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IN THE BLUE GRASS . : By Joe Thomas Stall Walking Season Now With Yearlings Sales Approaching Question of Youngsters Being Ready and State of the Market Breeders Sales Representatives Begin Missionary Work Judge Garrett Claypool Sells His Consignment Privately LEXINGTON, Ky., June 12. This is "stall walking" season here in 4;he Blue Grass. With the yearling sales now only a few weeks off, the breeders are beginning to "worry." Their chief preoccupations are: 1. Will their yearlings be ready fully developed and without injuries or blemishes at auction time? And: 2. Will there be a good market for their offerings? The first point is a constant worry, since precocious, high-strung thoroughbreds have a penchant for getting into trouble and quite often, much to their owners consternation, too late to be able to do anything about it. On the second point, breeders have a tendency to become very pessimistic at this time of the year. They are constantly on the lookout for "storm warnings." The stock market, other sales, purse distribution, attendance and mutuel j handle and claiming activity are all topics J of study and discussion as the breeders attempt to determine whether or not their previous two years of effort will turn out profitably. Fortunately, most signs at the present point to a good demand for quality offerings. But the stall walking goes on. A A A J. H. Ransom has another volume of his "Whos Who and Where in Horse-dom" at the binders and it will be ready for distribution soon. The thoroughbred section of the annual has grown considerably in recent years and it makes not only interesting reading for turf devotees, but also is valuable as an easy reference to the previous years racing and the important people in the sport. With the catalogue off to the printers, who are expected to have them ready for distribution about June 25, Breeders Sales Company general manager William S. Evans is now making plans for his annual missionary trip to the major eastern racing centers. Toward the end of the month he will visit Chicago, Detroit, New York and New Jersey. Mrs. Roy Carruthers will make her annual trip to California in the interests of the Keeneland Summer Sales early in July. AAA Both the sale of the Woodvale Farm breeding stock and the farm itself has created widespread interest. A number of prominent owners have shown interest in the 300-acre RusseUCave Pike show place developed by the late Royce G. Martin and its sale probably will be made in the not too distant future. The Woodvale mares and stallions will be sold following the yearling sales at Keeneland next month. Catalogues are now in production. AAA Judge Garrett Claypool, who usually is a Saratoga consignor, will be an absentee this year since he already has sold his consignment privately. He sold four youngsters by Mr. Trouble, Cable, Royal Blood and Teddys Comet to Irving Gush-en, and a gray colt by Cochise to Cy White, as agent for an undisclosed buyer. Claypool retained two, by Ace Admiral and First Fiddle, which he intends to race in his own silks. AAA A curious fact a fact which some breeders have found very profitable is that some of the big private studs will sell mares and stallions, then a few years later enter the yearling market and buy offspring of their Continued on Page Forty-Nine IN THE BLUE GRASS By JOE THOMAS Continued from Page Nineteen discarded .stock. King Ranch came by High Gun inthis manner. The Robert J. Kelberg establishment sold Rocket Gun at the 1947 Keeneland Fall Sales to Paul and Kellar Little and Cary Boshamer for ,600. Five years later Kleberg returned to the Keeneland Summer Sales and gave the partnership 0,200 for Rocket Guns colt by Heli-opolis. The youngster is High Gun. As manager of Crown Crest Farms horse department, Al Cofield finds himself training some 16 horses for the farms clients each morning at Keeneland before undertaking his duties of supervising horse operations at the 1,000-acre farm itself. An owner from California has written the Breeders Sales Companys Bill Evans to the effect that he is tired of seeing Andrew Crevolin win all the big races on the West Coast, hence he would appreciate reservations for the forthcoming yearling sales at Keeneland. AAA Henry H. Knight this week returned from California to his Almahurst Farm where an outstanding group of yearlings are being prepped for "Knights Night" at Saratoga in August. The fabulous horse salesman expressed pleasure over the emergence of High Gun among the seasons top three-year-olds, plus the good effort of Red Hannigan in finishing second in the Jersey Stakes. Both are sons of the Almahurst Stallion Heliopolis, who also is sire of several of Knights top yearling prospects. Knight syndicated the great son of Hyperion a few years ago after obtaining him as part of the famous Coldstream deal. AAA It would appear that Mr. Busher is a true son of his sire War Admiral. The young Maine Chance Farm stallion, who stands at Leslie Combs n.s Spendthrift Farm, has two two-year-old stakes winners this season and both are out of mares which had previously produced stakes winners by War Admiral. Beau Busher, winner of the Beau Brummel Stakes at Bay Meadows, is out of I Late Date, dam of the crack mare War Date by War Admiral. Fantine Busher, who copped a division of the Polly Drummond Stakes, is out of Fantine, whose previous foals included the stakes-winning War Fan by War Admiral. AAA Although this is normally a "slow" season, training activity at Keeneland is at its lowest ebb in recent years. However,, it wiU pick up after the summer sales when yearling breaking gets under way. With foaling season virtually over, a recap of the cases of virus abortion reported in Kentucky showed an increase over 1953. This year there were 50 cases on 20 farms; last year there were 30-odd on about 12 farms. This information was given by Dr. E. R. Doll, who supplemented a talk by Col. Floyd Sager, at a meeting of the Thoroughbred Farm Managers Club last Monday. Col. Sager, resident veterinarian at Claiborne Farm, said that Dr. Doll as pretty well shown that virus abortion is closely related to the influenza virus. Equine Virus Abortion Research, an organization set up a few years ago to study the dread disease, is expected to give a report in the near future on its findings to date. AAA One of the highlights of the 1954 racing season has been the remarkable success of the offspring of AlibhaE Headed by little Determine, winner of the Kentucky Derby, the Alibhais have won stakes in New York, Delaware, Kentucky and California. The versatile Determine, who in his first start since the Derby raced seven furlongs in 1 : 22 to win Hollywood Parks Debonair Stakes, is the years leading money winner and largely responsible for his sire being the seasons leading sire. Alibhais other stakes winners this year are Chevation, winner of Delawares Kent Stakes, Fortune Teller, Magic Lamp and Alibi Lynn. This remarkable success is a tribute to the insight of Leslie Combs II and the syndicate he gathered together to buy the unraced son of Hyperion in 1948 for the fantastic sum of 00,000. It is hard to believe that a horse purchased at such a figure could become a "bargain," but Alibhai has.
