S6 The American Thoroughbred 



Baltimore, for it ceased several years prior to Col. Bowie's, death, was largely owing 

 to that gentleman's insisting upon acting as presiding judge while owning contending 

 horses in the races at that place. 



The Coney Island Jockey Club's plant was established in 1884 at Sheepshead Bay 

 and was inaugurated with the first running of the "Surburban Handicap," now worth 

 $20,000; and the Brooklyn Jockey Club, in 1887, opened a new track at Gravesend 

 with a race known as the "Brooklyn Handicap," won by Dry Monopole, with Blue 

 Wang second and Hidalgo third, in a heads-apart finish that is still referred to as the 

 greatest contest ever seen on that already classic ground. There are a large number 

 of valuable handicaps and sweepstakes run at both of these tracks, but it is only of 

 those at Sheepshead Bay that I now propose to speak, the Realization for three-year- 

 olds at one mile and five furlongs, run late in June ; and the Futurity Stakes for two- 

 year-olds, run at six furlongs, during the last week in August. The Realization was 

 inaugurated in 1887 and was won by Mr. J. B. Haggin's ch c' Salvator. by imported 

 Prince Charlie out of Salina by Lexington. Its value was $34,000 in that year, the 

 highest sum ever reached in that race, from which it has steadily declined till in 1902 

 (won by Major Dangerfield) its total was but $12,875 or about 30 per cent of its 

 original value. It has been won but once by an imported colt, The Friar, in 1897 ; 

 and imported Eothen (by Hampton) is the only stallion to get two winners of the 

 Realization, so far Requital in 1896 and Ethelbert (Perry Belmont's colt) in 1899. 



The Futurity was inaugurated in 1888 and won in that year by Proctor Knott 

 (son of Luke Blackburn) with Salvator second and a Missouri-bred colt called Galen 

 third. I did not see the race nor any other Futurity, for that matter, being then on 

 duty at Melbourne as one of a Board of Commissioners from America to the 

 World's Fair commemorating the centennial of that antipodean city. The value of the 

 Futurity in that year was $40,900 but in 1890, when Potomac and Masher (both bred 

 by the elder Belmont) ran one-two for it, its value had risen to $67,775, gross value 

 of course. Since then it has steadily declined in value till, in 1899 when it was won 

 by Air. J. R. Keene's Chacornac, its gross value was but $30,630. I can only regard 

 this race as a national calamity for it has led up to the training of a lot of large and 

 growthy two-year-olds that have been knocked to pieces by the severe exercise to 

 which they were subjected. As a proof of what I say, let me show you that, in 

 fifteen renewals of the Realization, it has only been twice won by the Futurity winner 

 of the previous year Potomac in 1891 and Requital in 1896. We had already too 

 much two-year-old racing before the Futurity was started up and it has only served 

 to intensify a deeply-rooted evil, with little or no prospect of its amelioration. Look 

 over this comparative table: 



REALI- REALI- 



FUTURITY. ZATION FUTURITY. 7ATION 



Proctor Knott i o Requital i i 



Salvator 2 i Ogden i o 



Potomac i i L'Alouette i o 



Strathmeath 3 3 Martimas I o 



His Highness i o Chacornac i o 



Tammany o i Ethelbert o i 



Morello i o Pr. of Melbourne o i 



Domino I o Parader o i 



Dobbins 3 i Hamburg Belle i 2 



Butterflies i o 



Of course as long as it costs but $10 to nominate a mare in the Futurity with but 



one subsequent payment before the yearlings are sold at auction, just so long will 

 extensive breeders like Mr. J. B. Haggin (who has nearly one thousand mares) and 



a score of others who own from fiftv to one hundred matrons, to continue to nominate 



