a large paddock adjoining the "barn" so that he may come and go at will in good weather. In the stud barn on the hill behind Wideners pretentious Blue Grass residence one of the most famous and historically significant such mansions in the state is quartered Sickle. MISS PROCTOR IN CHARGE. This home was erected by J. B. Haggin, one of the most affluent men of his time. It is occupied by Widener and his family only a few weeks during each year. The Philadelphian, according to Miss Proctor, comes to Elmendorf with the intention of remaining only two or three days, and each time finds it increasingly difficult to leave after extending his stay to two or three times the intended duration. It is his aim some day to be able to take up permanent residence there. Miss Proctor, parenthetically, has .been head of Elmendorf activities since June 13, 1930. Before that she was in charge of J. E. Maddens Hamburg Place for nearly twenty years. Miss Proctor reared five winners of the Madden Derby during the time she was in the Madden employ. These were Old Rosebud, Paul Jones, Sir Barton, Zev and Flying Ebony. Miss Proctor was unable to arrive at a decision concerning the best horses she reared in her long experience as head of a Blue Grass breeding farm, but , accorded honorable mention to Grey Lag, Rancocass handicap star. At least 1,000 acres of Elmendorf now are , . devoted to paddocks for the horses, accord-. ing to Miss Procters estimate. Cattle are . grazed in these fields, broken up into pad-, docks by runways, hedges and fences, to , keep down the weeds. It is necessary to I maintain more acreage than one has horses , ! to keep the ground from becoming "horse poor." The seed on some of these Lexington farms is exchanged each two or three years with that of other breeders to assist in keeping the grass strong and health-giving. ; In other words, a good stand of blue grass is "bred." YOUNG BROOD MARES. 1 Colonel Bradley and J. E. Madden often t , exchanged grass seed for this purpose prior , r to the latters death in 1929. The care of the , . grass on these farms is a science in itself. , Elmendorf doesnt exchange seed, but some- times sells quantities of it to persons whose grass stand may be bettered by its quality. L J. E. Widener is proud of his band of fifty j brood mares. Most of the group are home-. " breds and are young matrons of the finest ; : blood lines. The lot was increased to its present proportions by the importation of j eight from France last November. A few i seasons ago he acquired the entire yearling P output of F. Wallis Armstrongs Jersey Stud ! and thus obtained some promising young : daughters of John P. Grier. Miss Proctor is of the opinion that the ; r most renowned of the comparatively few thoroughly tried and proven mares now at I Elmendorf is Ormonda, a daughter of Super- - man, that produced the grand sprinter Os-; - mand, unsexed son of Sweeper, that won twenty-three of his thirty-seven starts and I i : : : , , , ! ; t , , " ; P : ; I - - I a total of 57,975. Without recourse to the records, he was the biggest money gleaner to date owned by Joseph E. Widener. Ormonda, which bears a marked resemblance to her son as to physique, now is nineteen. Thats old as brood mares go but her son in the juvenile band of thirteen which trainer Pete Coyne now has quartered at the training barn, appears the pick of the string. This fellow is Brevity and is by either Sickle or Chance Shot. Undoubtedly, he is a son of the former, for he Tsears a close resemblance to that stallion. Peace, an eight-year-old daughter of the expatriated Stefan the Great and the good mare, Memories n., by Rabelais Wallflower II., by Meddler, is best known of the young matrons at Elmendorf. She gained this distinction through the notable efforts in last years racing of the colt Peace Chance, home-bred son of Chance Shot and that mare. La Bayonette, Serenity, Carnation and Phalara are other mares worthy of mention. Sundina, a young Sun Briar mare, is represented in the" two-year-old band by Good Chance, an unsexed brown son of Chance Shot. Sun Briar mares appear to hold a nick for Chance Shot, which horse got Chance Sun from one of his daughters. Widener is pardonably proud of these young mares. Three stallions at present are standing at Elmendorf. They are Chance Shot, Sickle and Haste. Chance Shot and Haste are home-breds. Just a short time prior to the death of Fair Play, the finest horse that ever was domiciled at Elmendorf, J. E. Widener acquired that stallion and all others of the August Belmont stock, running them through a dispersal sale. He bid in Fair Play, at the age of twenty, in the sere and yellow as stallions go, for 00,000. Chance Shot is easily the best horse Widener has owned by that progenitor, whose life-like bronze statue adorns a hill at Elmendorf marking his last resting place. He died in January. 