The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-04-10
HIGGINS SAYS He HAS
QUIT TRAINING FOR GOOD
American Horseman Thinks He
Has Had Enough to Entitle
Him TO a Rest.
TALKS ABOUT WINNERS
Both England and France Ahead
OF America IN Good Horses
of Mature Age.

WASHINGTON, April 9.-Metropoltan
horsemen and turf folk will see lot of
John Higgins next season, and perhaps for
many seasons 10 come.
The most successful American who ever
saddled horse on the British turf. also one
of the most popular ones. has come home
to stay. He has bought two houses. One
is in Texas. his adopted State-for he came
originally from Georgia-and another at
Sheepshead Bay. The Sheepshead Bay
house will be his summer residence, and
he will spend the winters at the place in
Texas.
Higgins has made up his mind. he says,
to give up training race horses. He has
had a long, hard siege of it two hemi-
spheres, and has saved his stake. He can
afford to retire and become a spectator and
critic. Moreover, game Leg" got during
the civil war. when he was a boy, is giving
him some trouble. Getting up mornings
in driving transforms and watching strings
OF racers gallop through cold fogs, he finds.
does not Go a bulIet-shattered leg any good.
But in spite of Hugginss announcement
wager that he will be found in harness
again before two seasons have passed, If il
is only TO train a small string OF his own,
just TO have something to do. 1t is hard
for man who has spent his life in the fas-
cinating and exciting vocation of train
ing race horses to break away abruptly.
Mr.. Higgins himself thinks it possible his
friends may have the situation correctly
sized up, but hardly probable.
I've worked hard long time and am
tired, he says.
Mr.. Higgins came to Washington from
his Texas place, and has not been absent
from Bennings track day since. He
spends his afternoons in the paddock greet
ing old friends and talking over old times
Mr.. Higgins probably will remain here
until the end of the Washington Jockey
Clubs meeting and then go TO Sheepshead
He expects to have a bigger and better
handshaking time at Morris Park Met
ropolitan handicap day than he has had
here because he will meet so many more
of his old friends
Mr.: Higgins does not share the opinion
of Eugene Leigh and some other trainers
who have recently handled horses in
France that the thoroughbred Of that coun-
try is better than the thoroughbred of
America and Great Britain:
1T used 10 be said by the Kentuckians
when Kentucky and Tennessee had the
field of thoroughbred breeding to them
selves" he remarked that no horse from
Tennessee could ever beat a horse from
kentucky. The Tennesseeans were always
equally certain that no horse from Ken
lucky could beat one Of Tennessee birth
and raising. But both Tennesseeans and
kentuckians found when they went to the
races that first-clasS horse from either
State was well nigh invincible, and that in
ten years time the honors were about even
| between them.
II have found that good horses can win
| IN any country. real good French horse
| Will beat an English horse and vice versa.
! There is no material difference between the
| stock of the two countries. But both Eng
land and France are far ahead Of America
| in good horses of mature age. 1t is not
| that they breed better horses over there
They do not.
While 1 was training in England for
Pierre Lorillard my stable won as much
| or more money than any one stable on
| the British turf. And ii was not recruited
from the pick of this land, either. The
stock farm in New Jersey-Rancocas-a
their sires and dams before them.
The reason they held their own, and in
| many instances, beat their opponents was
| that they were not unduly hurried. We
did not try dollhouse methods of forcing
young horses to win two-year-old races the
/ employment of which in this country has
| produced proportionately the poorest lot
| of horses to be found anywhere the thor
| oughbred is raced.
1--WE did not pound our yearlings and
two-year-elds while their bones were still
soft that few Of them ever entered their
third year sound of limb. We took the
precocious ones up and raced them moder-
| ately and let the backward ones develop
| naturally.
TOO much is done in this country with
| yearlings and two-year-olds, and until the
practice is abandoned I fear the American
| horse of mature years will not bear a ia
| vorable comparison with his English and
French contemporaries. If the French
now and then have a few more good horses
| of mature years than the English, ii is be-
| cause the government, which looks upon
every horse, thoroughbreds and cold bred,
as part of it's military system. and does
not permit the racing of two-year-olds
until late in the summer. Such a scheme
| may not be profitable to the owner and
| breeder, judged from the American point
| of view but ii is a great help to the horse
| a person who has not handled the thor
oughbred and who does not understand
him cannot realize what an advantage to
| him time for physical development is
| There is no country in the world with
| as many natural advantages for the
| breeding of thoroughbreds as America
| which is proved by the gameness of such
of our horses as escape the rigors of two
| year-old racing show. The American horse
| is robust and game, a great weight carrier
| and great route traveller. When properly
developed and handled he can hold his own
| anywhere. l never wanted pleasanter work
than the training of good American
| horses ~