THE 
 
 TWO MINUTE ^ 
 
 M^^^. 
 
o 
 
3 9090 013 401 506 
 
 Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicim 
 Cummincjs Schooi of Veterinary Medicine at 
 Tufts University 
 
THE TWO-MINUTE HORSE 
 
Lou Dillon 1:58M»— Millard Sanders 
 
THE TWO-MINUTE HORSE 
 
 A History of the six Two-Minute Trotters 
 
 AND THE FOURTEEN TwO-MlNUTE PaCERS 
 TO THE CLOSE OF THE YEAR 1921 
 
 Published by MILLARD SANDERS 
 
 Copyright 1922 
 First Edition Printed March 1922 
 
 Press of The Judson Company 
 cleveland, ohio 
 
Millard Sanders — 1902 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Page 
 
 Arion Guy 1:59U (Thos. W. Murphy) _. ..- 87 
 
 Audubon Boy l:59Vi (J. Y. Gatcomb, R. S-ott Hudson) 127 
 
 Dan Patch 1:55^4 (Harry Hersey, M. E. McHenry ) 115 
 
 Directu:m I l:56-'4 (Thos. W. Murphy, Raymond Snedeker t 155 
 
 Frank Bogash, Jr. 1:5914 (Thos. W. Murphy) - 141 
 
 Lee Axworthy 1:58^4 <Ben F. White. W. J. Andrews) 61 
 
 Lou Dillon 1:581/> (Millard F. Sanders) 13 
 
 Louie Grattan 2:00 (Victor Flemins) -. 195 
 
 Major Delmar 1:59')4 (Alta McDonald) 31 
 
 Minor Heir 1:59 (Harry Hersey, Chas. Dean) 133 
 
 Miss Harris M. 1:5814 (Thos. W. Murphy, Alonzo McDonald) ... 179 
 
 Napoleon Direct 1:59';4 (E. F. Geers 1 173 
 
 Peter M-\nning 1:57% (Thos. W. Murphy, Harry Putnam) 73 
 
 Prince Alert 1:59^ o (Mart Demarest) 109 
 
 Prince Loree 2:00 ( M. McDevitt) _ 187 
 
 Sanardo 1:59% (Thos. W. Murphy) 201 
 
 Single G 1:59 (Ed. Allen, Fred Jamison, Curt Gosnell ) 161 
 
 Star Pointer 1:59^4 (D. J. McClary) 103 
 
 Uhlan 1:58 (Chas. Tanner, Robert Proctor)... 39 
 
 William 1:5814 (William W. Marvin) 147 
 
 Billings, Mr. C. K. G 209 
 
 Final Mile, The (Walter Palmar i 8 
 
 World's Champion Two-Minute Horse Tr.\de 213 
 
THE FINAL MILE 
 
 Mighty Monarchs of the Equine Race, 
 
 Just when will come the zenith of your flight? 
 What voice will guide your flying feet apace, 
 
 And prompt you in your crowning trial aright? 
 What deft and clever wizard of the reins 
 
 Will urge you onward with uncanny hand? 
 What blood will course within your royal veins, 
 
 And who will view your triumphs from the stand? 
 What of the track and where the test? 
 
 When will you reach the dizzy heights sublime? 
 What starting judge will find you at your best, 
 
 And where will stop the second hand of time? 
 
 This much I know, your freedom's near 
 
 From toil and hardship that has long been yours. 
 And to supplant them there will soon appear 
 
 The rare devotion that so long endures. 
 And you, divorced from baser parts. 
 
 From war, and strife, and greed and pelf, 
 Will be enshrined within the hearts 
 
 That love you for yourself. 
 And when that roseate dav shall fall 
 
 And all is ready for the final mile, 
 
 1 know the Great Presiding Judge of all 
 
 Will look down from those pearly gates and smile. 
 
 — Walter Palmer. 
 
SCORING FOR THE WORD 
 
 N preparing this volume the object in view was, 
 largely, to put in lasting form something in the way 
 of a brief history not so much of the public career 
 of the trotters and pacers that have taken records of two 
 minutes or better (though that has not been slighted) as of 
 the "making" of them. 
 
 Of these trotters and pacers there are (January, 1922) 
 an even score, of which six are trotters. The period covered 
 by this list of twenty is a quarter of a century — it was in 
 1897 that Star Pointer, driven by Dave McCleary, started 
 the two-minute list by pacing a mile in 1:591/4 at Readville, 
 Mass., over the same track on which, six years later, Lou 
 Dillon, driven by Millard Sanders, with a mile in "even 
 time" instituted the two-minute list of trotters. 
 
 During that quarter of a century, either by developing 
 the horses or carrying them on and driving them to their 
 records, a notable array of trainers have shone in their 
 chosen calling, and written their names indelibly on th«^ 
 scroll of fame in the world of the light-harness horse. 
 
 To these men, as well as to the breeders and owners of 
 the two-minute horses, this book is dedicated and it is meant 
 to be a tribute of respect no less than a chronicle of the deeds 
 of men and horses and a story of how these great performers 
 were trained and conditioned. 
 
 No attempt has been made to go too deeply into details, 
 this work concerning itself more particularly with the two- 
 minute portion of the history of each horse. That the work 
 
lO THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 has its defects need not be denied but they are minor and 
 that the volume contains much of great value is equally true. 
 
 It is the hope of him who conceived it that it may present 
 much that the young trainer, perhaps the older one as well, 
 may find of value to him in his chosen profession for it is 
 a certainty that while the ambition of every trainer is, pri- 
 marily, to develop race winners, his ever abiding hope is 
 that some day he may have the high honor of taking before 
 the public a two-minute horse. 
 
 In conclusion it is fitting that every one who has assisted 
 in getting together the data for this volume be given heart- 
 felt thanks. Without that kind assistance the work could 
 not have been done at all. And the hope is indulged that 
 the reception of the volume by the public will be as hearty 
 as was the response of those who were asked to furnish some 
 of the material. 
 
THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 LOU DILLON 
 
 MAJOR DELMAR 
 
 UHLAN 
 
 LEE AXWORTHY 
 
 PETER MANNING 
 
 ARION GUY 
 
But my chestnut mare was of blood so rare 
 That she showed them all the way. 
 
 — Walter Thornhury. 
 
 =^ 
 
 LOU DILLON 
 
 World's Champion Trotting Mare 
 Record 1:58^ 
 
 RANK TURNER, of the Santa Rosa Stock Farm, 
 l)ridle-broke the great mare Lou Dillon when she 
 was trying out baby trots at her mother's side and 
 Millard Sanders was her maestro, and he was more to his 
 noble pupil. He passed down into the springs of her being 
 and there awoke a latent thing called life; he flexed her 
 growing muscles and taught them their lightning play over 
 the surface of her supple limbs. He found a soul. He 
 calmed her when she was impatient, he ruled her when she 
 w^as wayward and with the infinite tenderness of love he 
 lifted her out of the crudities of youth and attuned her to 
 action faultless and marvelous. He became a part of her — 
 an elemental blending of man and horse — a new creation 
 vibrant in its dual unity; and in that grand harmony of mind 
 and matter she trod the chords arising to a symphony of 
 wondrous theme and tone, and the rhythm of her hoof -beats 
 was heard around the world." 
 
 This rhapsody, born of the enthusiasm of the moment, 
 Tom Gregory, of California contributed to the Santa Rosa 
 (Cal.) Republican at the time Lou Dillon became the world's 
 first two-minute trotter. And more recently "Markey" said 
 of her: 
 
 ''Lou Dillon was the airiest, most buoyant thing of flesh 
 and blood that has ever appeared among the trotting genus. 
 Her action, poise and carriage suggested flying rather than 
 trotting. There was about her a dash and spirit which no 
 trotter, not even the superb Uhlan, could hope to rival. She 
 
14 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 trotted with the ease and facility with which a thoroughbred 
 runs. I doubt if any other trotter ever gave to both unin- 
 itiated and initiated observers such thrills as did the little 
 chestnut mare." 
 
 The following story of Lou Dillon was prepared recently 
 by Millard Sanders, who, as perhaps everybody knows, 
 taught her from colthood and made her the first two-minute 
 trotter: 
 
 "Before beginning the story of Lou Dillon it may, per- 
 haps, be well to go back to the few years prior to her advent 
 and note what the opinion was as to the probability of ever 
 seeing a mile trotted in two minutes. There may have been 
 some among the many thousands of horse enthusiasts who 
 believed such a thing to be among the future possibilities. 
 But as I recollect it they were very few and scattering. As 
 a matter of fact I do not recall a single one among my wide 
 acquaintance who even allowed himself to dream that there 
 ever would be a trotted mile in two minutes. True, in 1897, 
 Star Pointer had paced a mile in 1:591/4 but the general 
 belief was that the pacer had four or five seconds more speed 
 than the trotter — that is, the pacing gait was that much the 
 speedier. I believe it had been 'scientifically' figured out 
 that the trotter would never reach the two-minute mark. 
 
 "Those who were not active in the field of the trotter 
 cannot begin to imagine the furore Lou Dillon created all 
 over the land, all over the world, in fact, when she trotted 
 in two minutes at Readville. The target at that time was 
 the 2:021/4 world's record of Cresceus and almost any owner 
 would have been delighted to have his horse trot a mile in 
 2:02 for that would have given him the championship. My 
 faith in the coming of the so-called impossible made me the 
 subject of many good-natured jibes. But the two-minute 
 trotter arrived and she took her championship honors, not 
 by a small part of a second but by two and a quarter seconds. 
 Naturally that wonderful mile was a great event. The press 
 acclaimed it and the horse world took on new life and greater 
 animation. 
 
 "The eff"ect the arrival of the two-minute trotter had upon 
 the men who had long been identified with training is best 
 
LOU DILLON 15 
 
 illustrated by an incident which occurred at Lexington, Ky., 
 the fall of 1903. 'Uncle' George J. Fuller, noted as the 
 trainer of many good horses, dating his career back to the 
 time of Scott's Thomas and including the great four-year-old 
 Patron 2:1414^ came to my stable for a brief visit. When 
 he came in he said to me: 'Millard, I came from my home 
 in Tennessee, to see what I never expected there would be — 
 a two-minute trotter. I want to look at her and lay my hand 
 on her and then I will be content to go back to my home.' 
 There were many of the old guard who felt about it as he 
 did, which was that the impossible had come to be possible, 
 but when it came to pass they were just like the rest, wildly 
 enthusiastic and they helped make me believe what I had 
 done was worth while. 
 
 'T first saw Lou Dillon at Santa Rosa Stock Farm. She 
 was then three and the farm trainer, who was driving her 
 had her fitted up with all kinds of rope rigging. She was a 
 great one to shake her head and to be controlled was often 
 thrown. Mr. Henrv Pierce came to me and asked if I could 
 drive her without fighting her or throwing her. I did not 
 know that I could but I agreed to try and so she came into 
 my hands. I harnessed her without a check, drove her on 
 the road for a while, cured her of her worst habits and 
 started to train her to trot the spring she was a four-year-old. 
 Almost at once she contracted pneumonia and for three 
 weeks lay at the point of death, coming through a mere 
 skeleton. When she had regained some of her strength she 
 was again put in training. She acted kindly but she would 
 not score — would just go on a little gallop and that she per- 
 sisted in for nearly a month. Then I made up my mind I 
 had to do something to cure her of 'acting up' when she was 
 turned at the wire. This was at the Pleasanton track and one 
 day there I tried for two hours to get her away on a trot. No 
 one may believe it but in all that time I did not lose my 
 temper for as much as an instant. I then drove her off the 
 track and into the stable and got a good whip then drove back 
 to the track for another half hour of refusing to score on a 
 trot. Then I decided on what to do. Turning her at the usual 
 place for scoring I hit her six stout raps with the whip, just 
 
1 6 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 as sharp as I could make them and let her run. Like a deer 
 she covered about twenty-five yards and landed in a very 
 fast trot. 
 
 "Pulling her up at the first turn I dismounted, petted her, 
 gave her some sugar and some grass, then remounted and 
 turned her at the score once more. That time she scored 
 beautifully the first time asked and trotted like she meant it. 
 I had promised myself that as soon as she scored properly 
 I would end her work for the day so I took her to the barn. 
 This was in the early Spring of 1902 and before we left 
 California she worked for me in 2:22. 
 
 'Tt was the intention to send her to the ranch for the 
 summer as I was to race the Henry Pierce horses in the East, 
 on shares, and she was not considered good enough to take 
 to the races under that sort of contract. But Mr. Pierce 
 finally declared that Lou would come East if any of his other 
 horses came and accordingly she was shipped along with 
 Anzella, Janice, Sir Albert S. and others, to Cleveland. I 
 did not give her a thought as a race mare but one morning 
 at the Glenville track, just before shipping to the Blue Rib- 
 bon races at Detroit I worked her a mile in 2:11. Johnny 
 Ray, the famous comedian and one of harness racing's most 
 devoted followers came to me after seeing that work and 
 off"ered $5,000 for the mare. All I could tell him was that 
 I would wire his offer to Mr. Pierce, which I did advising 
 against selling. Mr. Pierce's answer was: 'Use your judg- 
 ment, you are on the ground.' 
 
 "So I kept her and when we reached Baltimore I worked 
 her a mile in 2:08l/>, the last half in 1 :01 and refused an 
 offer of $10,000 for her. I worked her along as the day 
 and track suited and soon began to realize that she was a 
 wonderfully fast trotter so from the day of that realization 
 she was trained with the coming year in view. At Lexington 
 in early October she worked a mile in 2:08 and E. E. 
 Smathers offered $15,000 for her. That offer, after wiring 
 Mr. Pierce and getting his answer, was declined. 
 
 "The week of the Memphis meeting I was working her 
 one morning and Mr. Geers was out with The Abbot 2:031/4 
 and the late Jack Curry was working Prince Alert. Asking 
 
LOU DILLON 17 
 
 them how fast they intended to go they said in 2:10 and I 
 asked to work the little mare with them. The look of in- 
 credulity which came on the faces of those two veteran 
 drivers I shall never forget. Well — we went to the half in 
 1:08 and the last half was in 1:001/2 and Lou was going 
 easy all the way. In a few^ moments Mr. Smathers came to 
 the stable and made an offer of $20,000. Telegraphing Mr. 
 Pierce the offer I advised against selling and he replied tell- 
 ing me to use my own judgment, so that very generous offer 
 was also refused and the mare was shipped to California at 
 the close of the Memphis meeting. 
 
 "When I met Mr. Pierce in San Francisco on my return 
 to the coast he asked me if I candidly thought Lou a great 
 mare and I quickly replied that I thought her to be the fastest 
 trotter in the world and that she would trot in two minutes. 
 Mr. Pierce replied that she was not for sale and that if he 
 thought she was the coming two-minute trotter money would 
 not buy her. He was more than wealthy and was probably 
 one of the best horse owners that ever lived. He spent a lot 
 of money on horses yet had never before bred or owned one 
 of high class. So he said: 'I am worth a lot of money and 
 money is no object to me. If I could sell her for $100,000 
 I would rather own her when she trots in two minutes than 
 have that sum in the bank.' 
 
 "He looked at Lou much as Splan did at Rarus when he 
 had priced that great trotter to Robert Bonner, that gentle- 
 man saying: 'Mr. Splan, $40,000 is a lot of money.' To 
 which Splan replied: 'Yes, Mr. Bonner, but thousands of 
 men in New York have $40,000 yet only one man can have 
 Rarus.' 
 
 "In the book made by the grim reaper no favorites are 
 played. In about ten days after my conversation with Mr. 
 Pierce he contracted pneumonia and it soon proved fatal, 
 thus ending all plans he may have made as well as his par- 
 donable ambition to be the owner of a two-minute trotter. 
 Lou Dillon and all his other horses had to be sold and they 
 were shipped in the late Spring of 1903 to Cleveland to be 
 dispersed at the May sale. 
 
 "Another disappointment awaited me at the sale. Mr. 
 
1 8 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 Ira Pierce, brother of Mr. Henry Pierce, had promised to 
 buy Lou Dillon for me and told me if I wanted her, to buy 
 her at any price. I had made up my mind to go to $25,000 
 but a few minutes before the mare was offered he advised 
 me that he would not furnish the money and there was no 
 time to get it elsewhere. In consequence the mare was sold 
 at a sacrifice to Mr. C. K. G. Billings, for $12,500 and she 
 has had no other owner. When the little mare was led out 
 to be sold you may be sure I was not in much of a talking 
 humor but I did manage to say to the assembled crowd: 
 'Gentlemen, I would rather own, train and drive this mare 
 to the record she will attain than to be President of the 
 United States' and I gave them as my reason that we had had 
 many Presidents but never a trotter to do what she would do. 
 At the time I said it I knew those present thought I was just 
 talking. But I meant it. And, inside of six months from 
 that day Lou Dillon trotted a mile in 1:58^ under very 
 adverse circumstances. 
 
