The age-herald., 1901-05-12
BY N. E. CAFFEE.

Tn AIADaIna nave hAA PdSSOu AASAAA hAiO stage of the sport of kings with the pos sibie exception of Captain Billy" Will Hanson of Mobile. He was a hale and hardy octogenarian a few years ago when he started a handsome brown colt In the 2-year-old stake at Riverside Park. Montgomery Ala. The breeding of running horses In Alabama dates back to the romantic days of Bill Weath- ford, the half-breed Muscogee chieftain whose fame was darkened by the. bloody scenes within the Walls of Fort Mimns. He had a race track on his plantation and a meeting was held there several times each year as early as 1910. The Marchands, Taits. Sizemores. Duvands, McGiliorays and other early settlers who intermarried with the winsome daugh- ters of the forest visited these meetings at the weatherford tracks and their horses contended for supremacy.
 At later date. about 1S45, the breed ing of trotting and running horses at tracted many of our wealthiest and most cultivated planters. The Hamptons and Bacons of South Carolina, Dr. Henry Coffee of Georgia, General Robinson. General Hunter, the Cotrells. the Ar ringtons, the Shawhans of Alabama, Colonel LeCompt of Louisiana and many others made the name of the thorough bred running horses famous througnout the world. Kentucky furnished Lexing- ton and Louisiana brought forward Le- Compt in the great State Post Stake four-mjle heat race at New Orleans about 1854; Mississippi entered Arrow and Tennessee No Name. The contest was between the half-brothers-Lexlng- ton and LeCompt-- and resulted Tn sew eral other famous four-mile heat races between the two. Lexington was ridden by the famous ell Patrick and LeCompt by the scarcely less renowned Ape, slave of Colonel LeCompt. Lexington was sired by Boston out of the superp race mare Alice Corncal, while LeCompt was by Boston out of grand old Keel. Victory alternated, but finally the lau- rels of 719% rested with Lexington twenty-one years. Dr. Caffee's famous Dallas and Molle Bluskin were the pride of Georgia, and Daniel Boone, Brown Dick Moodove, Goodwood and Jack Gamble-all long distance thor ough breds of the highest type of speed, conformation and endurance, made the Alabamians shout themselves hoarse whenever these noble animals appeared on the turf,
 Owned by Colonel Dougherty.
 The trotting horses of those glorious days of the South were owned and bred by Colonel Dougherty, the Agnews and the Murrays of South Carolina, the Shawhans of Louisiana. the Scales or Mississippi and the Robinsons, Canees, Bibbs and many others of Alabama. The South produced, owned and raced many of the noted trotters of the years nrst preceding the outbreak of war Jake
 11. Lady Bell, 273:; Macy Dawson PAP, and Cardinal, 2:3S, were owned by MT. J. H. Caffee Kate Slashabout. Dandy Jim, Howler and many other fast race horses by Major Wm. Robinson, Norma by Mc- Lain of Mobile, Ellen Tree by Butte x Henshaw. Columbia, 2:2S by the Az news, and Lady Bonham by Mosely or Georgia. These famous race horses con tended for supremacy on the tracks at Charleston, Columbia. Savannah, Augusta, Montgomery, Mobile and New Orleans for many years. The sport was engaged in by the finest gentlemen of the South. and was conducted on the highest plane.
 Those pioneers of breeding blooded horses are represented today by the Mo- Curdy farms of Lowndesboro famous throughout the country for the produc- tion of fast colts and race horses of the
 
 farm at Marion, that produced Annie Caffee," the first Alabama raised two year-old to secure a race record below 2:30 the beautiful and extensive blue grass Piedmont farm of W. F. Garth at Huntsville the home of 'Re-election," one of the most valuable stallions living, having sold as a three-year-old by the Woodburn farm of Kentucky to MT. Ragland of Tennessee for $27,0O0. Re- o1a ic fa hnrSa him. self and has sired a daughter with rec ord of 2.10 and many others below 2:30. Besides Reelection the Piedmont farm owns Sentinel Wilkes. a phenominal sire of early speed; Almont, Jr., great brood-mare sire, and forty of the high est class brood mares that could be bought George Garth of Courtland has bred and raced more successfully In the North and East than any Southern breeder His success has been phenom- inal He has a preference for the pacer, and at Boston and throughout the East ern circuits has annually carried the Hals and Bradens to the front.
 Tn this department of enterprise the South holds a high place, and when we consider the advantage of climate for early preparation and training through out the entire winter over the ice-bound tracks of the North. there Is no sur prise that Ed Geers, Roy Miller, Harry Benedict Nethaway, Ben Remick and many others of the most famous drivers living ship their horses to Selma and prepare them for the coming struggles through the following spring and sum- mer circuits in the North. Birmingham has a beautiful trotting park, with one of the best and safest tracks in America. With little enterprise and generosity the managers of Birmingham's prosper itv could easily induce a thousand fast horses and twice as many owners. driv- CTS and attendants to pass the winter months at their lovely park and have the advantages of our superior transpor- tation to Louisville, which has become the radiating point for the trotters and pacers who commence their summer campaigns in early June, and up to the commencement of the Grand Circuit meetings at Detroit Birmingham Is fa- nous in all industrial and commercial lines Why not make this truly Magic City" winter resort for this most de- sirable industry? The people engaged in the trotting and pacing horse business spend their money more freely than any other class whatever
 A Law and Order City.
 Birmingham is a live, law and order city that attracts almost magically, and once inaugurated as a wintering place for the carefully cared for animals that annually contend for over five million dollars in America, the natural attrac- ton of the marvellous city would make it a permanent winter abiding place Tor a profitable and desirable patronage.
 The millionaires of the North, since Robert Bonner began the practice or buying every phenominally fast trotter that appeared on the turf, have been en-