The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-15
FROM STABLE BOY
HAMMOND BECAME
A MILLIONAIRE
BY RICHARD DAHLGREN

London, August 14-The probating of
the will of the late John Hammond, who
rose from a stable boy to be one of the
richest turfmen in England. recalls an
Interesting career in the racing world Mr.
Hammond died enormously wealthy, but
it was not until his will was published
that it became known that he was worth
s., 100000 at the time of his death.
Mr.. Hammond is one of the few men
who made a fortune out of the turf
Usually racing is taken up by rich men
as a means of getting sport at consider
able outlay
Hammond was the son of a blacksmith
and he commenced his turf career as a
stable boy.
He carefully saved his money, and with
information that his place In the stables
furnished he became a heavy better. Luck
favored him from the first. After half a
dozen years of good fortune and econom-
ical living he was able to buy small
stable of his own.
From this Mr.. Hammond built up a
great stable. His horse, ST. Gatien, ran
a dead heat in the derby and commended
against the entries of King Edward and
aristocrats of the realm. He also won the
Caesarewitch. Another famous Hammond
horse was Laureate II, who won the Cam
bindgrshire and Royal Hunt cup Her.
minus of the Hammond stable won the
Ascot stakes and the Manchester cup
Dan Thomas of Pontypridd, Wales, who
died at Parth canal al the age of 81 years,
was at one time lightweight pugilisitc
champion of the world. Before the days
of Heenan, King and Savers, Thomas took
on all corners and beat them easily.
One day while Thomas held the belt
he passed crowd that was listening to
an open air sermon preached by the fam
GUS divine, Charles H. Spurgeon. Thomas
was attracted by what he heard and aft
erward became acquainted with the fam
GUS preacher.
One day after talk with the minister
Thomas went home and threw his cham
pionship belt in the fire. He never fought
again.
Incidentally, Pontypridd is also the
home of Freddy Welsh, present light
weight champion of Great Britain.
The Nottingham club has decided to
send a polo team to America next sprinr
to try to recover the cup captured by
Harry Payne Whitney's team. Capt.
Hardness Lloyd, the leader, has tentative
ly selected seven players, including Buck
master and r. N. Grenfell. He will pos
sibly invite others.
The club hopes the Americans will agree
to play at the end of May, so the Eng
lishmen can return and participate in the
English champion games, although 1t rec
ognizes that this would be a considerable
concession.
The club proposes to arrange so that
the players will have six weeks practice
In America before the matches.
A number of the Kings horses we're sold
at Newmarket, among them being Perrier
and Slim Lad, which brought $4,000 and
$1,000 respectively Mr.. Tanner was the
bidder but acting for Mr.. Atucha of the
Argentine republic. How f1ourishing the
turf Is in that country can be seen by a
glance at the annual balance sheet of the
Arkentfne Jockey club. An income OF
s3,1GO,0O0 Is, indeed, highly satisfactory
and all save 100000 was spent, though moi
all on racing. charity and kindred sports
being supported.
| While the Arkentine republic is taking
some of our best, the United States Is
sending youngsters here, a number Of
| yearlings being sold at the Newmarke
sales. That some useful animals are bred
| there was illustrated at Newmarket.
| Johnny Curran, the new bantam cham
| pion of Ireland, is getting ambitious. HI
| wants to go to the United States and en-
gage in some fistic battles there. Currar
| has heard much of America and Of thu
| fabulous amounts of money given pugilis
tics there. M
! Curran won the championship from
Peter Cullen. The boys had met min,
| times before the championship fight
Three battles were won by each ant
! three were drawn.