 "At that time I had no previous experience to guide me 
 in my work. There had never been a horse that had trotted 
 faster than 2:0214 '^^^^ the work a man must give a two- 
 minute trotter was absolutely unknown to me or any other 
 trainer. It cost me a great deal of thought and quite a little 
 worry and uneasiness. I did only what I thought was proper 
 but at that time my methods seemed a bit severe or strenuous 
 and attracted considerable criticism from my brother train- 
 ers. They wondered why I worked Lou so fast and still 
 tried to make more speed. Now what I was doing was trying 
 to simply develop something that for years had been con- 
 sidered impossible. I was not satisfied or contented to think 
 she would only trot in 2:02 or possibly 2:01 and thus carry 
 the record for I had predicted two minutes or better for her, 
 and I Ijelieve that no other man in the world thought she 
 would trot as fast as two minutes. As I often remarked, 
 training a trotter and edging him up to a two-minute mile 
 or better especially in 1903 was very much like a man play- 
 ing a violin. He gets it all tuned up, lays it down and picks 
 it up next day to play it yet before he can play he must tune 
 it again. In those days a two-minute trotter was just as deli- 
 
LOU DILLON 19 
 
 cate as a fine violin. I will repeat — I had no fixed plan, no 
 set method of other men to go by. 
 
 "After Lou was sold to Mr. Billings, she was turned over 
 to Mr. Chas. Tanner and though he got along very nicely 
 with her, after he had driven her about thirty days, he came 
 to me and remarked that he was not quite satisfied with her 
 and that I could have her to train if I wanted her. I asked 
 him when I could have her and his reply was, 'right away'. 
 I went with him to Mr. Billings' stable and took charge of 
 the mare and Tommy Waugh, her caretaker, as nice a little 
 gentleman and as nice a little mare as any man ever had 
 under his direction. 
 
 "Quite naturally, during her absence from my stable 
 Lou almost forgot the terms of the old understanding be- 
 tween us but I jogged her a couple of days and we restored 
 the old agreement. Deciding to work her on the third day 
 after she came back to me, I asked Mr. Tanner to drive the 
 runner and I would let her go a fraction better than 2:10 if 
 he would rate the runner every quarter in 32l^. Nobody 
 could do it better than he and he complied with my request 
 to the very fraction and the mare, brushing the last fifty 
 yards, trotted the mile in 2:09^, it being understood that I 
 w^as to beat the runner out a little bit. This performance 
 rather surprised everybody except me and pleased all friends 
 of Mr. Billings. 
 
 "After that mile I jogged her a few days and let Tommy 
 Waugh ride her about the grounds with nothing on her but 
 the halter. I might say that from that day on she seldom 
 had harness on more than three or four days a week. The 
 days she was not harnessed Tommy would take her out to 
 halter, ride her three or four miles and let her visit round. 
 It was a quiet way to execise her, because she was but a 
 bundle of nerves while in harness. On the other hand she 
 was the meekest, quietest, kindest and most gentle little mare 
 in the world, almost a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in her dual 
 personality. When I put harness on her she would fret and 
 sweat and waste away. When I did work her I did not use 
 the regular methods in scraping her out, did not use a 
 scraper — it was too harsh. Instead I got Tommy a big, soft 
 
20 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 sponge and with it we lifted the perspiration off her. I 
 found that the less we rubbed her body the better natured she 
 was. I think if we had scraped and rubbed her she would 
 have wasted away and would not have been the great mare 
 she turned out to be. I seldom jogged her as I did the other 
 horses. She was so high strung and nervous at a slow gait 
 that she was harder on herself going slow than when allowed 
 to step along for a little. For instance, often when I went 
 out to jog her she would twist and fret and show that she 
 did not want to go slow, so to please and humor her I would 
 get to the half and then let her step off at probably a 2:05 
 gait, perhaps better, in other words I would let her go the 
 clip that satisfied her. Maybe I had intended to jog her 
 three miles, but after letting her step I would abandon the 
 jogging and take her to her stall. I tell all this because 
 some other trainer may some day have a very fast, nervous 
 horse and he may profit by the experiences I had with Lou 
 Dillon, for I know that many good horses, probably two- 
 minute trotters have been thrown away. 
 
 "I can cite many times when Lou Dillon looked to be 
 absolutely worthless. She was so high strung that you 
 could not give her work enough to quiet her and if you 
 gave her the work she would not eat as much as a canary 
 bird. 
 
 "I remember, quite well, her only bad performance, the 
 disappointing one at Brighton Beach in 2:03'%|^. After that 
 mile I talked with Tommy Waugh and he told me to get 
 another man to groom her as he could not get her to eat 
 enough to enable her to go her good miles. T cannot do 
 it' he said. I told him our dictionary contained no such 
 word as can't and added: 'You may not be able to make 
 her eat enough but WE will. I am going to help you.' At 
 that time she would not eat a quart of oats in twenty-four 
 hours. I said to Tommy: 'We have done too much work 
 on this mare and she is too fast to give up. We will coax 
 and persuade her to eat enough to go on.' So I told him to 
 wait until I came back from the city. I was all at sea but 
 I had no faith in condition powders or appetizers or dope 
 so I decided to try to make a vegetarian out of her. In 
 
o 
 
 z 
 
 13 
 
 d 
 
 00 
 
 O 
 
LOU DILLON 23 
 
 town I went to a market and bought small quantities of 
 every vegetable there as well as every cereal in stock. Then 
 I went back to the track fairly loaded down with the truck. 
 The first thing we did was to spread a blanket in one corner 
 of the stall and on it we put a small quantity of everything 
 I had bought, all in separate piles. I had three or four 
 cereals, apples, peaches, pears, potatoes, turnips and carrots. 
 There never was man or horse that would not eat the thing 
 that struck his palate or taste. Lou nosed the food and 
 when she came to the carrots ate them up clean then smelled 
 everything else, turned and left it. In my joy I said to 
 Tommy: 'We have the greatest trotter in the world right 
 now.' 
 
 "I bought a half-bushel of carrots and a coarse vegetable 
 grater, took them back to the stable, grated two quarts of 
 carrots and mixed them with two quarts of oats. She cleaned 
 the feed box and looked for more. From that day on until 
 she trotted her record mile in 1:581/4 her regular ration 
 w^as two quarts of oats and three quarts of grated carrots 
 mixed. She had this feed four times every day and the 
 day she took her record she had two quarts of oats and 
 three quarts of grated carrots for breakfast and also for 
 dinner. 
 
 ''If I had a hundred horses I would certainly feed them 
 some carrots, especially to delicate feeders. They are veiy 
 strengthening and just as nourishing as any feed that can 
 be given a horse. I found many years ago on a horse-buy- 
 ing trip through Missouri that the farmers who fed carrots 
 had by long odds the sleekest and best looking horses. 
 
 "There were two causes for Lou Dillon's poor perform- 
 ance at Brighton Beach. The first has already been named, 
 that she was feeding badly and did not have sufficient strength 
 and vitality to go a great mile. The second cause arose 
 at the start of the mile and was a misunderstanding between 
 Mr. Tanner and myself regarding the speed, or rating. 
 When we scored for the word she was trotting veiy fast, 
 in fact too fast and as we struck the first turn I shouted 
 to Mr. Tanner to take the runner back. He misunderstood 
 me and came on and we trotted the first eighth in thirteen 
 
24 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 seconds and I felt very much ashamed of myself, because 
 I should not have expected any horse to go a mile and trot 
 the first eighth that fast. The result was, of course, that 
 she slowed up at the end of the mile. But, blaming my- 
 self more than I did the mare for this performance, I per- 
 suaded Mr. Billings to let me take her to Boston for another 
 trial. We took her there and Mr. Chas. Jewett, the Secretary 
 of the Readville track, gave me full charge of the course. 
 I worked it for four days before she was started, to get it 
 conditioned to suit Lou Dillon. This carried us up to Sun- 
 day and she was to go on Monday, the opening day. The 
 question that bothered me most was how to blow her out and 
 prepare her for the effort of the next day. The meeting was 
 the regular Grand Circuit event and before working her on 
 Sunday I talked with a number of the leading trainers try- 
 ing to get advice as to the preparatory work on Monday. 
 My past experience with her had convinced me that she had 
 to be worked right up to the day of a performance in order 
 to be good. A majority of the trainers advised me to work 
 her in 2:25 to 2:20 on Sunday. After thinking the matter 
 over and knowing the mare as well as I did, I worked her in 
 2:40, 2:25 and 2:091/2, the last half of the 2:09l/> mile in 
 1:00^. There is where I was criticized and called the 
 erratic tariner. I asked the men to wait with their adverse 
 criticism until after Monday. When she trotted the mile in 
 two minutes the last eighth in 14 seconds, I merely said they 
 could criticize as much as they pleased, but that my judg- 
 ment had proved to be right. 
 
 'T considered Lou Dillon what may be termed short bred 
 on her dam's side. My reason for working her as I did was 
 drawn from the old-time races where a field of horses would 
 start in a race one day and trot two, three or four heats and 
 the race would be postponed until the next day and the same 
 horses would trot faster than they did the previous day. 
 This may not prove to be true with the present day breeding, 
 but the old-fashioned trotter had to be keyed tighter than the 
 fashionably bred horses of today. 
 
 "This mile only convinced me that Lou had a great deal 
 more in her than she had shown. She went from Readville 
 
LOU DILLON 25 
 
 to Cleveland and worked to wagon in 2:04^), 2:05^/4 and 
 so on. At Lexington she first went a mile to wagon in 
 2:01'^, which was the day of Lou Dillon's life, when she 
 should have set a record that yet would be hanging on the 
 Lexington stand, as never before or after in her life was she 
 so good. I warmed her up to go for the sulky record. 1 
 expected to drive her and worked her in 2:40, 2:21 and 
 2:14, the last eighth of the 2:14 mile in 13 seconds. I had 
 made great preparations for the mile. The day was good, 
 the track was good, the mare was good and I had hopes that 
 she would set a record that would stand for many days to 
 come. Her sulky was run out on the floor and I had given 
 every detail careful thought. I went to the stand and 
 weighed in — at 156 pounds. Walking back to the stable to 
 get the mare ready and bring her out to sulky, I was hailed 
 by Mr. Tanner who said: 'Hitch her to wagon; Mr. Billings 
 will drive her.' While she went a beautiful mile to wagon 
 for Mr. Billings, I still think, if she had gone to sulky that 
 day, her record would not have been lowered to this day as 
 she had been trained and worked with the idea that I was to 
 drive her that mile. While I do not want to make any claims, 
 I believe that every great horse, trotter, pacer or runner and 
 every great man has ONE day. What makes it more dif- 
 ficult for a horse to perform in wonderful time is a combina- 
 tion of circumstances. For a horse must be just right, 
 the track just right, the atmosphere just right and the driver 
 himself just right in order to accomplish great things. 
 
 "At Memphis, following the Lexington effort Lou trotted 
 in 2:04*^, 2:04*% to wagon and then came her record mile 
 of 1:581/2 to sulky, the quarters in 30, 591/0, 1:281/0, thus 
 the middle half was trotted in 581/) seconds and she still 
 had enough left to trot the final quarter in 30 seconds. This 
 mile was not trotted under the most favorable circumstances, 
 owing to the fact that a light frost the night before had left 
 the air heavy — not light and balmy such as is necessaiy for 
 a supreme effort. 
 
 "While I do not want to find fault, yet I do believe that 
 Lou Dillon's performances were most wonderful for a green 
 mare. It is to be remembered that she began the season 
 
26 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 without a record and with no education and development to 
 season her. The majority of horses that have held the 
 world's records are horses that have been campaigned from 
 one year to two, three and four years, which is necessary to 
 develope muscle, lungs and everything pertaining to endur- 
 ance. And, again, Lou Dillon had more to contend with 
 than almost any other horse. The days she looked good, 
 perhaps the best, she would go to wagon and I do not believe 
 any horse, especially a double-gaited one wants to be chop- 
 ping at world's records one day with an amateur driver, to 
 wagon, and the next time to sulky with professional driving. 
 Different hitches, different drivers, let them be ever so good, 
 do not make a good system for the training of a two-minute 
 trotter. 
 
 "While Lou Dillon was a perfectly gaited trotter, she 
 was not in the beginning, for then she was a very ordinary 
 gaited mare. She was, as I have said, double-gaited; she 
 rolled, or paddled with the right front foot and one of her 
 worst faults of gait was that she speedy-cut very badly. 
 She began to learn to trot with a twelve-ounce shoe forward 
 and four-ounce toe-weight. After she showed some speed, 
 I saw she was too light to carry much weight, so I gradually 
 reduced the weight of her front shoes and put very light 
 bell quarter boots on her. The roll of the boots seemed to 
 answer the same purpose as the toe-wieghts she had pre- 
 viously carried. For a long time she was quite mixed gaited 
 and would rather pace than trot. Then I put a very light 
 rim pad under each front shoe and that helped her very 
 much. The bell quarter boots and the rim pads were of 
 great importance to her, for her gait became flat and even 
 and every time I shod her I kept putting on shoes some 
 lighter than she had been carrying. 
 
 "When she trotted the mile in two minutes at Readville, 
 she had on 6 ounce shoes forward and 4 ounce shoes behind, 
 with a 314 inch toe and an angle of 48. Behind, her toes 
 were the same length as the front ones and the angle was 
 5L I always kept her feet at about the same length and 
 angle but kept reducing the weight of her shoes and when 
 she trotted in 1:581/4 she wore 41/2 ounce shoes in front 
 
LOU DILLON 27 
 
 with very light rim pad and 214 ounce shoes behind — 
 swedge shoes with small heel calk. 
 
 "All this had a great deal to do with Lou and her gait. 
 But the greatest improvement through the most essential 
 thing for her to have, was the lip strap. From her early 
 development, or breaking, when you would put a bit in her 
 mouth she would continually shake her head. I removed 
 the bridle check and took a straight Jaynes bit and from 
 the very first time I put a lip strap on her she went smoother 
 and better. As long as she was fighting the bit and shak- 
 ing her head it interfered with her gait. While a lip strap 
 is considered very severe, and it is if a man sees fit to make 
 it so, a horse in order to go fast must go pure-gaited, with 
 no discord and no pulling. You can drive a horse more air- 
 ily, lighter-handed with a lip strap than you can with a bit 
 alone. In the majority of cases the bit pulls back on the 
 teeth which have no life or resiliency. But a lip strap 
 passes over the front teeth, rests on the gums and at a point 
 where every horse has a pair of very sensative nerves. And 
 every horse soon learns what that means. A man must be 
 light-handed in order to use the lip strap successfully. I 
 have had wonderful success with it as I generally drive my 
 horses low-headed and in a great many cases with no check 
 at all. For instance, Lou Dillon wore no check and I could 
 mention many others. 
 
 "I am very much with the lip strap as Robert Bonner 
 was with the toe weights. He told me one day while I was 
 visiting with him in the office of the New York Ledger that 
 he believed the toe-weight would increase the endurance of 
 some horses. As he explained it a horse must go smoothly 
 and without friction to go fast and far. In other words, 
 would last longer going at a smooth gait than if he went 
 at a rough gait and pulled. The average horse takes too 
 much out of himself by pulling on the bit. With a lip strap 
 properly adjusted a horse will not pull half as much as he 
 will on a bit. At all events I have scored many notable 
 training successes with the lip strap where I know I would 
 have failed without it. 
 
 "Lou Dillon was a chestnut mare, foaled 1898, bred 
 
28 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 by Santa Rosa Stock Farm, Santa Rosa, Cal. and was by 
 Sidney Dillon out of Lou Milton by Milton Medium. She 
 was a three-year-old before she was thought enough of to be 
 given a name as she was not considered around the farm, 
 to be very much. One day Mr. H. I. Pierce, who bred her, 
 asked me what I thought would be a good name for the filly. 
 I suggested Lou from her dam Lou Milton and Dillon, from 
 her sire Sidney Dillon, the idea struck him just right and the 
 filly was named Lou Dillon. 
 
