The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1919-12-30
HIGH PRICES Are PAID
Thoroughbreds Are Sold At
Fancy Figures
Fashionable Gatherings at Saratoga
When Aristocracy Of Horse Family
Are Placed on the Block.

An astonishing expansion OF the
thoroughbred horse sales business and
an amazing increase in thoroughbred
values is revealed in the cast up OF
the eastern traffic in running horse
stock for the fiscal year ending August
81, by e. j. Tranter, president of the
Fasig- Upton Company. Of New York.
The Fasig.Tipton Company has undis-
puted control of the eastern sales bust
ness now. And the sales in so far as
thoroughbred yeariings offered in the
eastern market are concerned are held
mainly in the month of August and
conducted in splendidly appointed
establishment built by Mr.. Tranter
three or four seasons back after the
hest European models, but with certain
American establishments. Everybody
who is anything in the thoroughbred
world, or ever hopes to be, f1Ocks to
Saratoga in August. The thorough
bred yearling sales, and especially
those held at night under the glare Of
electric arcs, have become social func-
tions. Men never think Of going out
to the night sales from the palatial
cottages and the great hotels save in
evening dress. Women attend them
invariably in evening dress, or I'M
dress, according to ores point of view.
The best appreciation of the expan-
sion of the thoroughbred auction sales
business and of the increase in tho
rOughbred values is to be obtained by
comparing the records Of 1919 with
the records of 1917 and 1918. Two
hundred and seventy-three yearlings
were led to the auction block in 1917
and they brought total Of $3S3,275,
an average of 81 ,4O4 a head. Sixty
seven horses of racing age brought
$116,1OO, an average Of $1,732.S3
head. In 1918 two hundred and thirty
five thoroughbred yearlings brought
| total of $24S,62O, an average of ST.
O57.96 head; nine brood mares fetch
ed $2O,950, an average of S2,327.77 .
head; and 152 horses of racing age
fetched $200,S1O, an average Of ST.
S21.12 head. .
Run Into BIG Money. -.
More than three-quarters of q mill
lion dollars-$S79,21O to be exact-was
realized ut the auction block at Sara
tOSa for the thOroughbreds the Tran
ter Company offered to bidders. Two
hundred and twenty-seven yearlings
brought $6O3, 800, an average of 3d.
658.58 head; nineteen broOdmares
fetched S136, 300, an average OF ST.
1850 head; three stations brought
$21, 800, an average Of $7,267, and
e;ghty-three horses in training fetched
$117,610, an average Of $1.417. These
figures relate merely to the auction
sales business. Many horses of vari-
Gus ages have been bought and sold
privately. MOntfOrd Jones paid $4,000
in June for the 2-year-Old BrOOkholt,
son of Ballot. S. c. Hildreth paid
$I7, 500 for Dominique, q son of Peter
Ounce. Hildreth is said to have re-
fused an offer Of $4,000 for the three
year-Old Purchase. Larry Waterbury,
successful New York broker paid
$4,000 for the three-year-old Sennings
Park. Mr.. Tranter, who keeps a close
watch on the thoroughbred market,
generally estimates that some two and
half million dollars will have chang.
ed hands in transactions in thorough
bred blood before the first of the year
Many horses Of various ages will be
sold in Kentucky this fall.
1t was thought that the top limit. of
American buyers as regards auction
sales prices was reached in the sum.
mer Of 1913 when Mrs Walter NJ. Jet.
fords, of Philadelphia, paid S15, 900 for
French-bred yearling by Sweeper out
Of Zuna, which won the Saratoga Spe-
cial in August under the name of
Golden Brook; when Commander J. K.
L. Ross, Of Montreal, paid $14,5OO for
colt by Black Jester out of Primula,
and Joseph e. Widener paid $4,000
for son of Vulcain and Fairy Gold
which claims Friar Rock, Fair Play
and FlittergOld for half brothers. But
this theory has been badly shattered.
Ten thousand dollars and $4,000 were
common prices for good looking
thOrOughbredS last August A breeder
offering yOungster that looked like a
thoroughbred and boosted of a fair
pedigree who failed to get from $4,000
TO $4,000 for his stuff went back to
Kentucky or Virginia utterly disguised.
A Few Big Prices.
W. V. Thraves, Virginian, who is
about to embark on a thoroughbred
producing enterprise at Long Ridge
Farm in Fayette county, KY, paid
$24,5OO for yearling son of Ultimus
offered by John Oliver Keene. Com
mander Ross paid $4,000 for an inn
ported son of er and Marian
Hood. Philip T. Chfnn, acting for Mr..
Waterbury, paid $22,5OO for a son of
Celt and Sand Dune that claims the
Splinter The Boy for half brother, w.
r. Coe paid $4,000 for a brown son of
Celt and Patricia w Commandar