Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-05
AMERICAN THOROUGHBREDs,
From the London Field.

AaVSe " aCetCA among OuT veteran trainers re-
| marked that IF the Americans continue to send
| such animals to England as Foxhall and Iro-
| quois, few of our noblemen and gentlemen will
long remain upon the turf; for it is evident that
| Foxhall can give Jumps of weight to all our
three-year- and beat our best four and i've
year olds at even weights over two and quarter
| miles. have often known good three-year-
| old capable of accomplishing great things over
mile; but l have never known an English
three-year-old which could beat good old horses
at even weights over two and a quarter miles
When horse wins by dozen lengths YOU can
not handicap him with others that he has beaten.
How, for instance, would you set to work to
bring Foxhall and Fiddler together. If Foxhall
be three-year-old, of which entertain no sort
of doubt, he is the best horse that Newmarket
has seen in my time" 1t is impossible to Law
the fattering JUNCTION to our souls that the win
ner of the Grand Prix and the Cesarewitch is
older than he processes to be, and that, in the
words often employed by the late Mr. Grevie
to Mr.. f. r. Clark when they were examinino
the yearlings at Enfield paadocks. where Mr'
Clark's brood mares were stationed ''That colt
looks as If he had been six months old upOn the
day when he was born" No stud farm in the
world is managed with greater regularity and
method than at WOODBURY., in Kentucky. where.
in April of 1878, Foxhall first saw the light
The very day may be found in Kinks (iuide to
the American Turf" and, indeed. the character
OF Mr.. Alexander, and of his late brother. from
whom the famous stud and farm in Kentucky
descended to their present owner forbid the
suppositiOn that in such an atmosphere trickery
would ever be resorted to. Moreover, the career
of Foxhall from the commencement testifies
that he was buta moderate two year -old-his de-
feat last year by SavOyard at Newmarket has
never been explained except on this SUPPOSE
tiOn-and that for the first six or eight months
OF the present year he was moderate
three-year-old 1t was whispered that not very
long before the st. Leger he was gallOped-as
to the truth or falsity of the whisper we express
no opinon-with Mr.. Crawfurd's st. Louis
across the Flat, when the latter won with con-
summate ease. But the Improvement between
the Foxhall that won the Grand Prix and the
FOxhall that won the Cesarewitch is so amazing
that it could not have been made by a mature
horse There have in the past been many SINH
lar cases of improvements in three year-olds be-
tween the spring and autumn-as for instance,
with -Ballagh, julius, Stirling and
Achievement-but none in four or five-year
oids which have ben honestly run throughout
the year.
Nevertheless, we cannot agree with the vete-
ran trainer whom we have just quoted when he
says that series Of such three-year-olds as the
two American colts which have Just covered
themselves with English and French glory would
soon drive our own nOblemen and gentlemen
OIL the turf. OF the two colts FOxhall alone
seems to us an exceptional animal. As regards
lroquois, he won the Derby, Prince Of Wales
stakes and st. Leger simply because he was the
best OF a bad lot, and there is nothing in the
performances of the son of LeamingtOn to
awaken unusual surprise or to inspire Decuiar
panic. The race Of last Thursday for the Cham
piOn stakes shows that the Derby form in 1880
was far superior to that Of 1885, and we have no
doubt that Mr.. Lorilard would have acted more
wisely in his own interest had he come to de-
termination to run Iroquois no more in public
after his sensational victory for the DOncaster
st. Leger. There is not the same capablity of i'm
pr0vement In the set and sinewy frame ofIrOquois
patriot Fo hall, and. as four year-olds, the i'm
provement will probably be far more marked in
the bay than in the brown, if they chance ever
to meet over cup course.
We must form our conceptions, then, of
American race horses at their apogee. and of
the worst that the future can do In regard to
bringing formidable rivals from the other side
OF the Atlantic into the field against us at home
from the prowess of the Kentucky rather than
the New Jersey colt. 1t may be remarked at
the outset that both Mr.. p. Lorrillard and Mr..
J. R. Keene are reputed to be rich men, but that
Dy the owner of Foxhall-or perhaps we ought
to say by their trainers. to whose CUSTODY their
horses were consigned, as Mr.. Keene himself
has not interfered in the matter one way or the
Other-that fine colt has been so well and iudi
ciousy managed as to makeit probable that no
better or filter three-year-Old ever started for
the Cesarewitch than it's last winner. Foxhall
has neither been knocked about nor unduly
hurried, and his superiority in October is
undoubtedly due to the long rest given to him
since he rant was great mistake, by
the way, to run him at Ascot in June IrO-
quois on the other hand has been managed
according to our ordinary English system or
fashion oftraining and racing; nor is it possible
to deny that he is made of sterling stuff. when
we remember that he ran twelve ti1nes-scoring
four victories and suffering eight defeats-as a
two-year-Old. 1t is doubtful whether any three |
year-old trained at Newmarket ever went
through stronger preparation than the Derby |
winner of 1881, between the Two Thousand and |
the EPSON race; and there was hardly trainer.
a jockey, tout, or cOnnoisseur in horsefesh
but pronounced that the colt had done far too i
much work to win Derby. The opinion that |
he was an iron horse gained ground after his
triumphs at EPSON and Ascot; but in the long
and splendid roll of Derby winners there are at |
least twenty or thirty superior to IrOquois. The |
Americans must send us something better than |
him if they are to brighten US as we have been |
scared by Foxhall; but it is idle to blink the |
and Robert the Devil might each and |
all of them have been compelled to |
haul down their colOrs before the stalwart Amer
lean, had they CHANGED to encounter him at even |
weights upon Tuesdaylast over the Cesarewitch
course, and We may even 60 80 far as to admit |
the possibility that FOxhall would now beat any
horse in England at even weights over two and
quarter miles of ground. The staying powers
Ol benu VI LnOugn Claimed Dy his trainer, are
as yet not proven; and if Foxhall have any su-
periOr in England at this moment over Gun
course the animal would probably be found in
the Duke of BeaufOrt's PetrOnel. That FOxhall
gave Chippendale more than stone-beating i'm
the Cesarewitch will hardly be disputed, and
Mr.. Keene's colt perhaps fills the same proud
position as was claimed by Sir Joseph Hawley
for Blue Gown, when he ran second for the Cam
bridgeshire with 9 st. Oh his back, as three
year-Old-the position, tlat is to say, of being
the best racehOrse of anyage in the world at the
time each ran.
What is the moral to BE- cleaned from this I'M
usual excellence of FOxfall? We must not forget
that, although the Americans began importing
English thOrOughbreads IS far back as the COM
mencement of the last century, they did not Sc
riOusly address themselves to the task of raising
blood stock until after tn, great civil war. which
ended in April, 1865. That within fifteen years
they should have been abe to produce FOxhall
speaks volumes for the Dil, water and climate
of Kentucky, and during ,he next twenty, thirty
or fifty years we expect that as many as fine or
perhaps even finer horss will be raised in the
western hemisphere. BIT it is probably due to
English air, food, training and riding, that Fox
hall is now what we saw him to be last Tuesday.
1t is not disputed that tie blood of our English
brood mares is purer Il. n that of their Ameri-
,sc to- |