The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-11
CROKER'S BAD LUCK
 WILL COMPEL HIS RETURN

ever. was such as falls to the lot of few turfmen. and in his ease has never been repeated, Racing ventures that cost great sum of money were made by him at that time. the two most disastrous being the Croker investment in the Mon- mouth Park Racing association at Long Branch. which track promptly was closed by the anti-gambling element in New Jersey. and the Croker purchase of half interest in the breeding stock of Belle Meade farm at Nashville, Tenn. from Gen. ". II. Jackson.
 The money put in the race track was total loss, but after finding that he had made bad bargain with General Jack son MT. Croker sold his share of the breeding stock back to the original owner for price estimated to be about a quar- ter of the $250,000 that he had paid for 1t.
 In 1895 another unfortunate venture was decided on by MT. Croler, who, following the advice of M. F. Dwyer. and in com pany with that turfman went to England in what was at the time termed an American invasion of the English turf. All the croker and Dwyer horses were shipped over ahead and, though black dis- aster was the sum of the adventurers' reward, the Croker horses remained in England. Dobbins, the best of the estab- lishment, and one of the few that ever won in England later being placed at the head of the breeding farm established by Mir. croSer at Vantage.
 MT. Dwyer, on the other hand, admitted defeat by returning to America with the remnant of his once powerful stable, af- ter having lost the best of his horses and a great sum in bets. failure thus was the beginning of the Croker racing ven ture abroad, but, failure or otherwise, MT. Croker has clung to English racing with rare tenacity and in spite of all reversises. His first years experience with American trainers and jockeys in England determined him to try his for tune with native talent. and the Vantage farm was rented and transformed into training quarters.
 MT. Crol1er was none too familiar with racing then. and was almost wholly ig- norant of English methods and one re- suit of this lack of knowledge was that when he returned to America, leaving his horses in England, he took it for granted that the English groom, who had been promoted to be his trainer, would care for the horses as would an Amer ican public trainer. The employe. how ever, had no authority to act as -ar. Croker's agent. and as no provision for the purchase of food for the horses or for the natural expenses of training had been made. the Crol1er horses almost starved to death before the omission could be repaired.
 Mir Croker in the meantime had become impressed with the idea that the Amer ican horses were superior to the English and on his next visit to the United States added to his stable in England by pay ing great price for the horse Key Del Carreres, later called America, and by leasing the horse Key el Santa Anita Both of these animals proved failures, however, and swelled the losses of MT. croker by about $75,OOO. This failure in. duced him to try another experiment in buying the English horse Little Saint and sending him to America, Little Saint making another failure.
 Two yeares ago MT. Croker having been unable to win races in England, re- turned to his first method in racing, and by purchase acquired tried and proved race horses in America. and established a small American stable to race on the New York track. In this establishment the most conspicuous horses were Beaut Gallant and Bellario, the two having cost him about $s5,ooO Like all the other Croker purchases. these horses failed so utterly that the owner in disgust ordered them sold at the end of the first season, and since that time year ago, he has his racing being confined entirely to the establishment at Vantage, which, ex- pensive as it was at the beginning, Is growing in size and cost with each sea- son.
 The actual cost of training his horses aside from the first cost of the horsea themselves, and the huge sum that must be required to engage them in stakes and pay forfeits cannot be less in Eng land than in America, where the expense is estimated at about s1000 a head per year for training. Added to that cost the forfeits that must pile up, and the amount that MT. Croler has lost in bet ting and the total sum in American money that the ex-chief of Tammany hall has poured into racing in England will reach into the millions.