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- : Buys Breeding Farm and Mares To Give Horse Chance in Stud Lee O. Cotner, His First t Colorbearer, Was Pet Of Robert W. Collins LEXINGTON, Ky., May 23. Lee O. Cotner, who died recently at Robert W. Collins Elmhurst Farm at the age of twenty, was the horse who brought Collins into the thoroughbred sport. Collins was a successful oil man, knowing nothing at all about a horse, when he came to Lexington in the spring of 1922 to have dinner with friends. Another guest was Miss Elisabeth Daingerfield. Soon the talk turned to thoroughbreds, always a popular topic at dinner parties in the Blue Grass. The oil man was invited to the Daingerfield farm. Miss Daingerfield, long one of the leading horsewomen of the world, showed Collins every thoroughbred at her Haylands Farm. The last to be shown was the stallion, High Time. At that time there was nothing great about High Time. His first crop of foals, embracing only Sarazen and Time Exposure, were yearlings. One of the few who had confidence in High Time as a sire was Miss Daingerfield. But the chestnut stal- , lion was soon to gain another admirer in Collins. Before he left Haylands, he told Miss Daingerfield, "Some time Id like to buy a colt by High Time." There were not many colts by High Time. Since hardly anyone believed in him, he had served very few mares. In the fall of that year Miss Daingerfield heard of a High Time colt for sale and immediately put Collins in touch with his owner. Lee O. Cotner, who liyed in Indiana near New Albany, had experienced financial reverses. He offered for sale the brood mare Precious Pearl and her bay colt weanling, by High Time. The colt already had been named for his breeder. Collins bought the mare and colt. Refused Large Offers When placed in training, Lee O. Cotner developed tremendous speed. So fast, was he that Collins refused 0,000 for him as a juvenile and again rejected 0,000 for him as a three-year-old. Mishap after mishap blighted his promising, career, but he won eleven races and 3,935. Collins retired Lee O. Cotner in the fall of 1926. He wanted to give the colt he loved so much a chance at stud. He bought the well-located 135-acre Elmhurst Farm on Winchester Pike, across the road from John E. Maddens Hamburg Place, and he also bought a number of brood mares. One of the mares was Water Willow. The first mare mated with Lee O. Cotner was Water Willow. The mating resulted in the speedy Don Leon. It was he who cut out most of the pace in the 1930 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes won by Twenty Grand Equipoise was second in the record time of 1:36 for the mile. Don Leon won the Idle Hour Stakes, Cincin-natti Trophy, Chicago Juvenile and Queen City Handicaps, his earnings being 1,665. Collins made good money from the purchase of Precious Pearl and her colt Lee O. Cotner. The noted matron produced two other High Time colts, both full brothers of Lee O. Cotner. Collins sold Hieover as a yearling to Robert Sterling Clark for 0,000 and Harry Hieover as a weanling the same year to the same sportsman for 5,000. Son Takes Sires Place Lee O. Cotner died in his paddock at Elmhurst Farm. He leaves behind a son, Don Leon, to succeed him at stud, and several daughters. Water Willow, whom Collins purchased especially for mating with Lee O. Cotner, had but two foals, Sweeping Willow and Don Leon. Shortly after buying Water Willow she produced a Sweep On filly named Sweeping Willow. The next year she produced Don Leon. Sweeping Willow has played quite a part in the success of Collins as a breeder, owner and trainer. John E. Madden offered Collins 0,000 for her when she was a two-year-old, but the retired oil man refused it, saying: "I want her for a brood mare." And a fine brood mare she has been. It was Sweeping Willow who produced for Collins three fine racers by Lee O. Cotner. The best is Sweet Willow, one of the top sprinters in the country today. The first foal of Sweeping Willow was the Lee O. Cotner colt Willow Wood. The bay colt won eight races as a juvenile, and in one of his winning races he equaled the track record for five furlongs at Omaha. The second foal, Willow Bud, also had a lot of class. She was second to Goldie F., beaten a neck, in the Betsy Ross S.takes at Suffolk Downs in track record time, and third a few days later in another stake. Because she bled in both races, Collins retired her. Now she is one of the prized brood mares at Elmhurst. Willow Plume, a colt, was the next foal, but he amounted to little although a winner. In 1937, came the queen of current sprinters, Sweet Willow.