1929. CHANCE SHOT RESEMBLES SIRE. "Fair Play was the most smoothly-turnea thoroughbred Ive ever seen," said Edgar McDaniel, stud groom for J. E. Widener since 1925 and caretaker of Fair Play. Chance Shot, in the opinion of McDaniel, is one of -the finest animals the sire of Man o War ever got. "He resembles Fair Play very closely, excepting that hes bay and his daddy was chestnut," stated McDaniel. Chance Shot, a high-strung horse in training but a colt good enough to win a Belmont and other important races, is all McDaniel claims for him, physically. His head isnt quite as- fine as was Fair Plays, but he hasnt the extreme legging of most of that horses trible a thing in his favor. Chance Shot is a stallion the most circumspect judge of horseflesh would find difficult to fault. He is particularly well off as to bone, having the usual flinty underpinning of the Fair Plays, which enabled them, in many cases, to race at ages far beyond the scope of most sires issue. Display and Mad Hatter are particularly good examples. Chance Shot is so smoothly turned and well-balanced that he does not look, at first glance, to be nearly so large and heavy as the tape and scales would show him. A man would travel many miles through the Blue Grass trying to find a nicer type of thoroughbred stallion. Peace Chance and Chance Sun say Chance Shot will prove a worthy rival for Man o War and others of Fair Plays sons as a sire. Chance Shot ranked second on the list of leading sires in 1934, only Sir Gallahad III. topping him. In point of first money won, Chance Shot is the leader. Chance Shot had out but two crops, giving him representation at the races of but twenty-one performers, as against fifty-five for Sir Gallahad III. Hes made an excellent beginning. SICKLE ON SMALL SIDE. Sickle, the next stallion shown, does not impress as favorably as does Chance Shot. It has been said that visitors should never be shown both horses, for Sickle, which is a well-made little horse and of wonderfully well-bred English stock, does not compare with Chance Shot. Sickle is on the small side. Probably he was about fifteen and one-, -half hands high in training. Sprinting was his game, but he was horse enough to win the Prince of Wales Stakes and to finish third in the Two Thousand Guineas in his native England. He is a son of the famous Phalaros and the equally famous brood mares, Selene, dam also of Hyperion, Phara-, mond II. and other smart performers. His slight stature is inherited from his dam. Because of her, owner Widener, who paid 00,000 to Lord Derby for Sickle, believes this horses daughters will prove excellent brood mares. They should quicken the slow-maturing Chance Shot. Sickle is a smoothly-turned fellow, a bit straight in the back and light of bone. When inspected, the son of Phalaros was not look- ing his best bodily, due to having worried away some flesh during the last month. Like many of his issue, Sickle is inclined to be "hot under the collar." But that he is a fine sire, one of the best young progenitors now serving in this country, there can be no question. In 1934, he had out the stakes winners Jabot, Hindu Queen and Little Lie. His brother, Pharamond II., was represented by High Glee. Pharamond II., incidentally, is standing at nearby Beaumont Farm, owned by Hal Price Headley. HASTE RANGY TYPE. Haste is a horse of more range than either Chance Shot or Sickle. He does not possess as much evident quality as either. Haste was a most unfortunate horse all during his career. He was unable to get to the train-i ing stable, due to illness, until late in his two-year-old form, but had time to prove one of the best stakes winners that age in a year that brought out Pompey, Bubbiing Over, Canter, Chance Play, Macaw and other cracks. At three he won the Fairmount Derby from Bagenbaggage and Boot to Boot in 2:03 for the mile and a quarter and in the Withers whipped Crusader and Espino. Haste, a son of Maintenant and Miss Mala-prop, was represented in 1934 competition by the stakes winners Go Quick and Hasty Glance. Both are fillies and his fillies as a rule are better than his colts. Haste is unfortunate in that he is serving on the same farm with Sickle and Chance Shot. He has gotten numerous stakes winners, but his crops, never have included so many good ones as the first several by the younger Chance Shot and Sickle. Haste represents the Herod male line, Chance Shot that of. Matchem and Sickle that of Eclipse. The first named, according to his trainer, the late "Ham" Keene, could whip any horse in the country a quarter from the barrier. He had money that said as much. The bay horse could fly, as far as he went and a mile and a quarter is far enough in this country. The training barn at Elmendorf will stand comparison with any in America. It was constructed at a cost of 8,500; includes a covered tanbark galloping ring of a fifth of a mile; forty stalls, each equipped with constantly running water, and an English courtyard in the center. There is no rafter exposed to catch dust in the stalls, all of which are of smooth hardwood. Each stall is equipped with an electric light. There is an overhang of the roof of this circular structure before the stalls, to protect them from the. weather. The approach to this stable is dotted with shrubbery and trees, in keeping with the rest of the landscaping about the farm. On the road leading to the training stable and only a city block distant is trainer Coynes "cottage," in itself a rather costly winter home for the Widener conditioners. J. E. Widener has been actively interested in the thoroughbred sport, first through steeplechase racing, for more than two decades. When he began to think of breeding horses, more than fifteen years ago, his thoroughbreds were quartered at his Elkins Park estate, near Philadelphia. Since moving to Kentucky in 1921, he has developed one of the finest thoroughbred breeding grounds in this land.
