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Reigh Counts Racing Record | w , § The week just past brought to a close the racing career of the American champion, Reigh Count, and thus came to a conclusion another chapter in international racing history. The only probability of another start by this great racer, yet only four years old, lies in the acceptance, by the owners of English and French pretenders to world fame, of the offer made by the American National Jockey Club to stage a championship race at Arlington Park in 1930 with 00,000 as the prize money. Whether or not the foreign rivals of Reigh Count will avail themselves of this offer remains to be seen. Great difficulties always confront the shipping of horses to foreign lands and their training under changed conditions. Invaders of. American racing soil have experienced this no less than have the owner and trainer of Reigh Count in his invasion of England just ended. It K 10 II Mim RFCORD AND AMERICAN EARNINGS. RACE. TRACK. DIST. FINISH. WT. WON. Hurricana Purse Aqueduct 5-8 7th 110 Kirklevington Purse. Aqueduct 5-8 10th 108 Maiden purse race EmpireCity 5-8 8th 115 Lake Lonely Purse Saratoga 5 1-2 f 2nd 118 $ 200 Beaumont Purse Saratoga 5 1-2 f "Won 118 Warrensburg Purse Saratoga 5 1-2 f 6th 108 Crescent Purse Saratoga 3-4 Won 117 700 Hopeful Stakes Saratoga 6 1-2 f 8th 115 Dobbin Purse Belmont Park 5 1-2 f Won 114 700 Futurity Stakes Belmont Park f7-8 2nd 119 10,600 Eastern Shore Handicap Havre de Grace. . . 3-4 2nd 122 3,000 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.. Churchill Downs. 1 Won 122 28.480 Pimlico Futurity Pimlico 1 5th 119 1,000 Walden Handicap Pimlico 1 Won 126 11,350 •Disqualified. AS A THREE-YEAR-OLD. Mammoth Cave Purse Churchill Downs . 1 1-16 Won 118 $ 1,350 Kentucky Derby Churchill Downs. 1 1-4 Won 126 55,375 Miller Stakes Saratoga 13-16 Won 127 5,325 Travers Midsummer Derby. .. .Saratoga 11-4 4th 126 500 Huron Handicap Saratoga 13-16 Won 126 4.300 Saratoga Cup Saratoga 13-4 Won 118 6,500 Lawrence Realization Slakes. . Belmont Park 15-8 Won 126 28,430 Jockey Club Gold Cup Belmont Park 2 Won 114 10,860 AS A FOUR-YEAR-OLD IN ENGLAND. Lingfield Handicap Lingfield Park. . . 1 Unp. Newbury Cup Newbury 1 Unp. Jubilee Handicap Kempton Park. . . 1 1-4 Unp. Coronation Cup Epsom Downs 1 1-2 Won Ascot Gold Cup Royal Ascot 2 1-2 2nd fAbout 7-8 mile. Reigh Counts undertaking was a great one, his failure by no means ignominious. In striving for the Ascot Gold Cup last Friday he was attempting to do what no American horse had succeeded in doing since 1882, when Foxhall was the winner of that event. I R Mgh Counts placing in the event was, then, more success than failure. He at least inscribed his name in English racing history, where seldom that of an American horse has been written. His inability to win more than one of the four races he competed in while in England simply emphasizes the vast gulf there is between an American championship in racing — or an English or a French championship — and a world championship. Differences in racing and climatic conditions put the goal of proved universal supremacy as far away as the rainbows end. So Reigh Count retires, unless present plans are altered, with the great ambition of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Hertz unfulfilled, but with a record unique in American racing history. The horses owners and his trainer, B. S. j Michell. failed to realize the chief object of ! their trip abroad, but they must have gained great satisfaction not only in winning the Coronation Cup, but in showing to the world an American colt that came as near as could reasonably be expected accomplishing such a task as the winning of a worlds champion- | ship. And American racing gains from the | Hertzs excursion into a foreign land a fur- ; ther cementing of the ties of friendship, for ! America was represented in those four races i in England not only by a great racehor.se but by a sportsman and sportswoman typical of Americas best sportsmanship. Mr. and Mrs. Hertz undertook the trip I to England with Reigh Count, fully appre-: ciative of almost insurmountable obstacles | involved. Reigh Counts final appearance in competition here was in the Jockey Club ! Gold Cup last September. The colt went to England in the care of trainer Michell, jockey Bang, the colts rider in his home conquests, following. Due to the most painstaking plans and methods that have not met with the fault-finding and criticism that often follows failure in international contests, the colt went through his English campaign without serious mishap and while there were two changes in jockeys, one of which was necessary because of the contract held on one. and changes also in racing plates and possibly other things done to conform with English conditions, the colt went through with his engagements without alibi when he lost or undue exultation when he won. Defeat and victory alike were borne and received gracefully, and as Reigh Count