Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-04-07
IT is ALL A LOTTERY

be a business transaction that comes so
near to buying a cat in a bag as the pur-
chasing OF thoroughbred race horses" said
an owner who has q large string of racers
in training out at Benning. For the most
part. 1t is absolutely a lottery, excepting
in the buying of horses of known ability
that are in their prime of usefulness and
value. I am speaking particularly, how
ever, of the buying of young thoroughbreds
-yearlings. I've dozen such 'uns in my
barn now, that I am getting ready to race.
Some of them I paid stiff prices for as
foals. and others I got pretty cheap. All
of them are by tip-top sires and dams.
Now, it is just as likely as not-indeed, if
the tab kept on these matters for many
years means anything, it is more than
likely-that the youngsters I got for little
money will prove to be better race horses
than the ones that I had to give UP size
able punches of money for. There's no
telling. Some of the greatest horses that
ever raced in America were sold under
the hammer for song when they were
young tads and. on the other hand, colts
by famous sires that have been purchased
at fabulous figures as foalS, on account of
their breeding, have turned out to be only
fit for the hauling of milk wagons, possess
ing not particle Of speed or stamina.
That's the reason that I'm always disposed
to look into the corners where the young
uns that are thought to be no account are
tucked away, when I am nosing about the
breeding farms. hunting for babies to train
up. The whole thoroughbred game is full
of contradictions. When a well-known
California breeder. for example, paid $780,
600 for the mighty Ormonde, the horse of
him, dubbed him, We were all ready to fall
over each other in the attempt to pay
any old price for the sons and daughters
of Ormonde. The horse has been an abso-
lutte, nat failure n sire since he
was brought to this country-and yet Or
monde Is the sire Of Orme, who in turn
sired the grand FLYING Fox. the English
thoroughbred that brought nearly 5000, 900
under the hammer the other day. Take
the sire Albert. to Illustrate the contrary
proposition. Albert was pretty good race
horse In his day, but he was never thought
great deal of as a sire last year, when
his son MeSmerist jumped out and clearly
showed himself to be the best two-year-old
of the year. Then other sons and daugh-
tiers of Albert showed up in great form, so
that now Albert is rated among the very
top-notchers among the sires. Take Juve-
nal, again. Juvenal wasn't thought to be
such much of sire. but when his colt
Chacornac sDrinted in first in the SJ0,0D
Futurty last summer his stock took bound
and now Juvenal is one of the chief prizes
of the stud. Another queer thing is that soma
of the greatest race horses that ever lived
have proved themselves to be the poorest
sires. Notable exceptions to this are such
horses as Hindoo and his son Hanover;
but when a horse of dazzling record goes
into the stud l want TO see how some of
his colts and FLIES perform before I'll take
it for granted that his produce are going
to be as good as the old gentleman. The
sire Wagner was never thought to be a
fiIst-class horse in the stud until this sleepy
mare Imp came along and beat the great-
est of American racers in jog. Another
odd feature-well, not so odd. either. when
you come to think of it's that the hand
soonest race horses are very rarely the
he should no iDritv of
the great blue ribbon horses of the Ameri-
can turf have been homely lookers-just
some of the most notable men and
women in the worlds progress have been
unable to preen themselves on their good
looks
1.-THE colt Raceland, for example, that Joe
tllman got for a couple hundred dollars as
a yearlfng, was as homely a mud fence
in a hail storm, and yet Raceland was one
of the greatest horses of his age. He got
uglier as he aged. and the pet name by
was Old Bones Morello. the great horse
that was developed here on the Benning
track-the paramount mud horse of all the
mudders that ever lived since the world be-
gan. | verify believe-wasn't a horse that
would capture any buyers fancy when he
was a baby, led into the sale ring, and he
brought only 500.
The American turf has had few SUI
periors of little Tenny, the swayback that
raced EN- all dizzy and into the ground,
and yet Tenny brought only s21O as a year
ling. BY his looks and the queer, camel
~ va NJ. ~ i,,a ~ n.y.
,iiao me III .ittiE s morse couia nave packed me
si'1 ne uiu anu gone tlie ui foa n ne
We Mshs. ne Won Won PREY nearly saon;"" Ipr
ms aliu ne iaa niate Soou IN tne
"ii pr 70 .lie coll,rars'
nd i.aIa s % i'.tie plusG. 1ause;
go ~ ~ 80 w, ieh n. ituiiiuis sha az,
~ NV. So rs 'ii e out anu @oh
In ~ 30, VI MciS aLo"sann u4l-
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hnnht hi ftsa 10 Oh ~ ioi ' se, nan Wlo
nrfa7nal ' ron bers mo ,.iu Sin me
% .ia, t 80 NJ 1i, i-paeoetessot
Porn, pno knootaI al - .iie sirS e,e q!
~, -, W. a. ,,ir'- uo"n los $d" o
"; ~ ne e,o .i iiu ne Won @oo'u'o
ra M T IT, ,hrao n I,a, ne "ei' 10 me
ne w s.e cripple, Diabio
uiiat tiso won so".ooo, oillF Drought s2to
"nea I pr was tsaiy !ouis u.i: ne nand-
a I'm ipcaor 20 Nho on WAS a Nt2o vearilhs'
anu ne won soo,uo. Bermuda, another
,s, i" -, rs phpy, aru se ne won SoD
bid I'M to S37i when he naalsad tbrono,, IL
la ,;p,r I,ri,Jlo o,,a l..