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REFLECTIONS 1 By Nelson Dunstan We Roamed the Paddocks in Blue Grass Small Breeders Sell Good Babes Too Tom Piatt Was Alsabs Best Boostei A Day With Paul Ebelhardt at Calumet CalumetNEW NEW YORK N Y June 23 23For For over a week we roamed the paddocks of some 18 breed ¬ ing farms in the Blue Grass inspecting yearlings that will be offered at Keeneland and Saratoga in July and August While it is never safe to wear the robes of a prophet and make predictions as to the future of a particular colt or filly we saw some youngsters that impressed us as hav ¬ ing the requisites of stake winners Many of the younger stallions whose first crops came out in the past year or two are cer ¬ tain to demand attention of owners and buyers who will soon be scouting around the breeding farms in search of racing material Count Fleet Whirlaway Princequillo Market Wise Bolingbroke Alsab Pensive Shut Out and still others of the younger sires have youngsters who will appeal to the buying public Requested should be added to that list but the only reason we did not mention him is that we did not see any of his colts and fillies This writer does not have the memory nor the type of eye which allows him to compare the yearlings of one year with those of another but we do know that this year we have seen some of the most impressive yearlings that it has ever been our pleasure to inspect In future columns we will have much to say about many that made a lasting impression impressionThe The breeding industry is no different from any other In one day you may visit the farm of Walter J Salmon or Arthur B Hancock where you will see 40 yearlings that will go to the market On the next day you may visit the farm of Charlie Asbury or Ira Drymon where you may see only five or seven youngsters who will enter the same ring But every one of these men have one idea in mind and that is to send a good yearling from his establish ¬ ment Call it the improvement of the breed and any one who wants to scoff at that statement is free to do so Every time we think of that we harp back to the story of Tom Piatt and Alsab It is an old old tale that Piatt sold Alsab for 700 and that the lucky buyer was Albert Sabath When Alsab became a name horse there was one man that was certain to be at every race in which he ran and it did not matter how far the race was from Lexington Kentucky That man was Tom Piatt his breeder and on one occasion we asked him how much he had spent in railroad fare and hotel bills to see the little colt that he had raised and sent to the yearling market He would always grin and answer Oh I dont know but I enjoyed every minute of it After all he was a baby from my farm farmAfter After spending an entire day at Calumet Farm it is easy to understand why this famous establishment turns out champions year after year In a later column we are going to describe our experiences in full but one incident that amused us came about when a foal was led out for inspection Earlier in the day we had seen the yearling Rearmed who as you know is a full brother to Armed When the baby was led out Paul Ebelhardt said Here is another full brother to Armed and the Wrights have named him Two Gun in honor of their close friend Royce Martin Warren Wright has always ribbed Martin about the days when the latter was with Villa in Mexico hence the name of Two Gun Needless to say both of these colts are by Bull Lea but will not be entered for sale We can add however that there are quite a few colts and fillies by Bull Lea who will be sent into the salesrings at Keeneland and Saratoga and many of those we have looked at are beauties in every sense of the word There is one Bull Lea in the Calumet consignment and she is a bay filly out of Still Blue by Blue Larkspur second dam Be Still by Dozer She is a powerful miss that strikes us as a fine racemare type typePaul Paul Ebelhardt the manager at Calumet Farm is one of the busiest and yet one of the most patient men we have ever come across Anywhere from 200 to 300 people visit Calumet in a day and while we were inspecting the various stallions mares and younger stock people would drive up and ask such questions as Can I see Citation or Can you point out the stall in which Coaltown was foaled While we were looking at the stallions one lady walked up and asked Ebelhardt Where is Man O Wars grave Courteously he answered Lady that great horse is now buried at Faraway Farm This writer along with all the others pays tribute to Ben and Jimmy Jones for the victories of the Calumet horses But the man in the background the man who is responsible for bringing these horses along to the point where the Jones boys take them over is the same Paul Ebelhardt who once went to Havana with two frorses and 70 in his pocket but is today one of the most respected and well liked farm managers in these entire United States One night while we were sitting with Ben Jones he said You newspaper fellows give all the credit to Jimmy and myself a big part of it should be given to Paul Ebelhardt EbelhardtOn On Tuesday Leslie Combs II mailed contracts to all of those who will participate in the ownership of Alibhai He told this writer there were many malicious stories circulated as to the fertility of this son of Hyperion but after a complete examination by Dr MacLeod of Cornell University and a check of the records by A S Hewitt he found the horse had an average of 76 per cent in getting his mares in foal This is above normal We expect all of those who originally subscribed to go through with the deal he said but should any of them drop out we have about 20 applications over and above the required number Combs explained that Dr McGee thought it best to leave Alibhai on the West Coast until the fall and both he and Hewitt agreed this would be the wise thing to do Combs further stated that as soon as the names of all the sub ¬ scribers were definitely settled he would release them
