New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-14
Experts Look to Saugerties
Farm FilIy for a Great
Performance
:.
By Frank S. Cooke

Just at this stage Of the game, when
drivers are assembling their horses at
the Northern tracks as fast as limited
railroad facilities will allow them. so
little has been shown by any of the
stake candidates that comparisons
still are made with 1917 performances
as the basis.
So, in the review of the trotters that
are expected to feature the Ohio stake
at North Randall, the Paper Mills at
kalamazoo. and the Fort Miami at
Io!edo-and these should afford
pretty straight line on who's who in
equine high socicty-a number of ia
vcrltes have been posted. The dean
OF o., the turf writer's, Henry Ten Eyck
White, of Darlington, H., puts his
stamp of approval on Bertha Mcclure,
I hgurlng that what she did last year in
the way of winning and what she
showed on other occasions, make her
the class of the two dozen good horses
in the 2:o8 class events.
bertha Mcclure is an Eastern pro-
duct, has been educated in the East
and less enthusiastic admirers than
Mr.. White concede that she has a
splendid chance of hauling the seasons
This brown tilly-she now is a four
year-old-was foaled at Curles Neck
Farm. near Richmond, Va. when it was
the property of G. K G. Billings Her
lineage is of the purple, as she is by
The Harvester, POI, stallion champion
at the time. and out of Bertha Mac,
2:08, by Mckinney, the most sensa-
tIonal stallion that has been owned in
New York in the last decade.
Bought Her for $50
With crop of Curles Neck yearlings
/ she went to the Madison Square Garden
sale in 1915 and the high dollar bid
for her was $50, which gave her to
Saugerties Farm, of Saugerties, N. Y.
There her education was intrusted to
Townsend Alderman, young man who
had gained fame on the small ovals.
Sometimes the man makes the colt
and other times the colt makes the
man, and in this case it appears to be
a fifty-fifty affair. for the flly and
"Acky" were in tune from the very
beginning. She came along nicely,
, raced some as a two-year- and trot-
ted in 2:14A over a haf-mile track,
stepped six miles in 2:10 or better,
one in 2:08a4 on a mile track, but was
not given a record faster than 2:12
Townsend was not taking anything
!
found Bertha Mcclure in fine order.
In her debut last year she trottcd sec
ond to the race champion Miss Bertha
Dillon when that filly won the Cham
pion Stallion Stakes at North Randall
in a heat in 2:O5A. This she followed,
with four straight wins in early clos
ing events for three-year- olds on East
] ern Grand Circuit tracks, taking a rec
ord of 2:09M over the Philadelphia
! track.
In the "Horse Review" Futurity at
Columbus the Saugerties filly trotted
33 to The Real Lady, 1908, owned by
A. II. Cosden, of New York, being sepa-
rately timed in 2:o5A. Next week she
was 3-3-3 in the race which resulted
in duel between The Real Lady and
Miss Bertha Dillon, being separately
timed in 2:04A in the second heat. in
which she came the last half in 1:00%
Then came the $4,000 Kentucky Flu
turity, at Lexington, in which Ackcr-
man let The Real Lady and Miss Ber-
tina Dillon fight out two heats. Then
he set SAIL and Bertha Mcclure trotted
so fast that she forced The Real Lady
to step in 2:03M to win, her own mile
being in 2:04A and her middle half
in 0:59M.
Won SSH Last Year
Alderman stopped with hcr here
content with four frsts, as many
thirds and two fourths in eight starts
and $8,711 in money The campaign
WAS Il triumph for both the flly ant
the man, the one being long on speed
and manners and the other disclosing
superb judgment for driver new tc
the Grand Circuit.
This year finds the homstrctch clca,
as far as Bertha McGure's rivals OF
1917 are concerned These three
superlatve filies were bred by East
crn men, The Real Lady having come
from the Walnut Hall Farm of the late
l.. V. Hardness, and Miss Bertha Dill
Ion being foaled at the establishment
Of A. Il. Coke, at Paoli, Penn.
Alderman may have driven Bertha
Mcclure to her limit, but never be.
yond it. He did not end the season
with regrets. On the contrary. there
doomed before him the rich stakes for
all ages, generally centcring around
the 2:08 class, and he kept her TO,
this division. A threc-year- tina,
can trot close to 2:04. and do a hall
In better than a minute, then retain ali
Of her vigor and soundncss, is a logi.
cal champion at maturity, so that /,
would be no surprise to sec her de.
throne Peter Volo as the champion
four-year- old, his mark being 2:02.
At the Lexington meeting Alderman
drove Alma Forbes heat in 2:O4X
in the Walnut Hall Cup. and man,
we're in doubt whether she or Early
80 kn