 "In closing this story I want to go on record as believ- 
 ing that one of the greatest miles Lou Dillon ever trotted was 
 that in 2:05 over the Glenville track in 1903. That mile was 
 trotted strictly according to rule, and she drew a high-wheel 
 sulky that weighed 42 pounds and I weighed 156 pounds. 
 This was when trotters had to carry 150 pounds. Since 
 then the rules have been changed. I could have gone a 
 much faster mile that day, but I rated her too slow to the 
 half, thinking she would tire with the high-wheel sulky, and 
 I was rating her to go a mile better than 2:08%, which was 
 the Maud S. world's record at that time for that style of 
 hitch. The Board did not allow the record on the ground 
 that the mare already had a fast record. I want to say that 
 in my opinion the Board was wrong because Lou Dillon was 
 started to beat the high-wheel sulky record of the world and 
 she did beat it and the little mare ought to have the honor 
 which goes with that mile, the fastest ever trotted or paced 
 to a high-wheel sulky. 
 
 "The management of the Glenville track, after the 2:05 
 mile, took the Maud S. 2:08% gold shoe down from the 
 main entrance and substituted one bearing the legend 'Lou 
 Dillon, 2:05' and it hung there for some time which proves 
 that I was not the only one who believed the mile was a 
 world's record. 
 
 "I might add, to keep the record straight, that before 
 Lou Dillon came into my hands, she was driven some by 
 George Ramage, then trainer at Santa Rosa Stock Farm." 
 
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/// luck his portion — cruel fate! 
 
 Yet listed he his name among the great. 
 
 — J. J. Holden. 
 
 MAJOR DELMAR 
 
 Champion Trotting Gelding for Six Years 
 Record 1:59% 
 
 AJOR DELMAR 1:593/4, by Delmar, out of Expec- 
 tation by Autograph was one of the greatest racing 
 geldings of all time and it was in that particular 
 line of endeavor that he achieved his most enduring fame. 
 Among his victories were those scored in some of the more 
 important stake races on the Grand Circuit. And yet, while 
 many of his assaults on time were losing performances it 
 is a remarkable fact that he trotted no less than thirteen 
 miles in 2:03 or Ijetter a feat no other trotter of his day 
 accomplished or very nearly equaled and that alone serves 
 to show that the big son of Delmar was what has so often 
 been called "a trotter above ordinances." 
 
 He came out as a star of the first magnitude in the season 
 of 1902 in charge of the late Alta McDonald who started 
 him in an even dozen races against the pick of the year's 
 trotters and he was returned victor in nine of them and ended 
 the campaign with a record of 2:0d^A. 
 
 It happened in his case, as in the cases of many other 
 fast-record holders before and since, that there were no 
 classes for him in 1903 and he was used largely for exhibi- 
 tion purposes. He raced twice against The Abbot, whose 
 star was setting, and beat him on both occassions in ridicu- 
 lously slow time. After that there was no foeman w^orthy 
 of his steel except Lou Dillon and the only time she met him 
 that year was in the Gold Cup race to wagon, at Memphis, 
 where he was beaten in two straight heats in 2 :04'%, 2 :04%. 
 
32 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 But he entered the two-minute list at that same meeting and 
 became the wold's champion trotting gelding with his record 
 of 1:593/4. 
 
 Something about the many really good miles this 
 splendid gelding trotted cannot fail to be of interest. His 
 first attempt against time was made at Albany where he set 
 the track record at 2:04^)4- Then he was started at the 
 Empire City track where in an effort to beat 2 :04'^ he trotted 
 in 2:04. 
 
 On September 4th at Providence he lowered his record 
 to 2:02^> and at the New York State Fair, Syracuse, Sep- 
 tember 9th, he further reduced that record to 2:0114. Two 
 days later he just missed becoming the second member of 
 the list of two-minute trotters. It was over the same course 
 and the time of the mile was 2:001/4. This performance 
 he exactly duplicated at the Oakley course, Cincinnati, 0., 
 September 30th, after having trotted in 2:00*^4 ^t Readville 
 on the 14th. At Lexington, Ky., October 9th, he was started 
 against the wagon record of 2:04%^ and trotted the mile in 
 2:03**^. Then he was taken to Memphis where he lost the 
 Gold Cup race to Lou Dillon. That was on October 20th 
 and just one week later he made his first successful attempt 
 to enter the two-minute list and covered the mile in 1 :59^ 
 adding a brilliant chapter to the history of the wonderful 
 speed carnival held in the Tennessee metropolis that year. 
 
 Though started many times in 1904 Major Delmar was 
 not again able to negotiate a mile better than 2:01^4* He 
 started at Providence, Readville, Columbus, Lexington, Syra- 
 cuse and Memphis and four of his miles were trotted in 
 2:021/4. His best mile was at Memphis after he had won 
 the Gold Cup race and was his last effort in public to bicycle 
 sulky. He trotted creditably, however and while the mile 
 broke no records it was done in 2:0114 on a day not suited 
 for extra fast performances. 
 
 During that same meeting at Memphis, Major Delmar 
 was hitched to a high- wheel sulky and to that rig trotted 
 a highly creditable mile, the time of which was 2:07. 
 
 It was the irony of fate that Major Delmar never became 
 the champion trotter of the world despite the many brilliant 
 
MAJOR DELMAR 33 
 
 miles he trotted. And it happened to be Lou Dillon who 
 was always in his way. But for her mile in two minutes 
 at Readville on August 24th, 1903, she would not have kept 
 the Delmar gelding from the championship even though he 
 might not have held it very long, for on September 9th, at 
 Syracuse, N. Y. he trotted a mile in 2:011/2 to beat Cresceus' 
 record of 2:0214 ai^<i two days later, over the same track 
 as already related, trotted in 2:0014. And it happened that 
 Lou Dillon beat him into the two-minute list by but three 
 days. She took her record on October 24th, and the Major 
 took his best on October 27th, 1903. 
 
 At the close of the season of 1903 Major Delmar held 
 the following world's records: 
 
 Half mile to wagon (1902) 1:01 
 
 One and one-eighth mile in race (1902) __2:22^ 
 
 Five-year-old gelding (1902) ___2:05l/2 
 
 Fastest race heat, live-year-old (1902) 2:051/0 
 
 Fastest mile by a gelding (1903) 1:59%^ 
 
 His record mile was timed by quarters as follows: 30, 
 1:00, 1:28*^, 1:59-^4' ^"<^ while its final quarter was trotted 
 in but 31 seconds he showed a wonderful flight of speed in 
 the third quarter after having trotted the first half at a two- 
 minute gait. 
 
 Alta McDonald is dead and there is no one to give 
 an intimate story of the preparation of this great gelding 
 for his flights against the watch. But it is well known 
 that he was not trained so much with the world's record in 
 view as to fit him for the Gold Cup race, an event his then 
 owner, Mr. E. E. Smathers was more than anxious to win 
 and believed he had a chance to win even though Lou 
 Dillon was the trotter to be beaten. 
 
 When he took his best trot record he wore plain roller- 
 motion seven-ounce shoes in front, and four-ounce pin steel 
 shoes behind with light heel calks. 
 
 Mr. Chas. H. Baldwin, who now lives at Ticonderoga, 
 N. Y., was trainer for W. E. Spier's Suburban Stock Farm 
 where Major Delmar was bred and who gave the colt his 
 early education also drove him in his races as a three-year- 
 old writes an entertaining sketch of that two-minute trotter 
 
34 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 for this volume. It tells why the youngster was a compara- 
 tive failure as a colt trotter and is as follows: 
 
 "I have been out of the game so long that I am not sure 
 I can write anything that will be of interest for many of the 
 things that would be of value have passed from my memory. 
 
 "Major Delmar was a speedy natural trotter from the 
 start and had he been made a gelding when a yearling, as I 
 so strongly advised, he would have been a sensational colt. 
 In very early life he acquired the habit that saps the vitality 
 of so many colts and all the then known methods and ap- 
 pliances failed to cure it so in his two and three-year-old 
 form he labored under that severe handicap. 
 
 "As a colt he was a little mixed-gaited and wore about an 
 8 ounce shoe and 3 ounce toe-weight. Behind he wore 5 
 ounce shoes. In shoeing him we had to guard against knee 
 hitting which was the only trouble we experienced with 
 him as to gait. 
 
 "When, in the spring of his two-year-old form he was 
 in training at Kirkwood, Del., and that was really his first 
 training, trouble developed in his front ankles which neces- 
 sitated pin firing and caused a complete let-up for two 
 months. About June first we resumed jogging him and 
 about the middle of the month Mr. Spier came to see all his 
 horses there, about twenty, worked. He saw all of them 
 worked except Major Delmar and then asked me why I 
 did not work the colt. I tried to put him off until his next 
 visit explaining the danger of stepping him fast so soon after 
 the firing. But he replied: '0, pshaw! I'd rather see the 
 Major step than all the others put together and I'll assume 
 all the damage it does and not blame you if he breaks a leg.' 
 I saw no way out of it so we hitched the colt (as we called 
 him) to a Miller bike cart and showed his owner a quarter 
 in 32*>4 seconds. I have written at length about this inci- 
 dent to show that Major Delmar's speed was inherited, not 
 made. That year he went as I recall three fairly "good races, 
 had plenty of speed but from his habit lacked strength and 
 energy. 
 
 "At three he started in the Horse Review Purse at Fort 
 Erie and was second to Mobel in 2:2014, 2:191/4, 2:16%. 
 
MAJOR DELMAR 35 
 
 Before we left Ft. Erie an agent sold us an electric shield 
 and it worked well for a few weeks. At Readville he started 
 in a race against nine of the fastest three-year-olds of that 
 time. Emma Winter won the first heat in 2:15 and the 
 owner of Major Delmar was willing for her to take the race 
 but she was not good enough and our colt won the next 
 two heats and race in 2:15, pulled up and 2:1614- I have 
 always thought he was capable that day of a mile in 2:10. 
 We remained at Readville four weeks waiting for the New 
 England Breeders' meeting and during that time the Major 
 succeeded in beating the electric shield, just as he had all 
 other appliances but at the meeting he had a walkover in 
 his stake, value $2,370 but any ordinary colt could have 
 beaten him. 
 
 "I advised against shipping to Kentucky for the Futurity 
 but Mr. Spier thought the colt might surprise us and so 
 we went but the surprise failed to materialize. So, after 
 that race he said to me: 'Charley, I think your idea is 
 correct. Ship home and have the farm vet. go to work.' 
 And that is what we did. Through the following winter the 
 Major had regular exercise and as the drain on his system 
 was stopped he grew strong and muscular and had plenty 
 of energy. But we were not to go on with him for just as 
 we had begun the preparatory training Mr. Spier died and 
 so we did not try to get anything ready for the races though 
 I did step the Major a mile in 2:10 during the summer and 
 he did it comfortably. 
 
 "There was one marked peculiarity about his gait and 
 that was excessive hock action. He required a sulky so 
 high that it made one feel like he was riding on a load of 
 hay. I firmlv believe that with the present day long shaft, 
 low sulkv he would have trotted to a much lower record 
 than 1:593/4." 
 
 Charley Baldwin was a highly capable and successful 
 trainer and while he did not have the honor of driving Major 
 Delmar a mile in two-minutes or better he did show him the 
 way to go and use his natural speed. 
 
 The photograph of Major Delmar, with Alta McDonald 
 driving, used for the illustration leading this chapter, shows 
 
36 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 the high sulky which Charles Baldwin speaks of in his letter. 
 The reader will note that the Dan Patch sulky, also the one 
 drawn by Star Pointer were almost, if not quite so high. 
 
 Major Delmar was bred by W. E. Spier, Glens Falls, 
 N. Y., and was the fastest trotter the Empire state had pro- 
 duced until 1921 when Arion Guy, who was bred by Hudson 
 River Stock Farm, Poughkeepsie, (though foaled in Ken- 
 tucky) beat the record of the gelding by his mile in 1:591/2 
 at Lexington. 
 

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 Q. 
 
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A steed as black as the steeds of night 
 Was seen to pass as with eagle flight. 
 
 — Thos. Buchanan Read. 
 
 UHLAN 
 
 Champion Trotter for Nine Years 
 Record 1:58 
 
 HLAN 1:58 became the champion trotter of the world 
 in October of the year 1912 and his reign lasted 
 nine years almost to the day, being but once ser- 
 iously menaced in the intervening period, and that by the 
 stallion champion Lee Axworthy, who came within a quarter 
 of a second of equalling the record of the incomparable 
 black gelding, and might have lowered it had he been tried 
 another year. That was in 1916, and five years elapsed 
 before a new champion seized the crown. 
 
 So much has been said in praise of Uhlan that one hesi- 
 tates to attempt to add to that which has been so worthily 
 bestowed upon a subject so worthy. Much as the word king 
 and its derivatives have come to be disliked, it is, perhaps, 
 still safe to say that Uhlan bore his kingly honors in a man- 
 ner befitting the current conception of a king before the 
 last world war proved that the modern king was oft-times 
 worse than common clay. But Uhlan was not that sort of 
 king. He was kingly in every sense; in the way he carried 
 himself; in the way he did that which he set out to do; in 
 his bearing after he had done it. He made one proud to 
 say that the American trotter has that quality which justifies 
 our devotion to him. He entertained thousands and the 
 entertainment was royal. The trainer whose skill prepared 
 Uhlan for the great things he did is preparing an intimate 
 story about him, and it goes without saying that it will be 
 eagerly read by many thousands of those whose cheers have 
 
40 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 mingled when Uhlan lowered a record and in doing it 
 showed the world how such a thing should be done. 
 
 It is possible in this volume, thanks to Mr. Tanner, to 
 present a great deal concerning the way he handled the 
 great gelding for his earlier record-breaking feats, and in 
 this connection it may be said that those methods were never 
 materially changed. He has also presented some most 
 interesting facts which do not concern training operations, 
 but serve to furnish a view of the character and disposition 
 of one which was, in many respects at least, the greatest of 
 all trotters and who was undoubtedly the greatest trotter of 
 his time. And be it said, he was as great as a race horse 
 as he was as a battler against that greatest of all foemen, 
 the stop watch. The tasks he was asked to do were tre- 
 mendous and he did them all nobly. 
 
 Nearly all his days he has been a champion. He became 
 one the first year he was raced, when Robert Proctor had 
 him. He continued a champion the next year (1910) and 
 his third year out he added still further to his champion- 
 ships by becoming the fastest gelding in trotting annals. 
 And his fourth year before the public he became the world's 
 champion trotter with his mile in 1 :58 at Lexington, Ky., 
 October 8, 1912. 
 
 He trotted in two minutes or better on seven occasions 
 on four different tracks and he trotted a mile on a half-mile 
 track in 2:02'^. He trotted a mile with running mate in 
 l:54l/v), and with Lewis Forrest he set the pole record at 
 2:03^. He forced Hamburg Belle to set the world's race 
 record at 2:011/4 and to trot the second heat in 2:01%, and 
 beat her in the return match. He did everything that was 
 asked of him and with the exception of the one race men- 
 tioned, neither horse nor watch ever defeated him. That 
 is but a skeleton of his mighty achievements and if all his 
 story is ever told it will make a volume of goodly size and 
 most wonderful reading. 
 
 Mr. Chas. Tanner's story of the great gelding the first 
 year he was in his hands and during the course of which he 
 lowered the record for trotting geldings to 1:58% and trotted 
 to wagon in 2:01 is quite interesting and as it properly 
 
UHLAN 41 
 
 belongs in this volume it is presented in substance as he pre- 
 pared it in the fall of 1910. He said: 
 
 "Uhlan became the property of Mr. Billings at Colum- 
 bus, 0., September 29th, 1909 and was turned over to me 
 that day by his trainer, Robert Proctor, of Readville, Mass. 
 Let me say here that the condition Uhlan was then in is the 
 best evidence of the training skill of that capable man. It 
 was left to me to make him a two-minute trotter, by the rec- 
 ords, yet Proctor had shown that he had him close to the 
 mark in the race at North Randall, where, trotting on the out- 
 side all the way, he had forced Hamburg Belle to a throat- 
 latch finish in 2:0114 ^^d that I thought was about equal to 
 a mile in two minutes where the stage was set and everything 
 favored him. He was in perfect physical condition. Not as 
 much as a pimple on his legs, he was as fresh as a horse could 
 be and was carr^ang more flesh than when I had seen him, 
 first, weeks before — and he had all his Svhizz'. 
 
