The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1919-12-09
THOROUGHBREDS
PROVE STRONGER
GREAT WAR TAUGHT IMPORT.
kNcE OF BREEDING OF
HORSES.
RACING ENCOURAGED ABROAD
Nations Who Bore 5runt Ct Conflict
Maintained tire Sport as Much as
Possible as Matter Of Sound Policy
in its Relation tc National Defense.

AT 30 time i'm the course Of the last
five wears, not even while the great
war was at its height, did the Cen
sral Empires stop the racing of thor
Oughbred horses. The great tracks ut
Hamburg, Buda Pest, Vienna and Ber-
lin were the scenes of brilliant gather
ingS, even when the Grand Duke Mich
olas was threatening East Prussia
with invasion and Brusilof was on the
edge of the plains of Hungary with his
wild Cossack riders. at no time diY
ing the course of the great war were
American and English trainers and
Jockeys, who had been caught by thu
declaration OF war in Germany and
-Austria-Hun@ary and We're unable 10
obtain passports. ihterned. They Mere
permitted by governments their gov
ernments were seeking To destroy tC
pursue their accustomed callings un-
molested and unrestrained.
To certain extent racing was cur
tailed i'm Great Britain during the first
two years Of the great war. The use
OF the famous Epson Downs course
as resting place for convalescing sol.
dierS necessitated The running of the
famous British Derby ut Newmarket
IN 1914, 1917, 1916, 1917 and 1918. The
preoccupation of the spOrtsmen of
Great Britain i'm The business of war
caused them, TO certain extent, 10
neglect the thoroughbred sales of 1917,
1916 and 1917, and Americans were
enabled TO slip i'm and buy up lot OF
fiTst-class stations and mares with
which TO enrich the American thor
ougEbred industry.
France Alone Stops Facing.
of the great nations participating in
the great war, France alone felt the
necessity of stopping horse racing
Threatened with utter destruction in Il
food OF Teutonic barbarism, France
had to send to the lighting lines on The
Marine, the Solnme, the Aisne about
Verdun, in The Vosges, every male
Frenchman capable OF bearing arms.
Back of the fighting lines she had to
mobilize the elderly men with the
women and children for the imperative
work Of making munitions. Upon
France alone fell the burden of resist
ing the German tiGe for upward Of two
years. Throughout the course of the
war speed tests We're held at the great
French tracks, but not as public spec
tacles. But there was no letting down
of the bars as regards the expectation
from France Of thoroughbred blood
any time during the war. AS a special
consideration citizens of the United
States, a country from which the
French, from the very beginning of the
war, were drawing enormous quanti-
ties of military material, who had thor
-oughbred studs in France, such men as
John Sanford. Of Amsterdam, Major
August Belmont. Joseph h. Widener
and Thomas p. Thorne, We're permit
ted, when transportation was availa-
Die, to ship TO the United States lin
1ted number Of thoroughbred yearlings.
No matured thoroughbred stations or
males were allowed to leave the coun-
try, whether their owners We're French
men or outlenders.
With the signing or the armiStice
France and England resumed racing
with characteristic enthusiasm. Nlc
attendance at the race tracks about
Paris has been greater this season
than In any for the period of half
dozen years preceding the outbreak of
the great war. The crowds that wit
messed the running of the Derby, the
Oaks, the Ascot Gold Cup, the Leger.
.etc., in Great Britain, were greater by
the thousands than the greatest of
ante-bellum race track gatherings
Sport Encouraged in Europe.
In France and Great Britain the pat
Ionage of horse racing, by the public,
has the highest government encourage
ment now as the support of racing had
in Germany and Austria-Hmgary even
Through the dark months when human
Beings were finding ii difficult to OBJ
tain nourishing food. France and Eng
land recognize today as Germany aud
,Austria-Hungary have for many days
the indispensibility of thoroughbred
blood to national defense and neces-
lsity Of thoroughbred horse racing for
the maintenance at its highest efticien-
.cy OF thoroughbred blood.
For upward of seventy years previ-
,ous to the beginning of the great war
the military governments of continent
lal Europe had been maintaining thor
,oughbred studs for the production of
military horses. ala earlier century OF
Experimentation having demonstrated
10 the satisfaction Of experts that fl
was the horse that boosted of the
greatest proportion Of thoroughbred
blood that showed the highest efficlen.
icy in military service, whether/as a
troopers mount, an artillery horse or
. part Of the transport service. The