New-York tribune., 1918-07-14

Hurt Campfire,
Wilson Asserts
Noted Breeder Forecasts
Foreign Demand for Our
Mares After War

No breeder in the United States. TAX
ing the number of mares in his stud
into consideration, can show a greater
measure Of success than Richard t.
Wilson, the president of the SARATOGA
Association for the Improvement of the
Breed of Horses. While Wilson had
until recently only about half q dozen
mares, he has always had horse of
more than ordinary quality racing un-
der his colors that was the outcome Of
his own theories in mating, while in
Campfire and Hannibal he procured
two first class horses.
THE general public will never know
how good horse Campfire was" said
Wilson few days ago in discussing
the possibilities of the son of Olam-
bala and Nightfail as sire "He was
never greater than when he broke
down, and the morning he went wrong
1 think he could have worked faster
over Belmont Park than any horse that
was ever trained there While he did
great things as a two-year-o when he
topped the list of winners in this
country ne was, in my opinion. destined
70 accomplish still greater things later
in his career
81 have always had nv own opinion
concerning Campfire. and nothing will
make me believe that he was not
sufferer from what we would call auto
lntoxication in the human family. 1t
was this which interfered with his
training and kept him from taking the
same pride of place as three-year-old
which he occupied at two. This season
ne appeared to be himself again. but
now MS racing career is ended and the
puDhc Will have to remember him as a
very great two-year-old I look for him
TO make good IN the stud just as Olam-
bala has"
Overlook Native Blood
Ihere are breeders in this country
"Eo nave been prone to overlook the
greatness Of some of cur American
Ianilles whlie unduly exploiting the
merits OF others. We are all ready to
concede the potency of the Bonnie
Scotland and Hanover families. hut
back of Hanover and Hindoo there was
mighty horse--a horse of great in
dlvlduality-whose qualities have come
down through generations of good
horses. | refer to Virgil, son of Vandal
and grandson of the immortal Glencoe.
THIS horses blood, to my way Of think
ing, had as much to do with making
Hanover great as did his Bonnie Scot.
land dam.
Virgil spent many of his best years
IN obscurity; was used as hack and
buggy horse, being driven about the
streets Of New Orleans by the late
Colonel R. w. Simmons, who frequently
told me that the horse could show a
three-minute gait on the trot. He could
jump and he could run far and fast.
Had he had an opportunity equal to
other sires could name whose place in
turf history is almost a blank his
name would be on everybodys lips He
lived to get in Hindoo a phenomenal
racehorse and sire, while a sister to
that horse threw Firenze, a mare whose
equal for her inches this country has
never seen.
Il am we'll pleased to have an in
fusion of Virgil's blood so close I'D in
Olambala and Campfire and think much
o. thelr merit came through it. Olam-
bala has 1t closer, perhaps, than any
horse IN the country, his dam, Blue and
White, icing an own daughter of Vir-
gil. 1t s e strain which has nicked
with English blood in truly remark
able way, as is shown in Campfire's S
performances, and were / an English
breeder / would seek it with every con-
fidence,
Postwar Possibilities
THE Glencoe strain is what Eng
land lacks to-day. They need desir-
able ouscross just as emphatically as
do we in the United States, and while
we have drawn from their storehouse
more freely in the past, it would not
surprise me if after the war there
should be an active demand for our
best American mares for foreign ac-
count. Rhoda B., which had this Virgil
strain through Hanover, threw the
English Derby winner Orby, and what
she has done others of the same tribe
should De able to accomplish
This exchange of blood is a good
thing for the thoroughbred of the fut-
ure. The well bred mares which our
breeders have secured Of recent years
from abroad represent strains which
were unpurchasable before the war.
and they cannot fail to make good
when mated with the best of our sires
and when say best | say it advised
ly-wlth the idea firmly placed that the
American sire viii hold his own with
m cd