Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-11-30
AN INTERESTING STATEMENT
From the Spirit of the Tines

While at the Erdenheim sale last week
we could not but be struck by the gen.
eral prejudice expressed on the part of
many of the buyers against old stations
and broodmares. Mr.. Milton Young,
for instance, gave as his only excuse for
not purchasing Maggie b. b. that she
was too old to make the trip to Kentucky,
Notwithstanding that the mare would
readily have passed for twelve-year-
old in the plentitude of her vigor, health
and power. We heard another breeder
give as his reason for not bidding any
higher than he did on Sister of Mercy
was that she was nearly sixteen years
old and past her best days. Daldacar-
doch and Alarm both hung fire for the
same reason. \ breeder told us that he
agreed with us that Alarm was the best
sire of stake horses in America. but a
horse twenty years of age was too old.
Now, while it cannot be denied that a
horse or mare past fifteen or sixteen
years of age is at the turning point, the
facts are all against the presumption that
his or her power to produce great race
horses is on the wane. Bonnie Scotland's
is the most conspicuous case in history.
All his best performers were foaled after
he was twenty-one years of age. Luke
Blackburn was foaled when the old horse
was twenty-four, and so was Glideia
and Bancroft. Bramble was fOaled when
he was twenty-five; George Kinney when
he was twenty-seven Bootiack when lie
was twenty-five. bennington is another
example. He was twelve years old when
he was imported to this country. He
was thirteen when he sired Longfellow,
Enquirer, Lynchburg and Lyttleton ;
fourteen when he sired Eolus; eighteen
when he sired Aristides, Oltipa, Rhad-
amanthus and Hyder Ali. He was nine
teen when he sired Parole and Faithless
twenty-five when he sired Harold /;
twenty-three when he sired Sensation
twenty-four when he sired Iroquois and
Spinaway, and twenty-five when he
sired Onondaga.
Lexington is another horse whose pro-
creative power was not damaged by his
increasing years. In fact he seemed to
sire better horses the older he grew
despite the fact that the loss of his teeth
ruined his digestion from an inability to
properly masticate his food. His sons
Acrobat, Tom Ochiltree, Chesapeake,
Duke of Magenta, Uncas, Charley How
ard, Tom Bowling, kingfisher, Wanderer,
Hamburger, Preakness, Harry Bassett,
Monarchist, etc., were all got after he
was seventeen and so were his daughters,
Sultana, Susan Ann, Annie Bush, Salina,
Hollywood, etc. In fact Duke of Mag
anita was sired by Lexington when the
latter was twenty-four, and we think the
Duke was the best of all the Lexingtons
we saw, and we saw all of them that APP
peared after 1865.
The old horse Norfolk presents mark
ed case in his celebrated son, Emperor of
Norfolk, by long odds the best three
yearo which appeared on the turf last
season. Now Emperor of Norfolk was
sired by Norfolk when the latter was
twenty-three. Glenelg is nearly twenty
three years old now, and is in the highest
vigor. His later foals seem as good if
not better than his early ones. Firenzi,
for example, was sired by him when he
was seventeen. Virgil, who died in 1856,
was twenty-five years old, and he sired
| l,a al AL
sired his greatest performer, Vandalite,
when he was twenty. Billet is now
nearly twenty-four years old, yet his get
are better each year. He sired Miss
Woodford when he was fifteen, Belvidere
when he was nineteen, and Raceland and
Sir Dixon at twenty.
OF broodmares the same is to a great
extent true, although it is not easy to
cite the cases of mares without having
recourse to extensive overhauling of the
records. Alice Carneal foaled Umpire
when she was twenty-one. Blue Bonnet
produced Lightning at eighteen, Thunder
at nineteen, Loodstone at twenty-one,
Lancaster at twenty-four. Gloriana pro-
duced Pat Malloy when she was nineteen
Lavender produced Baden Baden when
she was nineteen Magnolia produced Ken
lucky when she was twenty-one. The Flor
izel Mare produced Boston at nineteen.
Bourbon Belle was fifteen when she
foaled Hanover, and Marian was the same
age when she produced Emperor of Nor
folk. Salina was eighteen when she
produced Salvador. Alert was twenty
when she produced Richmond. Lou Pike
was fourteen when she produced French