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Nelson Dunstan REFLECTIONS Bv Nelson Dunstan Champions Produce Many Debates Weak 1943 ThreeYearOld Crop Group of 193031Had Real Class Famous Quartet Competed in 1886 NEW YORK N Y June 10 10Champions Champions cause debates and in late weeks we have had many concerning Count Fleet in different phases of his career His career conformation extreme speed and other points have all been widely discussed But a reader brings in a new angle by questioning Do you not believe that Count Fleet and Occupation are a pair of best twoyearolds to come up in many a season To our mind they are two of the best and one of the interesting races in the offing will be the Classic at Washington Park when they meet for the first time as threeyearolds We cannot recall one season when a horse appeared to have the championship of his division as Occupation did only to have Count Fleet come along and snatch the honors in their last two meetings Occupation won four futurities but this year it has been Count Fleet who has been the sensation regardless of division How Occupation will iare with him in the months to come is something only the races themselves will decide Anything we might say would be mere guesswork just as it would be guesswork for any one to say how Count Fleet is going to fare when he meets older horses this fall fallTo To Count Fleet and Occupation can be added Ocean Wave and Devils Thumb Beyond these four however we believe this is one of the weakest crops of threeyearolds to come up within our recollection As a group they certainly do not com ¬ pare with that mighty band who first came to the races in 1930 To name two who would be comparable to Count Fleet and Occupation were Equipoise and Twenty Grand But to that pair must be added Jamestown Mate Vanderpool Don Leon Novelist Polydorus Epithet Up Ladder and still other good ones Not within our day was there a group to compare with that one The competition did not end with their twoyear old careers as is the case this season where just two or three stand head and shoulders over the others They went on as threeyearolds to fight even harder than they had as juveniles Twenty Grand won the Derby with Sweep All second find Mate third Mate won the Preakness with Twenty Grand second and Ladder third Twenty Grand then won the Belmont while Mate came back to win the Classic with Twenty Grand third It was a dingdong season with one winning and then the other DUe to an injury Equipoise started but three times but came back in the following year to win his first seven starts Mighty as the 1930 group was veterans will insist that the four greatest horses ever to come up in one season were Hanover Kingston Tremont and Firenzi who were twoyearolds in 1886 Every one of them was a champion and when their careers were over all were entitled to listing when great American horses are discussed Kingston was one of the sturdiest racers of all time and he is still credited with the largest number of wins of any horse in this country having been first in 89 second in 34 and third in 11 of his 138 starts While we are discussing careers as race horses and not sires it can be added that Kingston was Americas premier sire in 1900 and again in 1910 Trernqnt is still considered by many authorities to be the greatest twoyearold ever produced in this country He started in and won 13 consecutive races every one of them a stake event So great was his superiority that not even Kingston when he endeavored to measure strides could offer com ¬ petition and Tremont romped away and won pulled up by eight lengths Firenzi was one of the greatest mares ever produced in this country In an era of titans she won no less than 48 races and 112586 In the extent of his influence however the deep and lasting impression that he made upon the thoroughbred breed of this country Hanover towers high over them all and stands today as he will for all time as one of the true equine immortals Hanover foaled at Runnymede in the spring of 1884 was sent to the auctions as a yearling or rather was sold at the farm where its annual yearling sales were in those days held The two farm stallions were imported Billet and Hindoo As Billet was the sire of Miss Woodford and the Dwyer brothers of Brooklyn whose stable was then the most power ¬ ful in America had owned and raced both Miss Woodford and Hindoo they sent a representative to the sale to buy largely of the get of both horses The Dwyer brothers bought the son of Hindoo Bourbon Belle for 1350 and in the doing secured one of the greatest bargains in turf history As in the case of Hanover he started but three times as a juvenile winning all of them He was given this easy season due to the fact that his stablemate Tremont was winning all of the twoyearold stake events At three however he was given the same merciless campaign that were accorded all members of the Dwyer string In all he started 50 times to win 32 and finish second in 14 it often being said that had he not been injured then nerved he would never have lost a race raceAny Any one of this quartet would have been a standout in any season but it is even more remarkable when we realize that they all came out together But just as the year of 1930 had a worthy secondary group so did these earlier years for they boasted such stars as King Fox Belvidere Laggard Oriflame Stockton C H Todd Miss Ford Terra Cotta Libretto Jim Gore Huntress Wary Strideaway Montrose Lady Primrose and still others Probably in all the years since then and despite the great expansion of breeding that has taken place during the last halfcentury no season has developed three colts and a mare who accomplished so much Kingston was a leading sire but Hanover was one of the truly great sires as well as racers of all time Going to stud in 1891 he led theAmerican sire list for the first time in 1895 the second season his get raced He remained Americas premier sire for the next three years and his youngsters were among the most eagerly sought of the day His death in December 1898 came as a direct result of the nerving he had undergone as a fouryearold