 "More than that he was perfectly mannered and that is 
 another bit of testimony as to the ability of the man who 
 brought him out. Very few people realize how highly organ- 
 ized Uhlan really is, so good has his deportment always been. 
 It is well known that any trotter that does his mile in two 
 minutes or better must be keyed high, but it does not follow 
 that they should lack good mannrs. On the other hand it is 
 quite easy to spoil them as to manners and Uhlan could 
 easily have been spoiled early in life had he not been 
 handled with judgment. Not only is he high-strung, not only 
 has he a will of his own, but he is, with it, an exceedingly 
 wise horse. Few as brainy as he have I ever known nor with 
 so much of what we call individuality. The fact that he came 
 to me so tractable is most creditable to the man who devel- 
 oped him and he can justly pride himself upon that as well 
 as upon the other splendid work he did with him. 
 
 "We shipped Uhlan to North Randall at once; it was 
 Wednesday, as Mr. Billings was coming on from New York 
 for the Saturday matinee. I asked Mr. Proctor to accompany 
 us and be on hand to post us as to Uhlan's peculiarities and 
 he did all and more that we requested, explaining minutely 
 all he thought would help. Saturday was a 'mean' day and 
 
42 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 Mr. Billings did not try to do much — just jogged a mile in 
 2:14%, last quarter in 30% seconds. Before that mile Proc- 
 tor drove Uhlan to sulky in 2:051/), last half in 1:011/4, and 
 he did it so easily that Mr. Billings was greatly pleased. 
 
 "While I was at the Lexington meeting the next week 
 Uhlan was driven by his boy four slow heats, the fastest in 
 2:25. Young Sam Caton, then here from Russia for a visit, 
 came to Cleveland with me and I had him train Uhlan on 
 Friday. He told me the fastest mile he had ever driven a 
 trotter in Russia was 2:15^4 and I told him I wanted him to 
 drive Uhlan one in 2:05. He worked him in 2:40, 2:28, 
 2:15^ and then I told him, for the fourth mile to take him to 
 the half in 1:05 and he would bring him home in a minute. 
 Sam missed it going to the half which he reached in 1 :06, but 
 Uhlan trotted the last half in a minute and that gave Sam 
 his fastest ride behind a trotter. When he dismounted he 
 was highly pleased and he expressed amazement at the ease 
 in which the horse had trotted the last half, declaring him a 
 most perfect trotting machine. Up to that time I had never 
 driven Uhlan at speed so I got up behind him that same day 
 and drove him his fifth mile which was in 2:02%. Note the 
 time of the quarters — 32yo, 30%, 30, 30. The way he did 
 it made me feel, then and there, that with good luck he had an 
 even chance to beat two minutes the following year. 
 
 "He was then let down gradually and his shoes pulled off. 
 He had a run of several hours daily, as the weather permitted, 
 in a nice paddock and we fed him six to eight quarts of oats 
 every day, carrots and apples to whet his appetite and cooked 
 feed at night. On the first of the following February we 
 shipped to Brunswick, Ga. and while the air and the sur- 
 roundings were delightful, there was nothing much but deep 
 sand roads to drive on. Uhlan was clipped and shod the day 
 he arrived there and I had his toes shortened to 3% inches in 
 front and 3^ behind. Open six ounce shoes were put on all 
 around, roller motion in front. I began jogging him on the 
 sand roads giving him a couple of miles the first day and in- 
 creased to eight to ten daily except Sunday on which day he 
 was never harnessed. Most of the time he drew two pas- 
 sengers and the cart was a heavy one. I think that work did 
 
UHLAN 43 
 
 him a lot of good in the way it strengthened his muscles and 
 the air was so fine that he kept feeling quite chipper and his 
 lung power increased. Of course he was never speeded 
 except to a stiff road gait. 
 
 "From Brunswick we shipped on March 17 to Memphis 
 and there began his preparation for the coming season. The 
 trip took two days and when he had rested out I began to give 
 him miles. My note book of his miles shows these entries 
 March 23—2:57; March 24—2:55; March 25—2:51 
 March 26—2:49^2; March 28, first repeat— 2:54, 2:45 
 March 30—2:56, 2:421/2; March 31 and April 1— Rain 
 April 2, first three heat work— 2:57, 2:42, 2:37l/>; April 
 5—3:00, 2:45, 2:39l/>; April 7—2:54, 2:38, 2:301/.; April 
 9—2:56, 2:35, 2:28" April 11— Rain; April 13—3:00, 
 2:42l/>, 2:31; April 15-17— Rain; April 18—2:54, 
 2:321/^; April 20—2:56, 2:35, 2:28l/>, 2:22; April 23— 
 3:00,^2:38, 2:38, 2:281/,; April 26—2:21, 2:31, 2:21, 
 2:1914; April 29— 2:52,"2:28l/o, 2:181/2; May 3—2:38, 
 2:31, 2:201/), 2:17, last quarter in 32 seconds; May 5 and 
 6— Rain; May 7—3:08, 2:421/2, 2:31; May 9—3:00, 2:32, 
 2:231/), 2:17, 2:16^/2, last quarter in 30 seconds. 
 
 "That ended the Memphis training and on Friday the 
 13th we shipped to North Randall and from May 14th when 
 we arrived I allowed Uhlan three days rest. May 17 he 
 worked in 2:421/,, 2:2814 and on May 19th in 2:54, 2:341/2, 
 2:26, 2:19, 2:15. Then — more rain and a lay up of five 
 days. May 24 he worked in 2:54, 2:36, 2:2814 and on May 
 27th in 2:54, 2:341/4, 2:2114, 2:16, 2:161/2, last quarter in 
 30 seconds. More rain and nothing Init jogging, three to 
 five miles daily. Then came real Summer weather and I 
 went back to pick up some of the stitches we had dropped and 
 the resumed work was as follows: 
 
 June 6—2:58, 2:50; June 8—2:53, 2:35, 2:231^, 2:25; 
 June 10— 2:36l/o; 2:24, 2:15, 2:12; June 14—2:151/., 
 2:36, 2:26, 2:27'l4; June 17—2:56, 2:34, 2:251/., 2:13, 
 2:10; June 21—2:58, 2:361/). 2:30, 2:231/,; June 24— 
 2:55, 2:34, 2:231/2, 2:15, 2:0"914, 2:091/2, last half in 59 
 seconds in preparation this work to wagon the last two heats, 
 for what was to be Uhlan's first 1910 public appearance. 
 
44 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 June 28^2:5414, 2:36, 2:2514, 2:24. The public appear- 
 ance postponed, because Mr. Billings could not get to Cleve- 
 land on the date set I worked, July 1, in 2:28, 2:35, 2:23^/2, 
 2:16l/>. 2:081/2, first half in a minute; 2:061/2, last half in 
 59l/> seconds, the last two miles to wagon. 
 
 "Jogged until July 6th he worked that day in 2:58, 
 2:351/2, 2:251/2, 2:221/2. On July 9th he was driven in pub- 
 lic by Mr. Billings to wagon a mile in 2:02')45 and his warm- 
 ing up miles for that effort were 2:35, 2:2114, 2:15. The 
 mile in 2\02!^/^ was a remarkable one, for in addition to a 
 strong wind the track was rough and Uhlan trotted in second 
 horse position the entire mile. The last half of that mile was 
 trotted in 59'%^ seconds. 
 
 "Mr. Billings now felt that Uhlan could trot a mile in two 
 minutes, and so requested me to prepare him for an attempt 
 at the North Randall Grand Circuit meeting, then just four 
 weeks away. To be sure we had been working with that in 
 view, and I had so directed my work from the beginning. 
 Going on with the preparation for the North Randall mile, I 
 worked the horse, to cart, except occasionally to wagon, as I 
 note, these miles: 
 
 July 13^3:00, 2:32l/>, 2:211/>; July 15—2:3414, 
 2:22l/>, 2: 121/7, 2:09, 2:05,last half in 59 seconds; last two 
 miles t'o wagon'^ July 19^3 :00, 2 :34, 2 :25, 2 :22. And now 
 we had reached the point for a regular test. Mr. Billings 
 felt the horse should be 'searched' before he started. So on 
 July 22 I worked him in 2:54, 2:321/2, 2:181/. to cart, then 
 hooked him to a sulky and drove him a mile in 2:09'%|., last 
 quarter in 29 seconds. And then the burning question was 
 put to him. He answered it with a first quarter in 30 seconds, 
 a second quarter in 30 seconds, a third quarter in 30 seconds, 
 and then we 'met up' with a float, right in at the pole and had 
 to take back in more than a hurry, slow down and go around 
 the obstruction, yet he trotted the final quarter in 30l/> sec- 
 onds, making the mile 2:001/), as I timed it. I had a man in 
 the stand to time the mile and he caught it in 2:0014- No 
 other watches were held. That mile was, for good and suf- 
 ficient reasons, to be my secret. That mile was trotted on 
 Friday. He was not harnessed again until July 26, when he 
 
UHLAN 45 
 
 was jogged only — three miles. The same thing next day. 
 July 28 he was worked 3:00, 2:35, 2:28, 2:22, 2:19. On 
 August 8, one week before he was to start at North Randall, 
 I decided to give him his final strong work. I gave him four 
 miles in 2:58, 2:29, 2:20, 2:11, then hitched him to wagon 
 for a mile in 2:03, last half in one minute, well within him- 
 self. I let him step another mile in 2:07^ and I felt that he 
 was ready. He was not harnessed on Tuesday, August 2, 
 but two days later he was worked in 2:28, 2:20, 2:21; on 
 August 7th in 3:00, 2:36; on August 8th I jogged him two 
 miles to cart in 2:2lVU and 2:21, moved him the third mile, 
 to wagon, in 2:09, last quarter in 30 seconds, and he started 
 to wagon to beat 2:0214' ^^' Billings driving, and trotted 
 the mile in 2:01, tying the world's wagon record 'in the open' 
 made by Lou Dillon at Memphis in 1904. 
 
 "That was a great mile, trotted wide and under most un- 
 favorable conditions, but it disappointed me, as I had hoped 
 it would be the first ever driven to wagon in the open in two 
 minutes or better. Day and track were not right. 
 
 "As Uhlan was to start again at the same meeting, I w^as 
 anxious for Mr. Dillon to drive him to wagon. But he in- 
 sisted that I drive to sulky, and so that was the program. 
 Uhlan was not harnessed the day after his 2:01 mile, just 
 given walking exercise to halter, and was jogged three miles 
 on Wednesday and about the same on Thursday. Friday was 
 the day for his supreme effort. I did not want to drive him; 
 I had been sick on Thursday and then I hardly felt equal to 
 the occasion. But it was passed up to me, and as there was 
 no way out of it I drove the mile. 
 
 "To prepare for it I gave the gelding two miles — 2:32 
 and 2:20 to cart, and a third to sulky in 2:11^4, last quarter 
 in 31. There was a strong wind and I had to take him back 
 through the third quarter to a 2:03 clip. And the day was 
 not quite warm enough, I thought, to get the best results. John 
 Dickerson drove the runner. We went to the quarter in 29*^ 
 seconds, to the half in 59, and to the three-quarters in 1 :29'^ 
 with the last quarter in 29 seconds. I believe the mile 
 would have been 1:58^4 under more favorable conditions. 
 Anyway, it was a new world's record for trotting geldings, 
 
46 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 and the way Uhlan came out of it, the fine fettle he was in, 
 caused me to have high hopes for his future. He was not 
 harnessed for a week, then was jogged two days. 
 
 "He was to go at Readville the second week afterward, to 
 wagon, and I kept him ready for that performance by miles 
 as follows: August 18—2:32, 2:21, 2:16, 2:10; August 22 
 —2:31, 2:181/2, 2:101/4, 2:0iy2, the last mile to sulky, the 
 last half in a minute; August 28, at Readville — 2:31, 
 2:191/2, 2:16, last eighth in sixteen seconds. He started to 
 wagon, Mr. Billings driving, August 30, to beat 2:031/0, and 
 his mile, 2:021/2, was the best, in my opinion, that he ever 
 trotted. The track was dead and slow and there was a high 
 wind, and no owner except Mr. Billings would have per- 
 mitted a start. There was no chance to break records, but he 
 would not disappoint the large crowd, mostly New England 
 people, among whom Uhlan had grown up. I gave my charge 
 three miles in 2:31, 2:21, 2:13, and had him ready to start 
 early, but it was half past five when they got to us. The rac- 
 ing had made the track rough, and while they floated it, but 
 little was accomplished. Uhlan trotted in 2:02^, the first 
 quarter in 29'^ seconds, the half in a minute, the three-quar- 
 ters in 1 :30l/2. He was tired at the end, and that mile took 
 more out of him than any other he had ever gone while I had 
 been in charge of him, which makes me sure that it was his 
 greatest one. As he blew out all right and quickly I stepped 
 him another mile in 2:10, last half in 1:02. 
 
 "The next week, after rain until everybody was rain sick 
 and I could give him no work except jogging and an occa- 
 sional brush where there was a dry spot, he started to wagon 
 at Hartford and drew Mr. Billings a great mile — 2:011/4- 
 He did that off' of miles in 2:23 to 2:15, and there was absol- 
 utely no life to the track. The last quarter was trotted in 29 
 seconds, and no other horse ever did that to wagon at the end 
 of a fast mile. To show how little that mile distressed him I 
 worked him a cooling-out trip in 2:06, last half in a minute, 
 last quarter in 29 seconds. 
 
 "At Allentown, Pa., over the great and well-kept half- 
 mile track, Uhlan trotted a mile in 2:051/4, first quarter in 
 32, after making a short break dodging a deep shadow; sec- 
 
UHLAN 47 
 
 ond quarter in 3114? third quarter in 31%. The mile 
 lowered the record of 2:06'% set by George G. 
 
 "I prepared him for a field day at North Randall and ex- 
 pected to give him a wagon record of two minutes or better, 
 but it was impossible for Mr. Billings to be present and the 
 mile was never trotted. In preparing him for the expected 
 engagement I set him down the last quarter of the last work 
 mile on October 1st, and he trotted it in exactly twenty-eight 
 seconds. That ended his work for the year and I let him 
 down with slow miles, 2:28, 2:28^4? covering a period of six 
 days, then jogged him daily until November 7th, and after 
 that let him run out in his paddock just as I had done the pre- 
 vious fall. 
 
 "His work for his first two-minute year covered a period 
 of seven months. He had 217 miles the right way of the 
 track, exhibitions and work; 119 were in 2:30 or better; 68 
 in 2:20 or better; 44 in 2:15 or better; 27 in 2:10 or better; 
 11, only, in 2:05 or better. 
 
 "If any one who is interested will glance back over the 
 miles as given by dates, he will see just how few fast work 
 miles he really had. He was never worked a mile to his limit. 
 It was so easy for him to trot a half in a minute that it meant 
 little to him. He showed that at Hartford, as I have already 
 stated. 
 
 "He was worked to a long-shaft cart except in the miles 
 to wagon or sulky as noted in this narrative. I worked him in 
 company a great deal, taking him in and out among a lot of 
 horses. But his fast miles, even the one in 2:00^, he went 
 alone without a prompter. I never allowed the runner to turn 
 with him except when he was ready to start in a public mile. 
 My reason for that is that many horses grow cunning if 
 worked with a runner, and I wanted him to know that when 
 his runner came on the track it meant business. He was one 
 of the smartest horses that ever lived, and I did not propose 
 he should learn to cheat me. Also I taught him to finish fast, 
 and never allowed him to slow up at the wire. 
 
 "His system of training may be called, properly, the 
 'mile on mile' system. True, he was given brush work, but 
 he gave most of that to himself. That was on the days he was 
 
48 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 jogged. Some time during his exercise he would 'light out', 
 sprint a hundred yards or so, then take himself back. Some 
 days he would do that two or three times, and was always al- 
 lowed to have his own way about it. That appeared to always 
 give him his speed. Track work he got to enable him to 
 carry his speed. 
 
 "No better broken horse lives than Uhlan. Automobiles, 
 trolley cars and other city contrivances mean nothing to him. 
 With but one bit in his mouth he has been jogged many hun- 
 dreds of miles on city streets and country roads. At that, so 
 high strung is he that one would find it easy to get a fight out 
 of him, and in all probability he would not afterward tolerate 
 the man who would give him a whipping or even one sharp 
 blow with the whip. 
 
 "He is a rugged horse. When shipped to Georgia the 
 first of February, 1910, he weighed 1065 pounds, and when 
 he took his record of 1:58*'^ he weighed 965. His training 
 feed consists of twelve quarts of oats daily, and he would 
 like to make it sixteen; he has all the hay he wants, and is 
 quite a water drinker. He is not dainty, and has no annoy- 
 ing habits of any kind, for instance, he never awakens at 
 night and demands to be fed, and there is no better shipper. 
 
