Sport: St. Edward of Lexington

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The Colonel had established a gaming place in St. Augustine, Fla., with his brother John, when Promoter Henry M. Flagler suggested that his budding social colony at Palm Beach needed a place to risk its money. Bradley's celebrated Beach Club was opened in 1898. In its 36 years, rare is the U. S. Big Name which has not applied for a guest card. The Beach Club is a large homey collection of white frame buildings on Lake Worth, not far from the yellow railway station where many of its visitors put their private cars on sidings. It is chartered to operate as a private organization to run a buffet "and such games of amusement as the managers and members may from time to time agree on." The games of amusement reputedly net Colonel Bradley $1,000,000 per year, although the receipts have been lower since Depression and last year the croupiers and other attendants took a cut. Nevertheless, the Beach Club has been sufficiently profitable to permit Edward Riley Bradley, first citizen of Palm Beach and a devout Catholic, to build a magnificent church one block away. Its realistic donor was not displeased when the shrine was named St. Edward's.

Colonel Bradley first leased, then bought the 400-acre Idle Hour Farm in the heart of the Kentucky blue-grass country near Lexington, later acquiring another 600 acres. The Beach Club pays for this establishment. "My stables keep me poor," says Colonel Bradley. "I can't afford to run them. They cost me $30,000 a month year in and year out, and only in two years have my horses' earnings run as high as $200,000."

Calculating in his speculations, Colonel Bradley hesitates at no extravagance where his horses are concerned. When they die, marble headstones mark their graves in a well-kept cemetery. Their stables are of Colonial architecture and stalls are fitted with Vita-Glass. Some of the Colonel's equine innovations, however, have been less successful than others. When he heard about streamlining and wind-resistance, he experimented with little hoods to be strapped on his horses' heads. More disastrous was his notion, abetted by an Akron (Ohio) oculist, that horses with defective vision would run better if equipped with glasses. Result was a large bill and one disabled jockey, the rider of the first terrified mount in spectacles. But to Colonel Bradley goes credit for introducing the fibre skullcap, first worn by his jockeys, now used by all to prevent serious head injuries in falls.

Childless and widowed, Colonel Bradley turns out the best of his horses once a year for the celebrated Orphans' Day meet at his farm. To the orphans, his guests, he is St. Edward indeed, for the meet is well attended, makes some $30,000 for charity.