The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-18
OLD TIME TURF KINGS.
JOE BLACKBURN,S MEMORIES
 OF HIS FATHERS RACERS.

Stables and Knew no LuxnFies-
 Braekhnrn's Whip, Boston and
 EcIIpse-A visit From Henry Clay
 Recalled.
 "Race-track devotees nowadays want quick action for their money" said Sen ator Blackburn of Kentucky to a re- porter Of the Star this forenoon. When I was a young man the betting proposition was subsidiary to the sport and was in the nature of side wagers between owners. Now racing has grown to be game wherein every one is trying to get the best of the book makers. think every one who loves the thoroughbred for what he is and ! what he can do, regrets that he has of late years become, to a large extent, a tool of the gamblers.
 T also think a ray of light, however, is penetrating the clouds which hang over racing when men like William c. Whitney, August Belmont, s. S. How land and numerous others who might , be mentioned become interested in it. It is not the sordid end of it that these men seek, but the glory of seeing their horses win. And may add that the 2 spirit thus manifested was that which animated our fathers and the rock on which they built.
 My father was among the first citi- zens of Kentucky who bred, trained and raced horses. Blackburns Whip, whose blood has blended so kindly with trotters and thoroughbreds, was his ~,s,, or IL Lexington, died in my fathers stable and the great unbeaten Eclipse was in my fathers possession in the years lS37 and 1s3S These horses were the cham pions of their day and the greatest horses of their generation; they were not furiong sprinters, but four-milers
 It will hardly be believed in these days of palatial stables that while these valuable horses were in my fathers care they occupied very ordinary log stable through which the winds whis- tied on wintry nights and through which the snow drifted on occasions. When Boston and Eclipse were brought to Kentucky they did not make the $ trip in palace cars, as do the costly thoroughbreds of to-day; walking was good enough for them and it was by walking every inch of the route that they reached their destination.
 Boston caught cold on the way to Kentucky and went blind soon after his arrival. I was a small lad at the time and used to visit Boston's stable every morning to see him cared for and walked by the colored groom. Tn the fall of 1S49, then seventeen years old, he began to grow decrepit from the ef- feet of severe racing and duties in the stud. and frequently had to be helped rise. When on his feet he seemed to be all right again and able to take his morning exercise.
 Early one morning. in the year named, slipped out of the house and down to Boston's stable. The door was closed and fastened within. hammered on it and clamored for ad- mittance. The door was cautiously opened far enough to admit the pas sage of my body, when a black hand seized me by the arm and dragged me inside. I was no sooned in than the groom was out and the door fastened. took the matter good-naturedly until my eyes became accustomed to the light, when I saw something that curled the blood in my young veins. Boston was lying on his side in a cor ner of his stall, lifeless and great spIashes of blood were on the wall. Tn his dying struggle he had beaten his head against the logs. I screamed lustily for the groom, and, seeing he had carried the joke far enough, he came to my rescue. My life has been in danger score of times since on battleffelds and elsewhere, but I was never quite so badly scared.
 sI presume am among the very few : men living who ever saw Boston. He was the greatest racehorse and race horse sire of his day, and his descend ants are even now racing at Bennings He was bred by the late eminent jurist, John Wickham os Richmond, Va, foaIed in 1888, and was got by Tim oleon, by Sir Archy, out of an own sis ter to Tuckahoe, by Balls Florizel, a horse that during his turf career was never touched by whip or spur and was never beaten. The great-great- grandson of Boston was never fully traced. Tn his two-year -old form, and while he was unbroken, he was sold to MT. Nathaniel Rieves of Richmond Va. for $500.
 "A pecuiarity about him was that he could not be safely ridden with a spur. In his first race he bolted be- cause his rider used a spur on him, and was distanced. He was never again ridden with a spur until he ran against Fashion, in his old age, and was beaten. In 1889 he became the property of James Long of this city for twelve thousand dollars and half the purse.
 s"Boston was a chestnut horse, with a blaze in his face and white stockings behind. He stood fifteen hands, three inches under the standard, but looked taller an account of his prodigious size. He was a short-limbed horse, with unusually short canon bones. His eye, ear and nostril were fine, but his head was not what you would call pretty. His neck came out well from his shoulders, the latter being oblique, broad and muscular. His depth of 2 chest was immense and his throttle perfect.
 His back was the prodigy of strength as well as his Joins, so that ten pounds extra weight was not felt hy him at the end of a hard day The