 "Thad. Logan took care of him for me, and the thorough 
 manner in which he did his work is best illustrated by a re- 
 mark John Splan made when he was led out for him at North 
 Randall the day he took his record of 1:58'^. John looked 
 him over and said: 'Well, I have looked at some pretty good 
 trotters in my time, prepared by the greatest men in the bus- 
 iness, and I want to say that I never before saw one that 
 looked to be in such perfect condition.' 
 
 "I have never seen Uhlan seemed distressed but once. 
 That was at the finish of his mile in 2:021/2 to wagon at 
 Readville, which is why, in my opinion, as I have said, I 
 think it was the greatest one he ever trotted. He was right on 
 edge that day, with all his speed, and the fact that it took all 
 he had and left him tired for the first and only time in my ex- 
 perience, tells what an effort he made. In every other fast 
 mile he has gone for me he has been blown out, practically, 
 before the harness was stripped off him. Miles, quarters and 
 

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 t i 
 
 1 
 
UHLAN 5 1 
 
 halves that would have put a crimp in any other trotter that 
 ever lived except Lou Dillon, did not seem to affect him a 
 particle. The week after he trotted those two miles at the 
 Randall meeting, one in 2:01 to wagon, the other in 1:58% 
 to sulky, he acted like a boy just let out of school. It was 
 August 12th that he trotted in 1 :58%, and when I gave him 
 his first repeat afterward, August 18th, he was, in my judg- 
 ment, in the most perfect order in his life and could have 
 gone the fastest mile. After his first sensational mile in 
 2:02% to wagon, early in July, I was anxious to see how 
 he came out of it, for previously he had not been faster than 
 2:06%, and only five times in 2:10 or better. I was not 
 just sure what its effect might be — but it failed to put the 
 slightest sort of a kink in him. Neither did the mile in 
 2:00^> that I asked him for, to sulky, July 22nd. 
 
 "About his shoeing. It has already been published that 
 I made some quite radical changes in this from the methods 
 employed by Proctor, so I may as well say that I did, but 
 in doing so I do not want to be understood as criticising the 
 way in which Proctor balanced him. When a trainer can 
 do what Proctor did with Uhlan, what call is there for criti- 
 cism? However he balanced him, balanced he certainly 
 must have been. But every trainer has his own ideas of 
 gait and balance, and likes to apply them. If I changed 
 Uhlan, it was not because I wanted to criticise Proctor, but 
 because I wanted to rig the horse my way and see if he 
 would not go good so rigged. It shows what a great horse 
 he was that he could break records rigged both ways. Prob- 
 ably if he was now to pass into the hands of some other 
 trainer, he might make changes in him to correspond with 
 his own ideas, and he would continue to break records. 
 
 "When he trotted in 1:58%, he was rigged as follows: 
 In front he wore a 6% ounce shoe, with a felt pad that 
 weighed 1% ounces, a pair of pacing quarter boots that 
 belonged to Morning Star 2:04, and weighed but 3 ounces, 
 and a 2-ounce toe-weight. His toe was 3% inches long, 
 and its angle was 45 degrees strong. The shoe was a bar 
 shoe, rounded over at the toe (the opposite from what he 
 wore before he came to us, as he then had a grab on the 
 
^2 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 toe of his shoe) and with two small grooves there, one 
 deeper and broader than the other, which feature was the 
 invention of Lee Beardsley, the smith who shod him through- 
 out the season, and the same man who used to shoe Cresceus 
 2:021/4. This double groove helped to give him a foothold 
 without retarding him, and I consider it an excellent thing. 
 At the heel were two small calks, set lengthwise, about 11/4 
 inches long and smoothed down to the surface of the shoe 
 in front. Rigged this way he did not go so high forward as 
 before and no longer required elbow boots. Behind he wore 
 a 3^4 ounce swedged bar shoe, his toe was 3^ inches long 
 and the angle of the foot was 49 degrees. The only boots 
 used behind were a pacing coronet boot and a light ankle 
 boot, which weighed as near nothing as possible. 
 
 "When I started him over the half-mile track it was, of 
 course, necessary to make some changes. I put on a 3-ounce 
 instead of a 2-ounce, toe weight; a pair of rolls on his front 
 ankles, and, behind, a pair of shin-ankle-and-speedy-cut 
 boots, with hock extensions. I also hitched him to a Faber 
 sulky that we had built for use during Mr. Billings' Europ- 
 ean tour the year before. It weighed from 33 to 35 pounds, 
 was especially stiff and strong, and I hooked him as far out 
 from it as possible, to help him in getting around the turns. 
 As was published at the time he trotted in 1:58'%[^, he was 
 then hitched to the same sulky that Lou Dillon pulled when 
 she trotted in 1:581/4, a Faber built especially for her and 
 weighing 24 pounds and 1 ounce. He also wore her harness, 
 with the sole exception of the bit. In all his early work 
 he wore no toe weights, they being put on the first time for 
 the first mile that Mr. Billings drove him, to wagon, in 
 2:023/4, July 9th." 
 
 In 1911 Uhlan gave but five public exhibitions. The 
 first of these was at North Randall and on that occasion Mr. 
 Billings drove him a mile to wagon in two minutes, a world's 
 record, tying that of Lou Dillon, who also was driven by 
 Mr. Billings, and giving him the distinction of being the 
 only person who had driven two different trotters a two- 
 minute mile to wagon. At that time no professional had 
 driven more than one trotter a two-minute mile, and it was 
 
UHLAN 53 
 
 not until 1921 that the feat was accomplished by a profes- 
 sional, Tommy Murphy achieving the honor at Lexington. 
 He made up for lost time, too, for he beat two minutes with 
 two different trotters the same afternoon. The other exhi- 
 bitions by Uhlan in 1911 consisted of an assault on the half- 
 mile wagon record, which he lowered to 56^ seconds, where 
 it still stands; a mile at Lexington in 1:59^ to beat the 
 track record of 2:01^ to sulky; and two half-mile track 
 performances which were histor}^ making. At White River 
 Junction, Vt., he lowered the track record from 2:14*^ to 
 2:04^, a matter of a mere ten seconds. But prior to that 
 start he had set a record which bids fair to stand unchal- 
 lenged for some time. He was started at Goshen, N. Y., to 
 lower the track trotting record of 2:08 and all he did to it 
 was to put it at 2:02^, a world's record. 
 
 Mr. Tanner tells us that his training was practically the 
 same as for his 1910 season. As he was not exhibited for 
 money it naturally followed that he was used as his owner 
 desired, and the result was that the track management was 
 fortunate indeed to secure him for an exhibition. 
 
 The following year he made the famous trip to the land 
 of the Czar. That was before Russia became Soviet. But 
 on his return he was prepared for a few assaults on the 
 watch and again proved his ability to perform any task set 
 for him. On October 8th he was started to beat the world's 
 record trotting, 1:58^^, and accomplished the undertaking 
 by trotting a mile in 1:58. Three days later, with Lewis 
 Forrest as his mate, he was started to beat the world's record 
 of 2:07'^ to pole, and the pair trotted a truly wonderful 
 mile in 2:03^4, Uhlan carrying Lewis Forrest most of the 
 way. Charlie Mitchell, also owned by Mr. Billings, had 
 been conditioned to go the mile to pole with Uhlan, but fell 
 lame in warming up and could not start. He had been care- 
 fully prepared, for one of his legs was about gone, but it 
 was Mr. Tanner's hope that he would last long enough for 
 the one supreme effort. His ambition was to set the pole 
 record at two minutes or better. He knew he could depend 
 upon Uhlan, and it is no secret that he had all the confidence 
 in the world in Charlie Mitchell, who had shown him a lot 
 
54 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 that was not known at that time to very many people. So 
 it can be safely said that as the day for the Lexington trial 
 approached "Doc" was confident he could do what he had 
 set out to do. It was not a question of merely lowering the 
 record. The object was a two-minute mile. And Charlie 
 Mitchell had convinced him that he was up to what was ex- 
 pected of him. That he was one of the fastest trotters ever 
 trained is certain. Indeed, a good authority has but recently 
 said that in his opinion Charlie was as fast as Uhlan, and 
 then he added: 'T am not so sure that he was only just as 
 fast; I believe a mile in 1:56 would have been within his 
 capacity that fall had he remained sound. He would have 
 done some things at the Lexington meeting that people would 
 be talking about to this day." But the ailing leg went down 
 and another two-minute record was thereby missed. 
 
 During the season of 1913 Uhlan trotted on exhibition 
 mile in l:59l/> at North Randall. It was not an effort to 
 do anything except go better than two minutes. Late in July 
 he lowered the Comstock Park track, Crand Rapids, record 
 to 1:59%; the Hamline (Minnesota State Fair track) record 
 to 1:59')4; the Galesburg, 111., track record to 2:001/4 from 
 2:03'*y^, day and track both bad; then went to Lexington 
 and established a world's record of 27 seconds for a quarter 
 of a mile and with running mate set the world's record for 
 that style of hitch at 1:541/2, a remarkable exhibition. 
 
 That, no doubt, ended the public career of Uhlan. He 
 is a model saddle horse, and for that purpose Mr. Billings 
 uses him if he is used at all. And as he has passed to private 
 life one can but regret that he is gone, for no nobler speci- 
 man of the trotting breed has ever appeared, and we may 
 not look upon his like again. 
 
 Mr. Robert Proctor, of Readville, Mass., who "discov- 
 ered" Uhlan and in a few lessons transformed him into a 
 real trotter, has written a detailed story of his discovery 
 and the events in the life of Uhlan while that great trotter 
 was in his hands. It is given precisely as written: 
 
 "The summer of 1908 I had been away racing and got 
 home the early part of August. At that time Mr. Charles 
 Sanders told me to keep watch for a nice looking young 
 
UHLAN 55 
 
 horse that would do to matinee and would also make a nice 
 road horse. The Boston Matinee Club was then in its hey- 
 dey, and Mr. Arthur Parker, of Bedford, the breeder of 
 Uhlan, had been at Readville two months, having the colts 
 he owned trained. Eddie McGrath was training for him, 
 and one day I noticed him driving a black colt that could 
 trot good but after going a short distance would break, go 
 into a pace and chop his quarters. I inquired what he was, 
 and they told me a three-year-old called Uhlan. I got the 
 price and said nothing about it except to Mr. Sanders. I 
 told him I thought he would be a good buy and that when 
 he was balanced would trot in 2:10, which was right good 
 in those days, as we were not thinking as much of two-minutes 
 as we do now. 
 
 "I kept drumming at Mr. Sanders, until finally we ar- 
 ranged with Mr. Parker to show the colt. They were pre- 
 paring to move back to the farm from Readville, and the 
 day before they were to go they showed the colt and he went 
 a mile in 2:211/2. Mr. Sanders came by my stable and asked 
 how I liked the colt, and I told him he would make a nice 
 horse and one that would trot in 2:10 when balanced. He 
 said that he liked the looks of him very much but that they 
 wanted too much money for him — the price was around 
 $1,500 — and that he did not think he would buy. So I said, 
 'they are going home tomorrow and if you don't buy him 
 I will before they leave.' His answer to that was, 'if you 
 think that well of him I will see what I can do,' and he went 
 over to the Parker barn, bought the colt and had him sent 
 right over to me. 
 
 "It was up to me then to make good. The Globe and 
 The Herald, leading dailies of Boston, began telling about 
 Bob Proctor buying a gold brick for Chas. Sanders. For 
 three days after he came to me I did not put a harness on 
 him, but poulticed his front heels, which were very sore 
 from chopping his quarters. Then I jogged him for three 
 days, shod him, and when I began to drive him, believe me, 
 I was very careful not to let him make a break. For about 
 three weeks I gave him miles from three minutes to 2:40, 
 five heats twice a week, but at times finishing those slow 
 
^6 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 miles I would let him move after passing the wire if there 
 was no one looking, and I began to think he was about right. 
 One day Mr. Sanders phoned that there would be one more 
 matinee, that he would like to start the colt, and for me to 
 name him. The race was to come about the last of Septem- 
 ber and that gave me about three more weeks in which to 
 get ready, so I began to move along a little — to a mile in 
 2:25, last quarter in 33 seconds, and he was flying at the 
 finish. This showed me that he was 0. K., and one week 
 before he was to matinee I decided to show him to myself, 
 and say nothing to anyone. 
 
 "I began to work him about ten o'clock in the morning, 
 working him five easy miles, the fastest in 2:19. That 
 brought me to noon, and as there were few people at the 
 track that time of year and the boys were all at dinner I said: 
 'Here is my chance.' I went out, scored twice, went to the 
 half in just 1:10, the third quarter in 34, and the mile in 
 2:14, which made the last quarter 30 seconds. I said noth- 
 ing about it, but was sure I had a great trotter. 
 
 "Tlien came the race, but the horse that Uhlan was to 
 start against fell lame and the event was canceled. So I 
 suggested that he go to see if the judges would let him 
 start in the fast class with horses that could trot in 2:12 to 
 2:15. He thought I was crazy, for 1 had not told him what 
 I had done with the colt. But he finally went and the judges 
 were willing, but he was quite nervous about it all. I as- 
 sured him the horse would win if he would not grab hold of 
 him or hit him with the whip, but go right along with the 
 rest. He did as I wanted him to do and won the heat in 
 2:16^ easily. The other drivers told him they had allowed 
 him to win that heat but would beat him the next. That made 
 him nervous again and he came for further instructions. 
 I told him to go right off with them and he would win easily. 
 They went away fast, down to the half in 1:05, Uhlan off 
 by himself, and he won the heat by 100 yards in 2:13%. 
 After the race I told Mr. Sanders he had not yet seen Uhlan 
 trot, that if he would let me hook him to sulky I would show 
 him a mile in 2:08. 'Do you mean that?' he asked, and 
 added 'it can't be possible.' I then said that if he expected 
 
UHLAN 
 
 57 
 
 to race him the next year it would not l^e wise to show him 
 the mile, and so it was not done. That ended his season 
 and I let him down in his work and wintered him nicely. 
 "In 1909 I started jogging him the first of Fehruary, 
 trained him along nicely during the Summer and entered 
 him in the $50,000 handicap and also in the $5,000 Blue 
 Hill. I was keeping the horse under cover so as to get a 
 position in the handicap as near the front line as possible. 
 But Mr. Sanders came out one day and wanted to see him 
 beat 2:10. Against my wishes I drove him the requested 
 mile; worked him six heats, the fifth in 2:0714), last quarter 
 in 29 seconds. His first start w^as in the handicap, and with 
 so many starters he was excited and was turned the wrong 
 way of the track when the gong sounded, and was out of the 
 money. Two days later I started him in the Blue Hill and 
 won easily, three heats around 2:10. 
 
 "He was then shipped to Columbus, where he started in 
 the 2:10 trot and won from Teasel and a dozen more in 
 straight heats— 2:0714, 2:0714, 2:08. The second week 
 he won the 2:09 trot from Locust Jack and nine others. Jack 
 won the first heat in 2:09^4 ^^^^ Uhlan won the race, trot- 
 ting his miles in 2:08, 2:08l/o. At Lexington he won the 
 Walnut Hall Cup, defeating Spanish Queen and eight more 
 in 2:0914, 2:0714, 2:08, and that was his last start for that 
 year. 
 
 "For 191wT gave him as nice a preparation as I knew 
 how and started him first at North Randall in the 2:07 trot, 
 beating San Francisco, Lady Jones and others in 2:06^, 
 2:03'^45 which is pretty good evidence that he was fairly 
 well prepared. At Fort Erie he beat practically the same 
 field in slower time. Then the North Randall contingent was 
 after me red hot to go back to that track and race Hamburg 
 Belle. I did not want to make that race until after the 
 Columbus meeting, but finally agreed to ship him back from 
 Buffalo and send my other horses on to Readville. The night 
 before the race I told the crowd at the club house that I would 
 make the mare beat her record, which was then 2:021/^, if 
 she defeated me. Some of them laughed at that. When I 
 warmed my trotter up for the race I thought I could win and 
 
^8 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 told a few friends so and I bet some on my chances. In the 
 draw the mare got the pole. I raced him lapped on her and 
 did not try until we had passed the draw gate. Then he 
 closed and at the wire I could not tell who was ahead. 
 Neither could Billy Andrews, who asked me 'who won it?' 
 It was too close for me.' Then he saw the time on the an- 
 nouncer and shouted 'look at the time — 2:01^/4.' The sec- 
 ond heat I decided to take her away faster, so we were at the 
 half in 59^/4 and I had a neck the best of the argument. After 
 we passed the half my horse made a misstep. I looked down 
 two or three times but we were going so fast I could not see 
 what the trouble was. He finally made a break near the 
 five-eighths pole, then I discoverd the cause of his trouble 
 and pulled up and was distanced. The quarter boot had 
 worked in between the shoe and the foot and that caused 
 the break, the only one, by the way, he ever made with me. 
 