and his owners and handlers prepare for their return to the homeland, the most cordial relations exist. Mr. and Mrs. Hertz are glad they went ; the English are glad they came. It was at first thought that Reigh Count would begin his campaign over there by starting in the Lincolnshire Handicap, the first important event on the flat on the Eng- h calendar, but the colt was not to be rushed. Had he gone in the Lincolnshire, he would have had to carry top weight of 128 pounds, a pound more than he ever had carried. But this fact evidently had nothing to do with trainer Michells dcliberateness in starting him. The trainer did not consider that he was ready until time for the Lingfield Handicap. In this and in the Newbury Cup, both races at one mile, Reigh Count was unplaced. His first engagement at a greater distance was in the Jubilee Handicap, at one mile and a quarter and again he was unplaced. Then came the switch in jockeys from the Anieric.in "Chick" Lang, who had won with lliuh Count in the Kentucky Derby and other great races that he won as a three-] ear-old, to the English rider Joe Childs. The change was made for the running of the Coronation Cup at Epsom Downs. Inch was the one race of the four that Reigh Count won. Space does not permit a review of these races, and, anyhow, the details still are fresh In the minds of those who followed the progress of the American horse abroad. But, as this was the most important change in the original plans of the colts racing over there, and as this was the only race he won, an English reference to the result of the switch is interesting. "When Reigh Count ran in the Jubilee Handicap," wrote the turf expert of the London Sporting Life, "he took charge of his jockey going to the post, but Joe Childs had him in a vice in the preliminary canter for the Coronation Cup yesterday. He had him in perfect command also when pulling him up in the paddock. Nor did the American horse give Childs any trouble when coming under the starters orders. He jumped off fourth, but immediately Childs steadied him and pulled him back last. At the top of the hill Reigh Count was still in the rear, but his jockey had him tight by the head." Then follows a description of Childs horsemanship in bringing Reigh Count up gradually and "squeezing him home by the shortest of heads" over Athford, which won the Jubilee Handicap, in which Reigh Count had previously been beaten. In view of such a satisfactory result it must have been a grave disappointment to Mr. and Mrs. Hertz and their trainer when they were unable to retain Childs as Reigh Counts rider in the Ascot Gold Cup. The reason they could not have his services again was that Viscount Lascelles had a starter in the Ascot and Childs was compelled by contract to ride for him. The change then was to jockey Harry Wragg. English reports have it that there was a wide difference between the behavior of Reigh Count in the Coronation Cup, under Childs, and his behavior in the Ascot Cup, under Wragg. Concerning the latter we quote briefly : "Wragg and Reigh Count were manifestly ill at ease with each other. . . . Reigh Count was restive and anxious." But it suffices that Reigh Count was beaten, and beaten by a great English horse, Inversion, which won this Cup in 1928 and which opened favorite in the betting over Reigh Count last week, but went to the post at inflated odds because of a large amount of American and English money that flooded the ring for Reigh Count as a result of his victory in the Coronation. So much for Reigh Counts bid for world supremacy. He now returns to his own domain, where, if it serves the ambitions of hi.; owners, he no doubt still would be master of all he surveyed. For surely he was, as a three-year-old, and none has developed in th:s country since that has license to dispute the issue with him. Yet, though he becomes one of Americas turf immortals, Reigh Count does not retire unbeaten, nor as the greatest of moneymakers, nor even as a racer with a single track record to his credit. He "stood out," but not as a record-breaker. He was beaten by a filly, his own stablemate, in one of nis most important races as a two-year-old. He finished last in the only race he failed to win as a three-year-old, but it was in a small field. His best time for the mile in competition was 1 :40, but that was as a two-year-old. As a three-year-old he ran only in long distance events. And it was solely as a winner of these races, from the best that could be pitted against him. at distances from one mile and a sixteenth to two miles, carrying weights from 114 pounds to 127 pounds, that he "stood out." Turf historians for many years will find Interesting subject matter in the colorful episodes in the career of the colt that Mrs. John I. Ihrtz bought for ,r;U0. as a two-year-old, and retired as a four-year-old after having won with him approximately 00,000, a sum which ranks him among the foremost MVii or eight earners in the annals of racing in this country.
