AN AMERICAN RACING FIRM IN ENGLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 2399, 22 February 1900, Page 40

AN AMERICAN RACING FIRM IN ENGLAND.

Mr James R. Keene and his son have sent their horses to Beckhampion to be trained. The some-time owner of Foxhall has at least one good three-year-old in Disguise 11, by Domino out of Bonnie Gal, by Galopin out of Bonnie Doon. Mr Keene himself. says the Sportsman's special, U Lhe vice-chairman of the New York Jockey Club, and he was born in England, but went with hi-, father to America in 1852. At an early age he entered energetically upon business life, and, after editing- a newspaper and going through othpr kindred evpeiiences, aequiied o fortune in San Francisco. So abundantly did he prosper that in the seventies he was one of the four contributors of si million dollars each fo pave the Bank of California from ruin. Mr FoxliaU Keene, who races in partnership with hit, father, is better known in England, though he^ was but a child when Foxhall was — as I presume— named after him. and came to England to score such great triumphs. Mr Foxhall Keene has for pome seasons now been in the habit of coming here to hunt, and only the other day he got rather a nasty fall, but that will be of no great account to a man of Ins cnlibrc. He has for years past ranked as about the finest amateur jockey in the Stales, and at polo he has no rivals there, but in ISQS lie met with a serious accident in the match for the Polo Association championship, which for a while badly impaired his healtY He is all right now, however, and it may be added of him that he is a crack golf player, a fine shot, a capital tennis and racquet player, and o great favourite among all who know him. So much for "Foxy" Keene — to give him the name hy which he is known to hi?- intimates He and ins father own one of the largest breeding studs in America. In. 1896 they had about 100 brood mares at CasUetou, Kentucky, and a very large proportion, of them are Engh?h -bred, and though Domino's career a-> a rtalhon was all too brief, such horacs cs Kingston, Ben Brush, St. Leonard?, and Chorister are good enough to sire Derby winner*:, and \cry possibly may do so. The Keene stable has been as distinguished as any otl.Pi" in the United States, and its viriorios have often been of a most notable character. In 189?.. for example, the year of the wonderful performances of Domino, the stab'p stood at the head of the list of winners for the season. Its winning? amounted to 279,458 dollar', an amount which was unprecedented in the history of the American turf as the result of the work of a single year. Domino Avon all the races in which he was entered, nine in number, amounting in value to

191,780 dollars,; and it will therefore be seen that Disguise 11. now at S. Dor-linn's, has only to be as good as his sire to take his own part in our Derby or any other race.