 ''After that race I was more confident than ever that he 
 could beat the mare, and so the race for Readville was ar- 
 ranged. I raced her the same way I had done at North 
 Randall, as she drew the pole again, and in the first heat I 
 had her beaten at the seven-eighths; won the heat sitting 
 still in 2:031/4. The second heat I let her take the pole at 
 the eighth, lapped my horse on her wheel until we reached 
 the three-quarter hope, then started after her and beat her 
 handily in 2:041/4- 
 
 "They would not race Uhlan any more and as I was 
 off^ered a purse to beat 2:031/2 at Columubs I took the offer. 
 The day set for us was not very favorable, but rather than 
 disappoint the audience I started, for I felt that Uhlan could 
 trot all the way at the outside fence and beat 2:031/2- I 
 scored him twice and drove him to the half in 1 :0214 and 
 he trotted the rest of the way in a minute. That was the 
 day I should have beaten two minutes with him, for he was 
 equal to it, I am sure. He was booked to try it at Lexington, 
 hut the second week at Columbus Mr. Billings bought him, 
 and that ended my connection with the greatest trotter that 
 ever wore harness." 
 
 Uhlan was bred by Mr. Arthur H. Parker, Bedford, 
 Mass., and was by Bingen — Blondella by Sir Walter, Jr. 
 

 CO 
 
 to 
 
 H 
 
 o 
 
 X 
 
 < 
 
 u 
 
Here uas a champion. In every stride 
 He moved like one ivho Time defied. 
 
 — Anonymous. 
 
 LEE AXWORTHY 
 
 World's Champion Trotting Stallion 
 Record 1:5814 
 
 EE AXWORTHY'S wonderful, though very short, 
 career presents one of the many oddities which 
 spring from horse trading. At his time he was the 
 best bred stallion that had appeared in the ranks of the trot- 
 ters of extreme speed, yet there was a time, in the early 
 months of his life that he seemed destined, despite his mar- 
 velous blood lines, to become a candidate for the discard. No 
 fault can be attributed to his first trainer, a man of infinite 
 patience and of marked success in his chosen profession. 
 Too much credit cannot be given to the second man who 
 handled the colt, for it was through wonderful skill and per- 
 sistence that he finally brought the youngster around to the 
 right way of going and developed in him the marvelous 
 speed which eventually made him the champion trotting stal- 
 lion with a record of 1:5814- Nor can the third trainer who 
 handled him and who had the good fortune to drive him to 
 his record, be denied the great credit due him in the making 
 of this fast trotter. The story as it unfolds will show the 
 part each of the three took in the creation of a champion, 
 for Lee Axworthy's record still stands, at the beginning of 
 1922, as the best for a trotting stallion. 
 
 This colt, bred at Ardmaer Farm, Raritan, N. J., where 
 his sire was owned at that time, was bought at public sale 
 by a client of Walter Cox. Walter gave him as much edu- 
 cation as a yearling as he would take, which was not enough 
 "to hurt", for the truth is that the youngster did not show 
 very much to indicate that he was royallv bred. In his 
 
62 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 two-year-old form he was never known to exhibit anything 
 to make the rail birds as much as "peep" and in the early 
 summer of that year after taking a time record a little below 
 2:30 he figured in one of the romantic horse trades which 
 help to add interest to the great sport of racing. No one 
 has ever been able to say who got the worst of this historic 
 "swap" and it is no sure thing, no matter what happened 
 subsequently, that in the long run one party to it profited 
 more than the other. A current story tells of two Missour- 
 ians who traded horses and as all the neighbors knew both 
 horses that figured in the trade were bad horses the matter 
 was discussed a great deal at the corner grocery. At the end 
 of one of the discussions among the puzzled gossips one 
 remarked: "What mystifies me is how in the world they 
 happened to git it on one another." 
 
 It happens that nobody was trying to put anything across 
 in the trade that made Lee Axworthy a member of the Pas- 
 time Stable of Cleveland. The story of that trade is told in 
 detail in another chapter of this volume under the title: 
 "The World's Champion Two-Minute Horse Trade". An- 
 other colt. Prince Loree 2:00-2:03^ figured in the trade. 
 It happened that Prince Loree proved a disappointment and 
 for his new owners was never worth a dollar yet eventually 
 became a champion. But that is another story and will be 
 found in the chapter of this book which tells of Prince 
 Loree. 
 
 That fall, 1913, the bay colt was taken to Thomasville, 
 Ga., with the rest of the stable and W. J. Andrews continued 
 his education, which up to that time had not amounted to 
 much because the colt declined to take part in it. He was 
 much like the wife of the mountain district representative in 
 the Kentucky legislature who was invited to attend the 
 "opera" at Frankfort and who replied, "Yes, I reckon ITI 
 go 'long. But I don't low to take no part." Lee declined for 
 many days. Andrews persisted. It is recorded that the day 
 of Lee's banishment was about to arrive for his owners had 
 advised their trainer to "throw him away". Fortunately 
 for all concerned on the day of reckoning the colt showed his 
 trainer enough to justify further effort and he was given the 
 
LEE AXWORTHY 63 
 
 chance that made him. His career as a three-year-old was 
 such as to stamp him among the truly great, his race in the 
 Kentucky Futurity being enough to lift him to a high plane 
 among trotters. 
 
 It was as a four-year-old that he both shone brightly in 
 the trotting firmament and also went into an eclipse which 
 at one time threatened to be total and final. He again 
 proved his worth as a game, consistent race horse then fell a 
 victim to a mysterious sickness and was retired for the year. 
 In midsummer Mr. Andrews suff^ered a sunstroke that per- 
 manently retired him from the ranks of active trainers and 
 race drivers and Lee Axworthy was placed in the hands of 
 Mr. Ben F. White whose consummate skill and care kept Lee 
 Axworthy on the road to fame that Mr. Andrews had blazed. 
 It is easy to say that a trainer was ''handed a horse ready- 
 made*' but, as Mr. Sanders has already pointed out in his 
 chapter on Lou Dillon, a very fast trotter is much like a 
 violin which put away at night all in tune must be tuned up 
 again the next day. So Mr. White at least had to keep Lee 
 Axworthy in tune. That he did and did it well is history 
 and no chapter in the life of that worthy gentleman is 
 brighter than the one which tells of his great success with 
 Lee Axworthy. And it is with that we now are about to deal. 
 
 In the hands of Mr. White, during the season of 1916, 
 Lee Axworthy trotted five diff^erent miles in two minutes or 
 better and won the stallion crown at Lexington, Ky., October 
 4th, with his grand mile in l:58l4' The ability with which 
 this great trotter was kept in superb condition is shown by 
 the fact that at every engagement he did as much as was ex- 
 pected of him. 
 
 Mr. White furnishes, for this volume, the following brief 
 story of the preparation of the trotter for his record-breaking 
 campaign: 
 
 "I commenced Lee Axworthy's training the first day of 
 January, 1916, at Thomasville, Ga., where we wintered the 
 horses of the Pastime Stable as was the custom. I gave him 
 jog work from four to six miles every day but never more 
 than six miles. 
 
 "On the first day of March I began to give him slow 
 
64 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 miles. These were around three minutes and by the first of 
 May I had asked him to increase the clip to miles in 2:30. 
 
 "We then shipped the horses to Lexington, Ky., and 
 shortly after we reached there I began to ask him for miles 
 at 2:20. Of course this was on a mile track (the track 
 at Thomasville is a half-mile). I would work him twice 
 each week, three heats one work out and four heats the 
 next. After he began working around 2:15 I would step 
 him the last quarter at a two-minute gait. Then I would 
 step him the first quarter at a two-minute gait and go the 
 last end easy. I did this until he could step away from the 
 wire fast or come home fast. As you may know, after he 
 had been given a lot of miles in this way it was easy for 
 him to beat 2:10. Always a good feeder and doer his work 
 was never interrupted at all. 
 
 "I worked him a great many miles close to 2:10, then 
 I dropped him about two seconds each week until about 
 the 20th of July when I worked him one mile in 2:04. That 
 was his fastest mile before he started at North Randall to 
 beat the record for trotting stallions which he succeeded in 
 doing, trotting twice during the second Grand Circuit meet- 
 ing in 2:00^4 '^^^ beating the record three-quarters of a 
 second, it being held then by The Harvester at 2:01. 
 
 "The next trial was to be at Syracuse at the time of the 
 New York State Fair in September. So I had about three 
 weeks to wait. In the meantime I kept him fresh but stepped 
 him a good mile every four days. When he made his effort 
 at Syracuse he trotted every quarter in exactly thirty seconds 
 and his mile in two minutes made him the first two-minute 
 trotting stallion. 
 
 "After that effort I continued to work him every four 
 days and would ask him to step one good mile in every 
 work-out. Part of his work was given him at Columbus 
 where he had no start and over that track 1 worked him 
 two different miles in 2:02. We then started him at Lex- 
 ington, on October 4th, and he reduced the stallion trotting 
 record to 1:591/2 and on October 7th he further lowered it 
 to 1:581/4. At the same meeting Mr. Devereux drove him 
 to the world's wagon record for trotting stallions — 2:02%. 
 
LEE AXWORTHY 65 
 
 "Lee Axworthy wore an open bridle, plain snaffle and 
 check bit; he went with his head checked just about even 
 with his shoulders. He wore close fitting quarter boots, 
 no toe weights; his front shoes weighed six ounces and were 
 plain with crease in the toe. His hind shoes were 4 ounces 
 in weight each and were swedged. His front toes were 3^/^ 
 inches and his hind toes were 3^ inches." 
 
 The two-minute miles trotted by Lee Axworthy indicates 
 in their fractional time his marvelous speed. For instance 
 in his first assault on the stallion record he trotted the last 
 half in fifty-nine and a half seconds. His Syracuse mile, 
 as already told by Mr. W hite was trotted at the even rate 
 of thirty seconds to every quarter, a superb piece of rating 
 both on the part of the driver as well as the horse. The 
 record mile of 1 :58l4 ^t Lexington was notable for the 
 extreme flight of speed for the first half, which was covered 
 in 581/2 seconds yet the final quarter was done in 30'^4- 
 Great as he proved himself to be in assaults against Father 
 Time those who saw all of his performances will probably 
 agree that he shone with equal splendor at racing. He 
 showed his worth in the M. and M., which he won and it 
 stood out amazingly in his contest with Peter Volo. Though 
 he was beaten the first heat in 2:02 he was fire and sword in 
 the second heat and when he won it in 2:0314 every spectator 
 knew the race was as good as over. Sickness, never ac- 
 counted for, took him out of the fighting arena shortly after 
 his North Randall victory over Peter Volo and no doubt 
 deprived him of piling up a great money-winning score on 
 the Grand Circuit. 
 
 The writer has in mind that he was somewhat inclined 
 to '"wing" with his right foot but he does not recall having 
 noticed this peculiarity of gait when he trotted his two- 
 minute miles. His ability to get away was marvelous and 
 it did not appear that any extra effort on the part of his 
 driver was necessary to get him to leave the wire almost 
 at the speed of a thoroughbred. He was a most beautiful 
 horse and he had all the air of a champion and had about 
 him, in his whole demeanor, that intangible thing which is best 
 known as class. While his record in a race is but 2:031/4 
 
1:011/4 
 
 
 30% 
 
 2:00% 
 
 1:00% 
 
 
 301/2 
 
 2:00% 
 
 1:00 
 
 
 30 
 
 2:00 
 
 59% 
 
 
 28i/o 
 
 1:591/2 
 
 5814 
 
 
 271/2 
 
 1:58% 
 
 1:0014 
 
 
 301/2 
 
 1:59% 
 
 59 
 
 
 29 
 
 1:59% 
 
 66 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 the writer is one who firmly believes that there was a time 
 in his career when he could easily have set the world's race 
 record at two minutes or better had he found at any time 
 a foeman worthy of his speed. Retired to the stud the year 
 following the trotting of his record mile, he lived but two 
 years yet in that time sired many colts of great worth and 
 in fact it is doubtful if any other sire begot as great a 
 percentage of fast trotters as did he. He shone brilliantly 
 while he lived and his early death was more than a loss to 
 the breeding interests. 
 
 His fast miles, most of them championship performances 
 of one kind or another are as follows: 
 
 North Randall, 0., August 22, 1916 SOVo 
 
 North Randall, 0., August 25, 1916.. 30 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y., September 12, 1916 30 
 
 Lexington, Ky., October 4, 1916 30% 
 
 Lexington, Ky., October 7, 1916 29% 
 
 Atlanta, Ga., October 20, 1916 30% 
 
 Lexington, Ky., October 26, 1916 29% 
 
 Lee Axworthy was a bay horse that stood not more than 
 15 hands but was stoutly made and in every respect he was 
 as handsome as he was speedy and game. More than that 
 cannot be said of any good horse. 
 
 His breeding blended the blood of the two great sires, 
 Guy Axworthy and Bingen, the first being his sire the second 
 the sire of his dam and in him was also blended the blood 
 of Young Jim, Red Wilkes, Guy Wilkes, Mambrino Patchen 
 and that of other "old time" sires. And, until the year 1921 
 brought out the two-minute trotters Peter Manning and Arion 
 Guy it must be said that he was the best bred fast trotter 
 that had yet appeared. 
 
 At this place is appears to be fitting that there be added 
 to the story of Lee Axworthy something about him that 
 comes from Mr. Ed Wise, Superintendent of the North Ran- 
 dall track, who was with the Pastime Stable when Mr. 
 Andrews was developing the future champion trotting stal- 
 lion and was second trainer to Mr. Ben White the year he 
 drove the horse to his championship records. There is no 
 keener observer than "Eddie" Wise and what he has related 
 
LEE AXWORTHY 67 
 
 for publication in this volume is well worth while. He 
 says: 
 
 "Mr. Andrews shod the colt in the fall of 1913 with 
 8^ ounce plain front shoes which were not changed for 
 some time except to square them at the toes. He carried 
 3 ounce toe weights but not when he took his record, nor at 
 all that year — 1916. Behind he wore 3% to 4 ounce swedge 
 shoes always with the toes squared. By the time he took 
 his best record the weight of his front shoes had been re- 
 duced to six ounces each. 
 
 '"Most of the time he wore hinged quarter boots and hind 
 shin boots with speedy-cut attachment. He would wear 
 a pair of scalpers out in about two weeks and always wore 
 them for jogging but not when asked to step. 
 
 "At first he was rigged with a pole but he found a way 
 to break it, for he did not like the way it held him when it 
 was rigged with the usual halter and ring. Finally, one day, 
 he broke the halter and Mr. Andrews just put the end of it 
 through the bridle and let it go at that. So did the colt and 
 never offered to fight it the least bit when it was put on him 
 that way. 
 
 "1 have seen him, fighting that head pole before it was 
 changed until he would fall into the ditch that ran alongside 
 the track. Mr. Andrews would just dismount, push him 
 back on the track, remount and go merrily on his way. 
 Shortly after one of those incidents the pole was changed 
 and that ended the trouble from that direction. I suppose 
 he was the only horse whose head pole was put on without 
 the halter and ring. 
 
 "The day he first showed Mr. Andrews any trot was, as 
 1 remember, late in April, 1914. He hit a trot on the upper 
 turn that was real trot. I met him just as he came into 
 the stretch and he shouted to me: 'I've got him.' He stepped 
 tlie last eighth of that mile in 16 seconds and Mr. Andrews 
 turned him right around, without leaving the track and 
 worked him a mile in 2:27^. 
 
 "The colt had been priced to a resident of Thomasville 
 at $150 subject to the consent of his trainer but the deal 
 was. never made, of course, yet there were many times when 
 
68 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 it looked like it would go through. Nothing but the persis- 
 tence and patience of Mr. Andrews prevented. During the 
 time when Lee did not show anything, that we ever knew 
 of, Danny O'Connell took care of him and we worked to- 
 gether, helping one another, so I saw much of the colt and 
 when he was working with him I helped. Every day I 
 would say to him: 'Danny, this horse will trot some day, 
 I know he will or Mr. Andrews wouldn't fool with him.' 
 And always Danny would point at the neck of the colt, just 
 back of his ears and retort: 'Eddie, he's too thick right 
 there.' 
 
