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t , ;i nJHHl I JUDGES STAND L By Charles Hatton 27 P. G. Stakes-Winning Mares at Coldstream Hewitt Relates Story of Pilates Purchase Faultless Dam Believed in Foal to Bull Lea Two Foals at Drymon Farm Already Winners LEXINGTON, Ky., May 23. Dale Shaffer was among the first of the market breeders here to go in for "class in the dam," and we learn from Charley Kenney that he now has 14 stakes winners among the 51 mares at at his his Coldstream Coldstream Stud Stud here. here. These These are: are: At At t , ;i at at his his Coldstream Coldstream Stud Stud here. here. These These are: are: At At Top, Evening Tide, Farmerette, Log, Maid of Arches, Medid, Navigating, Nectarine, Rose Eternal, Spiral Pass, Sweet Willow, Breezy Louise and Gold Princess. The percentage is one of .27 and the ratio is about the same as that at Calumet, where 17 of the 64 broodmares are stakes winners, to make a comparison that isnt odious. A thing which tends to lower the average at a good many studs is the retirement of fillies that could not win in good company, but are daughters or or sisters sisters to to stakes stakes mares. mares. Discriminating Discriminating or or sisters sisters to to stakes stakes mares. mares. Discriminating Discriminating nJHHl breeders usually discard these if they fail to come up to the studs standards after a trial as producers. For instance, John Hertz has a policy of giving each prospect three chances. Abe Hewitt is quite a stickler for class-in-the-dam and strong families, and eight of his 28 mares won stakes. He believes that in a broad sense, stakes winners are the most desirable broodmare prospects and the most successful, but he says, "It has got to be remembered that the class of competition varies over the country, so that one who cant win allowance races in one area might become a stakes winner in another." For instance, there is Eight Thirtys dam, who was much too busy chasing Top Flight to win a stake. There is at hand a list of Hewitts mares which affords an interesting insight into the sort he thinks worthwhile prospects, even though they never won stakes, and he dislikes "excuse" horses. Among three who "placed in stakes" is Gallant Knights sister, Knights Gal. He says it intrigued him to hear her condemned as "a mare who would run the first six furlongs in 1:10 and a fraction and then stop badly," and he bought her on the spot. Burgoo Miss and Snarkling did not win stakes, but broke track records, and Chalara broke down beating a stakes winner by six lengths. Five of his mares never raced at all, but three are out of Miss Patience, Nimba and Regret, and one of the others is a Blandford mare who is the dam of two winners and is a half-sister to four stakes winners. This isnt the same thing as a combination of proven class and breeding, which is 100 per cent the best method, but these mares are not longshots. Hewitt doesnt suppose that breeding horses is a science, quite, and likes to tell the story of how he bought Pilate to prove it. "I was sitting on the porch at Audley, talking with B. B. Jones, and he was recalling how he struck oil," Hewitt says. It seems that while everyone else was running about Oklahoma trying to find it with a lot of complicated gadgets, he was driving a team along a road one day when suddenly he had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that there was oil in the ground all around him. He was unable to induce any of the big oil companies to gamble on the behavior of his stomach, but finally managed to wangle the equipment a piece at a time and drilled a whole field of fabulous gushers. Jones went on to tell me, "You know I had the same feeling in the pit of my stomach when Pilate was led into the ring at the Coe sale and I bought him. So I bought half of Pilate right then, simply because Jones had a feeling in the pit of his stomach." Hewitt still pursues the statistics on bloodstock, but he says that he now finds himself breeding to peoples horses because they are friends. So much of the progress of breed improvement has come to depend on such abstract things. Getting back to Kenney and Coldstream, he says that the score of 1947 foals there now is 20 colts and 15 fillies, with only the mare, Coronium, left to foal. He is pleased to be able to report that Rompers, one of the mares bred to Blue Larkspur, before he died this spring, seems to have gotten in foal. Which reminds us that Mrs. Glass was telling us just now that Faultless dam, Unerring, is said to be in foal to his sire, Bull Lea. So far, Faultless is the only one of her foals that has lived, you know. Kenney is pleased with a filly foal by Blue Larkspur, out of Alex Earths dam, in the Coldstream collection. He likes Blues daughters, as who does not, and indeed he almost bought Banish Fear from Dick Watts for about ,000, but Hertz beat him to her. This mare looks a racing machine and was a hard-hitting performer up to a mile and an eighth. By the way, neither Kenney or Hewitt is carried away by the wave of inbreed horses that have won stakes this season. Ira Drymon showed us two foals who already are winners after a fashion at his place near here this morning. One of these is a brown filly by Reaping Reward, out of Artistic Rose, and the other is a chestnut filly by Equif ox, out of Little Sphinx. Both of these mares won while carrying their foals during the season last year. The Equifox is the first of this sires get we have seen, and she is a round little filly of the same general type. Drymon has the young sires, Challedon and Pictor, at his farm, and reports that both have turned their mares away well. They appear in splendid condition this season.