 "He was a regular country cut-up and knew more things 
 to do than most small boys. He wore a blanket all that 
 winter. One day we clipped him and put him away at night 
 blanketed. The next morning Danny found that blanket 
 torn into as small bits as he could make them. Then for a 
 long time he was allowed to get along without a blanket 
 or sheet. After one of his early race performances Mr. 
 Haskell said he would stand the expense of sheets for the 
 coJt and purchased a half-dozen for him. The colt bided 
 his time. It is probably true that no other horse ever was 
 watched more closely than Danny watched Lee Axworthy. 
 He was so seldom away from the stall that Lee had to seize 
 the slightest opportunity to get into mischief. One day he 
 was standing half asleep and Danny went a few feet away 
 to a water tap for a drink. As he lifted the cup to his lips 
 he heard something go "rip" and hurried back to the stall 
 to find Lee standing just as he had left him, still half asleep, 
 apparently but the sheet was ripped from end to end and 
 the piece he had torn out of it was lying at his front feet. 
 
 "Danny was a great boy to keep the stall looking neat, 
 the bedding in order and everything ship shape. On the 
 campaign there always were visitors and besides Danny be- 
 lieved in order and decency. But no sooner would he turn 
 his back than Lee would begin to root up his bedding until 
 his stall looked as if the pigs had been rooting in it. Then 
 he would wind up, if left alone long enough, ])y rooting all 
 the bedding into the hall in front of his quarters. To stop 
 that lime was sprinkled over the floor before the bedding 
 
LEE AXWORTHY 69 
 
 was put down and that stopped him. Not liking the lime 
 the next boy that had him, Nick Karper, used talcum powder 
 and the horse never learned the difference. To keep him 
 from tearing his blanket in the stall a stick was put on him 
 and occasionally he would lie down with the stick under- 
 neath him, and on the instant he would flop over as easily 
 as a boy. 
 
 "At night if he happened to drink all the water out of 
 his pail and would want another drink he would rattle the 
 pail against the wall until sleep was out of the question and 
 the only thing to do was to get up and wait on him. 
 
 "In all his racing career he missed one feed. That was 
 his dinner the day l)efore he was to start against the stallion 
 record at North Randall, and he appeared to be a very sick 
 horse. He just refused to eat but we worked with him that 
 afternoon, kept him in a temporary paddock outside the 
 barn and by evening he was ready to eat all he could get 
 at. His ration consisted of two quarts of crushed oats three 
 times a day, making six quarts in all, with a bran mash 
 added to the two quarts fed at night. But he had all the 
 hay he could eat and he could put nearly as much away as 
 an elephant. Hay was to him like candy to a kid, he was 
 ready for it all the time and he never seemed to really get 
 enough. 
 
 "The day he got his record of 1:581 4 he had hay just 
 like he wanted it, which was all the time. Nick booted and 
 harnessed him as he munched his hay and when Mr. White 
 took him out his sides bulged like those of a brood mare. 
 But Nick knew and as he patted him on the belly after he 
 was harnessed and his driver had mounted the sulky to begin 
 to warm him up Nick said: 'He's in great shape Mr. White, 
 you'll lower all the records today.' And he did. 
 
 "He must have known how to feed himself for when we 
 left Thomasville in the Spring of 1916 he weighed exactly 
 900 pounds. When we got back to Lexington in the late 
 fall, shipping from Atlanta and starting against time the 
 day after we reached Lexington, going the mile in 1:59^, 
 he weighed 880 pounds." 
 

 
Your's is the day! We greet you 
 'Tis ours to stand aside. 
 
 — Marion N. Gaskill. 
 
 
 PETER MANNING 
 
 Champion Trotter of the World 
 Record 1:57% 
 
 HEN, on October 6th, 1921, Peter Manning set the 
 world's record for trotters at ] :57%, he displaced 
 the 1:58 of Uhlan which stood for nine years and it 
 is somewhat of a coincidence that when Uhlan, in 1912, set 
 the world's record at 1:58, he displaced the 1:58^4 of Lou 
 Dillon who was the first two-minute trotter and whose record 
 had been the best for nine years and that is what caused 
 Mr. Charles Tanner, who trained and drove Uhlan, to declare 
 that the extremely fast trotters do not appear often enough 
 and that "nine years is too long to wait for a champion". 
 Whether we will have to wait nine years for a successor to 
 Peter Manning depends, as it happens, on Tommy Murphy, 
 trainer and driver of the present champion, and his other 
 two-minute trotter, Arion Guy 1 :59l/>. They will have their 
 opportunity. After racing Peter Manning successfully in 
 1920, Mr. Murphy drove him to the world's record in 1921, 
 as stated, and while he may make the attempt to further 
 lower that record with him it is to Arion Guy, the younger 
 trotter, that many horsemen look to lower the record. This 
 is no particular place for prophecy but it may be that both 
 of the Murphy horses will lower the record that stood at the 
 close of 1921. Tommy is in the habit of doing unexpected 
 things. 
 
 Before proceeding with the story of Peter Manning it 
 is well to glance at the growth of the list of two-minute 
 trotters. Few people realize that there is something out of 
 the ordinaiy in the making of a trotter that can show the 
 
74 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 public a two-minute, or better, mile. And yet in the nine- 
 teen years included in the period 1903-1921, but six trotters 
 have shown that capacity in public trials and two of them 
 made their records as long ago as 1903, for it was in that 
 year that Lou Dillon trotted the first mile in two-minutes and 
 set the world's record at 1 :58l/> and Major Delmar set the 
 record for trotting geldings at 1:59%. Seven years elapsed 
 before another two-minute trotter appeared and he only 
 succeeded in lowering the record of Major Delmar and lacked 
 a quarter of a second of equaling the mark of Lou Dillon. 
 As already stated nine years went by after the Lou Dillon 
 championship mile before Uhlan became fastest of trotters, 
 for it was in 1912 that he trotted in 1:58. 
 
 Six years after Uhlan entered the two-minute list Lee 
 Axworthy trotted to a record of 1:58^/4, the first stallion to 
 enroll his name among the very elect of the trotting turf, 
 the best record for a stallion up to that time having been 2:01. 
 That increased the list of two-minute trotters to a total of but 
 four and yet thirteen years had gone by since the day of Lou 
 Dillon and Major Delmar. 
 
 Lee Axworthy's year was 1916 and while three other 
 trotters appeared about that time that appeared to have 
 chances to trot in two-minutes or faster, none of them did it, 
 the nearest approach being the 2:01 of Lu Princton. Five 
 years went by and then the history of 1903 was repeated 
 and the names of two more trotters were enrolled, Peter 
 Manning 1 :57'j4, the new champion and a gelding and Arion 
 Guy 1:59^, a four-year-old and a stallion and also the first 
 of his age to get into the extra-select list. They brought the 
 total up to six. 
 
 As further showing the importance of a two-minute trot- 
 ting record and the extremely difficult task of lowering the 
 trotting record, it should he remembered that the first two- 
 minute trotter took a record of 1:58^ and that the present 
 world's record is but three-quarters of a second faster, so 
 that the task of developing and training a trotter to where 
 the ability to cut off a quarter of a second is shown is by no 
 means an easy one. Hence the men who have brought out 
 the two-minute trotters have accomplished great things and 
 
PETER MANNING 75 
 
 those who have succeeded in getting their pupils up to where 
 they could lower the record, even through it be by but the 
 smallest fraction of a second (as timing prevails on the trot- 
 ting tracks) have done something away beyond the usual. 
 Six two-minute trotters in nineteen years does not look like 
 a great number. But the trotting breed is yet young and 
 two-minute trotters are still two-minute trotters. Nor is ic 
 probable that they will ever be produced in great numbers. 
 One every three years is not many. But it is possible that 
 the average may change. There are those who believe that 
 in the not distant future trotters will race in two minutes, be- 
 cause there will be more trotters bred with that capacity. Be 
 that as it may, the situation at the beginning of the year 1922 
 is that in nineteen years but six two-minute trotters have ap- 
 peared, and that while two came out in 1921, the same thing 
 occurred in 1903. 
 
 With this brief outline of the history of the two-minute 
 trotter we will now go on to present the story of the present 
 champion, Peter Manning, 1:57'^, bay gelding by Azoff- 
 Glendora G. by Emmett Grattan. 
 
 Bred in Lake County, Illinois, by W. M. Wright, Peter 
 Manning was developed by Harry Putnam, of which later, 
 and after that trainer gave him a time record of 2:06^/2, as a 
 three-year-old, he was bought by Thomas W. Murphy, acting 
 for Mr. Irvin W. Gleason of Williamsport, Pa., for $21,000. 
 Mr. Murphy raced him through the Grand Circuit in 1920, 
 when the colt was four years of age, and he was returned the 
 winner of every race but one during that season and retired 
 for the year with the world's record for trotting geldings in a 
 race, which was 2:0214:- 
 
 During that year nothing was done with him with any 
 other object in view than to lit him for his races and keep him 
 in condition to win them. His best record was made in the 
 race for the Transylvania purse at Lexington, and it came 
 about in the fortunes of war that Mr. Murphy was injured 
 and was unable to do the driving, that task falling to Mr. 
 Harry Stokes. 
 
 With a winning race record of 2:02^ the prospective 
 champion was without racing engagements for the season of 
 
^6 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 1921 unless something unforseen should occur to bring 
 enough other trotters into his class to enable the Grand Cir- 
 cuit tracks to make offerings that would again introduce the 
 gelding to actual contests. In accordance with that situation 
 and because his trainer believed he had ability to lower the 
 world's record for trotters, his preparation began for that sort 
 of effort shortly after the opening of the Grand Circuit rac- 
 ing season. As there were to be no particular early efforts, 
 a mile in about 2:11 was the best Peter was asked to step be- 
 fore the stable left Poughkeepsie for North Randall, about 
 the middle of June. As the season advanced there was resort 
 to fast quarters at both ends of the miles and these were usu- 
 ally, when the proper time came, in 29 to 29^/4 seconds. In 
 the main the system followed was the "mile on mile", drop- 
 ping at the proper time the necessary few seconds until the 
 time to ask for great speed was reached, and then came the 
 fast quarters. As the result of this work Peter Manning 
 learned to step a quarter in 27-)4 seconds, and a half in 56. 
 
 In the course of a recent conversation with the writer on 
 the subject of the champion's chances for a new record Mr. 
 Murphy made this brief but significant observation: "I do 
 not see why he should not do it; he trotted a half in 56 sec- 
 onds." Twice 56 is 112, that is 1:52 for the mile, and while 
 no harness horse has ever done that, and perhaps no one ex- 
 pects Peter Manning to do it, there is ample reason for the 
 belief that the champion's trainer has a mile in 1:56 in mind, 
 and that will require but 58 seconds for each half, and the 
 fast trotters have done so many things that it is idle to sit back 
 and say "Peter Manning cannot do that". And it should be 
 further remembered that the confidence of a competent 
 trainer has much to do with what a great horse accomplishes. 
 And no trainer ever had more confidence in a trotter than 
 Tommy Murphy has in Peter Manning, despite the fact that 
 it is extremely difficult to get him to make any predictions 
 concerning his future other than the one which has just been 
 quoted. 
 
 Carrying his good trotter along and working him all that 
 he seemed to require in order to make speed and carry his 
 clip. Murphy decided at Readville during the Grand Circuit 
 
PETER MANNING "]"] 
 
 meeting in August, that the time had arrived to make another 
 addition to the list of two-minute trotters, which had been 
 growing slowly, and to which there had been no additions 
 since 1916, Lee Axworthy's year. The gelding was started 
 over the original two-minute track on the thirtieth day of 
 August, 1921, and performed strictly up to expectations, 
 trotting the mile in exactly two minutes, and making the fifth 
 trotter to accomplish that feat. It has been said that this per- 
 formance was gratifying to Murphy for many reasons, and 
 that his goal had been to drive a trotter into the tw^o-minute 
 list. Perhaps the proper way to put it would be to say that 
 he was quite anxious to perform that feat, one so few men 
 had accomplished. But it was only a step toward the real 
 goal, which was to drive Peter Manning to the world's record. 
 Two weeks later, when he trotted his mile in 1 :58 over the 
 New York State Fair track at Syracuse, the feat was some- 
 thing to talk about, for it tied the world's record which had 
 been set by Uhlan, at Lexington, in 1912. But that, as well, 
 was but a step toward the Murphy goal. He had the sole 
 ownership of the champion record in view, and he kept right 
 on. He drove Peter Manning two fine miles at Columbus, 
 giving that fast track its first trotting mark in two minutes or 
 better, and that put the finishing touches on the gelding's 
 preparation for the effort, to be made at Lexington, to secure 
 the world's record. 
 
 The feat was accomplished and the mile was trotted in 
 1:57%^, and the diffidence of the human factor in the per- 
 formance is described by one of his friends in these words: 
 
 "While the thousands welcomed the performance with 
 fast beating hearts, hand-clapping and shouts of congratula- 
 tions, the hero of the occasion was conspicuously absent, hav- 
 ing failed to respond to the calls from the audience which de- 
 sired to accord him its homage. He had driven Peter Man- 
 ning off the track and, with acclamations ringing in his ears, 
 sought solitude." 
 
 The Lexington audience had no greater disappointment 
 than most people have had in trying to get the Poughkeepsie 
 reinsman to talk about what he has done. He will cheerfully 
 answer many of the millions of questions that are put to him 
 
78 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 every year, but he declines to go into any extended preach- 
 ment as to how he trains trotters. There is no doubt that he 
 would be a wise counselor for any man who was having 
 training troubles, and that he would go far out of his way, on 
 request, to be of assistance to any one. But talking about 
 himself is another matter entirely. And that explains why he 
 disappeared that great day at Lexington, and disproves the 
 belief that he had gone away to hold to his overflowing heart, 
 lest it burst under the new and valued honors that came to 
 him. It may be possible that he did not hold the new record 
 as highly as did some of his friends. Records had come to 
 be quite common to him, for more than fifty-seven "bests" 
 have been accredited to him in his career. 
 
 Getting back to Peter Manning. He had been pretty well 
 trained and mannered before he joined the stable of Mr. 
 Murphy, but he did develop two slight faults that had to be 
 corrected before he could go to the races. One of them was 
 that peculiar one which many trotters and pacers try to put 
 over, and which consisted in wanting to turn one way only. 
 He was soon taught that he must obey orders, and no great 
 difficulty was encountered in teaching him the lesson. The 
 other consisted in a desire, put into action, to rush away at 
 speed whenever he was turned to score. To correct that fault 
 his trainer used all the arts of persuasion and all the means at 
 his command except punishment — that was not called into 
 action. But he did resort to the rope halter, and in a very 
 short time Peter had learned that he would not be permitted 
 to do the thing he so much wanted to do. And he took that 
 lesson in his matter-of-fact way and did not have to be taught 
 it again. 
 
 At first he was exceedingly shy of strangers and did not 
 care to have them about him. They were not at all welcome 
 in his stall, and when they appeared at the door he would 
 make his way to the farthest corner and refuse to have any- 
 thing to do with them. Nor has he entirely gotten over that 
 peculiarity, although he will visit in a most friendly way a 
 great deal of the time. It is not at all unlikely that the sugar 
 which has been carried to him by so many of his admirers 
 
PETER MANNING 79 
 
 has had much to do with his changing attitude. As Mike 
 McDevitt says, "sugar is a great civilizer for horses." 
 
 There never was a better doer. There may have been 
 many just as good, but there will never be found one who is 
 better. Nothing appears to disturb him. and he ships as if he 
 had been a railroader all his life. His appetite is always 
 keen, but he is in no sense a glutton. Like many other great 
 horses have been, he is partial to hay and wants plenty of it 
 all the time. It follows that he gets it. 
 
 His weight? Well, one person's guess is as good as an- 
 other's. He has not been on the scales since he joined the 
 Murphy establishment, but he looks very much like a thou- 
 sand pounds or so, say fifty for the "so", and he holds his 
 weight remarkably well, no matter how strenuous his cam- 
 paign may be. He is a big gelding, measuring 15 hands S^/g 
 inches at the withers, and while there are none of the so- 
 called heroic lines about him, his conformation is quite 
 pleasing and one gentleman who may be considered, in fact 
 is, a thoughtful observer, says that he appears to grow better 
 looking each succeeding year. On this point Mr. Murphy re- 
 lates an incident which fits well at this point of our narrative. 
 
 In the early winter when Peter Manning was a newcomer 
 to the Poughkeepsie caravan, a party of gentlemen paid the 
 place a visit. i\mong them were two quite prominent track 
 managers. When they visited the stables the first horse shown 
 them was Peter Manning. They were in the stall with the 
 then three-year-old, and Tommy was attending to some small 
 matter not far away. The two track managers looked the 
 gelding over very carefully, and finally one of them said: 
 "I don't see what Murph saw in that common-looking thing to 
 put all that money in him**, then asked his fellow manager, 
 "Do you?"' The prompt answer was "No, I don't; he's the 
 commonest thing I ever saw." 
 
 It is presumed that he looked better to them the next year 
 when he won the rich stakes their associations off^ered for trot- 
 ters. But while Peter is not what would be called a beauty, 
 he has a "business" look which conforms quite well to his 
 business-like way of doing things, and there is an old saying 
 that "handsome is as handsome does" — not particularly ele- 
 
8o THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 gant, but filling the bill as to what it means. It might be 
 said, however, that this is no effort to create the impression 
 that Peter Manning is homely, for he is not; he merely lacks 
 some of the frills that sometimes go with the turf stars, and 
 that is all there is to it. 
 
 Peter Manning has done all his trotting with short toes, 
 shoes as light as possible and no toe weight, and a limited as- 
 sortment of boots. When he took his record of 2:061/2 at 
 three years he carried rubber quarter boots, but those were 
 soon discarded, so that his total boot equipment when he 
 raced and when he went his two-minute miles, consisted of 
 hind shin boots. Mr. Murphy hopes to some time be able to 
 drive him a fast mile with no boots of any sort, and while 
 he will not have to take many off^, the spectacle of a mile in 
 two minutes or better, perhaps a championship mile, by a 
 trotter without boots, will be something worth seeing. 
 
 The front shoes of the champion weigh 6^0 ounces and 
 are bar shoes perfectly plain. The length of his front toes is 
 3% inches and the angle is 47. The hind shoes are 4^/2 
 ounce, square toed and swedged with heel extension and heel 
 calks turned up. For hard tracks a very light rim pad is used 
 under the front shoes. The hind shoes are fitted with bars 
 merely to strengthen them, and for no other purpose. 
 
 In some of his races, the season Mr. Murphy was injured 
 and could not drive, Peter Manning was rigged with a head 
 pole, but for that a side strap was substituted, and its use is 
 accounted for by the fact that Peter is a trotter who some- 
 times quite easily gets out of line and is then apt to brush the 
 inside of his hind ankles. 
 
 "Marque" has this interesting thing to say about the gait 
 of the champion: "Here is an observation I will submit as 
 an oddity in respect to Peter Manning's gait; a feature I have 
 discussed with trainers and upon which I have found them to 
 agree with me, and that is the fact that when jogging or trot- 
 ting along at medium speed, he appears to be gaited just the 
 same as when he is speeding. In other words, unlike practi- 
 cally all other fast trotters, he does not change his method of 
 gait when moving from slow into high speed — just moves his 
 legs faster, that's all. He has not the same sort of front 
 
PETER MANNING 
 
 8l 
 
 Stroke that is characteristic of our modern trotters. He 
 strides fairly high in front, but instead of putting his feet 
 down with a sharp or forceful impact, seems to lightly let 
 them fall of their own volition, without the slightest apparent 
 effort." 
 
 And on this same subject his trainer says: "He lands 
 very flat with his front feet, but when riding behind him I 
 have observed that just before he strikes the track his feet 
 are given a slight outward flip, the toes turning towards the 
 outside with a quick movement. I believe that this keeps 
 him from hitting the ground with the hard impact that flat- 
 footed striders usually do." 
 
 A brief but graphic description of Peter Manning's rec- 
 ord mile at Lexington October 6th, 1921, appeared in the 
 American Sportsman, and is as follows: "There was not one 
 in all the crowd that was heard to express any hope that he 
 could trot in time to make necessary the removal of the fig- 
 ures 1:58 that had adorned the timing stand since 1912, the 
 year Uhlan made that record. Peter Manning was accom- 
 panied by the runners driven by John Benyon and Hunter 
 Moody, and trotted the most wonderful mile yet achieved by 
 any horse. When he reached the quarter and the time showed 
 thirty seconds, and then the half in fifty-nine seconds, it was 
 generally thought that Murphy had made a mistake in going 
 too slow. Then when the three-quarters showed only 1 :29 the 
 task looked hopeless. But he came through the stretch like a 
 runner, and at the seven-eigths was joined by a third 
 prompter. Murphy was after him with one of his 'high line' 
 drives, and the horse flashed under the wire in 1 :57'^, a rec- 
 ord never touched by any other trotter, and a feat worthy of 
 the greatest commendation." 
 
 The world's records held by Peter Manning are five in 
 number, and are as follows: Fastest trotter, 1:57'%; fastest 
 gelding, 1:57'^; fastest four-year-old gelding, 2:02l^; fast- 
 est five-year-old, 1:57'"^; fastest three-heat race, 2:03, 
 2:023/4, 2:021/0. Until the season of 1921 he held the record 
 for the fastest race heat by a gelding, 2:02^4' loshig it when 
 Grey worthy trotted in 2:0214 
 
82 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 The champion's record miles, trotted in 1921, are as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 North Randall— To beat 2:02i4 :30% 1:01V2 1:31 2:O0i/4 
 
 Readville— To beat 2:00^4 :30i4 :59% 1:291/2 2:00 
 
 Syracuse— To beat 2:00 :30i4 :59% 1:28% 1:58 
 
 Columbus— To beat 2:01, track record :30 :59 1:29 l:59i^ 
 
 Lexington— To beat 1:58, world's record :30 :59y2 1:29 1:57% 
 
 In one respect Tommy Murphy and John J. McGraw, 
 manager of the New York National League team, are alike, 
 and that is their purchase of developed material. But do not 
 think for a minute that either of them depends entirely on 
 that method of procedure. Glance over the long list of play- 
 ers that have performed for McGraw and note that many of 
 his very best were developed on his team and were not pur- 
 chased. Then take a look at the long list of great trotters and 
 pacers that Murphy has exhibited, and note the large number 
 of them that he developed. There is nothing in anything that 
 Murphy has said to indicate that he cares a "rap" what is said 
 about his methods, but once in a great while he lets go of a 
 remark along this line: "Nobody appeared to want Peter 
 Manning at the price but me, when I bought him. A lot of 
 other people saw him and knew he was for sale. He looked 
 like he was worth having, and I paid $21,000 for him. I 
 guess anybody else could have bought him." And again, in 
 talking about the same subject, he said: "If they are for sale 
 and I like them, I buy them if I have the price. Arion Guy 
 was for sale and most people knew it, for no secret was made 
 of it. But he was still for sale when I got him; I drove him 
 a mile in 2:23 and bought him. He was'nt kept for me, and 
 it was through no strategy of mine or my friends that I bought 
 a Futurity winner and a two-minute trotter." And speaking 
 of making instead of buying, but one example of recent times 
 need be cited to show that Murphy does not have to require 
 that they be handed to him ready made, and that one is Rose 
 Scott, winner of the Kentucky Futurity at two and three, with 
 a record of 2:03l/v). "All I ask is a good horse and that he 
 do well for me. I buy all for a purpose, and they do not all 
 become champions either, nor for that matter, good race win- 
 ners. 
 
 And it can further be said to the great credit of the 
 
PETER MANNING 83 
 
 Pouglikeepsie reinsman, that he always wants every man who 
 is entitled to it to have his share of the honor that comes 
 through the performances of a great horse. For instance, in 
 speaking of Directum I he remarked: "A lot of men have 
 made good horses; there is Johnny Ryan, who brought out 
 Directum I and won many a good race with him, and gave 
 him a fast record ; and Ray Snedeker had him and drove him 
 to a world's record." And that spirit actuates Tommy Mur- 
 phy all the while and is an indication of that innate modesty 
 which, while it does not curb his ambition to do great things, 
 does prevent him from assuming the attitude of taking honor 
 to which he does not feel himself entitled. 
 
 That is not much about Peter Manning, but it has to do 
 with the circumstance under which he passed to the manage- 
 ment of Murphy. Also this might be the proper place to re- 
 cord the observation that if there is any man who does not 
 heartily praise every trainer who does the very best he can do 
 and tries his best all the time he may be a sportsman of a 
 kind, but not of the two-minute kind. 
 
 The fall Peter Manning was two years old Harry Putnam 
 ground broke him, but did not do anything with him that 
 winter. A combination of circumstances prevented any fur- 
 ther education for the colt until the following April (1919), 
 at which time Harrys re-opened his training stable at the half- 
 mile track of the Libertyville, 111., fair. The colt took his 
 lessons in breaking all right, and made speed when his educa- 
 tion had progressed to where it was asked for. It was early 
 in the schooling that Harry discovered that Peter could not 
 get on with long toes nor carry very much weight. He at once 
 began reducing both until he had the toes as short as it was 
 possible to get them, and had reduced the weight of the front 
 shoes to six ounces each. 
 
 That accomplished, Peter made speed as rapidly as his 
 tutor allowed him to make it, and that was enough to indicate 
 that he was destined to be quite a trotter with any kind of 
 good fortune. In the early fall he was started at the Liberty- 
 ville fair, and won in 2:171/4. Just a little later he trotted 
 the mile track at the Wisconsin State Fair in 2:10, and began 
 to attract the attention of the public. In a slow mile he 
 
84 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 trotted the final quarter in thirty seconds. Then he was started 
 at Lexington for a record, and trotted in 2:06^, equalling 
 the then world's record for three-year-old geldings held by 
 Easton. Peter trotted the last half of his mile in 1 :00l^, and 
 the last quarter in 29^4 seconds. The performance created 
 almost as much commotion as a stirring finish, and the sale 
 of the youngster shortly after for $21,000 to Tommy Murphy 
 for Mr. Gleason was announced. The early career of the 
 champion reflects great credit upon a young trainer who has 
 made his way in the world through sheer force of merit and 
 honest methods. 
 
 So far as general principles are concerned there has been 
 no great change in the shoeing and rigging of Peter Manning 
 since he passed from the charge of Harry Putnam. He goes 
 somewhat different in a way, and yet there remains the same 
 peculiarity of gait that was in evidence when he took his colt 
 record. The change in his style of going has come with the 
 increase in his speed capacity; just such a change as might 
 be noted in any trotter that passed from the 2:06 capacity 
 to that of a champion trotter. 
 
 To tell of Peter Manning and not mention John Sum- 
 mers, the highly capable man who cares for him, would be 
 to omit something of importance. John is the ideal care- 
 taker in every respect and he finds Peter a willing and 
 cheerful charge because he knows just what to do with him 
 and when and how to do it. The result is that the champion 
 is always as fit as a fiddle. Perhaps John's plan is to treat 
 Peter just as he would any other good horse and let it go at 
 that. At all events Peter and John were ready when time 
 came for the supreme test and what was done is history. 
 
 Peter is distinctively a product of Lake County, 111., and 
 is another bit of evidence of the neighborliness of the people 
 there. Mr. Wright's farm in Lake County lay between 
 Grattan Farm and the John R. Thompson Farm, home of 
 Azoff". From Grattan Farm, Mr. Wright bought Glendora 
 G. and at Thompson F/arm he bred her to Azoff", and her 
 colt he sent to Harry Putnam, a resident of Lake County, 
 for development. The result was Peter Manning 2:06^, 
 and Tommy Murphy did the rest. 
 

 ON 
 
 O 
 Z 
 
 o 
 < 
 
Oh, talk not to mc of a name great in story. 
 The days of our youth are the days of our glory. 
 
 — Lord Byron. 
 
 ARION GUY 
 
 Champion Four-Year-Old Trotter 
 Record 1:591/2 
 
 RION GUY 1:591/4 is the youngest trotter that has 
 ever entered the two-minute list, and that is notable 
 for the other reason that but one pacer of that age 
 has enrolled his name in that small assembly — William, 
 who at four took a record of exactly two minutes. But it 
 can be said for Arion Guy that he was in all probability a 
 two-minute trotter at the age of three years. There is, to be 
 sure, room for argument that he was not capable of any such 
 mile speed before he reached the age of four, and if the 
 argument were held it could not be settled, for there is no 
 known means of carrying the four-year-old trotting champion 
 back to the earlier age. But he showed in his race in the Ken- 
 tucky Futurity that he possessed the necessary speed, and as 
 he had the strength and was, as he now is, absolutely sound, 
 there appears to be ample foundation for the belief that had 
 he been conditioned through the year for one fast mile in the 
 fall he would have trotted that mile in or below two minutes. 
 Glance at the fractional time of his miles and note the 
 flight of speed he exhibited in every one of them. He 
 trotted the final quarter of the first mile in 291/0 seconds, 
 and the mile was trotted in 2:04''^4- I^ the second heat the 
 final quarter was negotiated in thirty seconds, though the 
 mile was a slow one, raced at 2:10 or slower speed, part 
 of the way. The third quarter of the third and last mile was 
 trotted in 29^0 seconds and the entire mile in 2:04'*^. A 
 trotter to go a mile in two minutes must have better than 
 two-minute speed for part of the way. To put it in other 
 
88 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 words, the trotter whose brush limit is a quarter in thirty 
 seconds would hardly be expected to trot a full mile at that 
 rate of speed, as almost any trainer will tell you, if he has 
 had any experience with extreme speed. Inasmuch as Arion 
 Guy was able to show two quarters in his Kentucky Futurity 
 race each better than thirty seconds, the quite natural de- 
 duction is that he was not many, if any, removes from a 
 two-minute trotter that day. With the ability to carry his 
 best clip, and grant that it was but 29^/2 seconds for the 
 quarter, half the way, he would have been required to do 
 no better than 30^ seconds average for the other two quar- 
 ters to trot the mile in two minutes. 
 
 That he could have been brought to that point in mile 
 speed ability there would appear to be no reasonable doubt. 
 But he had been trained with his rich futurity engagements 
 in view and with no idea whatever of any trials for a record; 
 yet with that training he developed wonderful speed, and 
 with his superb condition equalled had he been trained with 
 the other object in view he could hardly have failed to give 
 the two-minute list its first three-year-old member. 
 
 Thomas W. Murphy, who trained and raced him as a 
 three-year-old, and who gave him his best record at four 
 years of age, says of him: 
 
 "When I bought him as a two-year-old, after having 
 driven him a mile in about 2:23, he was the possessor of 
 extreme speed." Mr. Harold Childs, who broke and de- 
 veloped the colt through his two-year-old form and whose 
 most interesting letter appears farther along in this chapter, 
 testifies that he "had a great amount of natural trotting speed 
 for a short brush." Evidence sufficient to at least incubate 
 the belief, especially when coupled with that which later 
 came about, that Arion Guy could have been made a two- 
 minute trotter a year before he became one. 
 
 Be that as it may, the colt was in fine fettle all of 1921 
 and was successful in his three assaults on time, the last one 
 recording a mile better than two minutes and trotted in such 
 splendid manner, every foot in its proper place, every foot- 
 fall in true rhythm, that those who witnessed the perform- 
 ance were unanimous in declaring that a much lower record 
 
ARION GUY 89 
 
 in 1922 would easily be secured by the son of Guy 
 Axworthy. 
 
 In the course of a recent interview which Tommy Murphy 
 accorded for use in this volume, he said: 
 
 "Arion Guy has about the sweetest disposition of any 
 horse I have ever had in my charge. There he stands, as 
 quiet as an old gelding, more quiet in fact than some of 
 them, and that way he stands for hours at a time, every day. 
 He has no bad habits of any kind or degree. He is no more 
 trouble than the barn cats. Every visitor to his stall is wel- 
 come. He seems never to have learned to nip at his care- 
 taker, but he does show real affection for him and, the matter 
 of that, he may have a real liking for all people — some 
 horses are of that disposition. Up to this time (it was the 
 middle of February, 1922 — Ed.) he has not known what it 
 is to be on the ailing list. The boys tell me that he never 
 has missed a feed, and I know he has never had to be ex- 
 cused from whatever training stunt was set for any particu- 
 lar day. But that I mean he has never had his training 
 interfered with by sickness or lameness or anything else. 
 
 "He is a perfect glutton for hay and he is not denied il 
 at all. He gets what he wants of it when he wants it, and he 
 always is ready for it and would be sure to let us know if 
 we had not given him enough. But the boys know his ca- 
 pacity and while it is great they try to make the 'portions' 
 come up to his requirements. His daily supply of oats is 
 about nine quarts in the racing season, and that amount 
 seems to have suited him pretty well. 
 
 "I do not know that any of the routine of his training 
 would be of interest except that there was nothing peculiar 
 or out of the way about it. He was trained just about as all 
 good horses are trained and he was keyed up at the proper 
 time, and then he did what we expected him to do. He did 
 not miss any work either as a three-year-old or a four-year- 
 old, and when I began to drop him toward fast miles nothing 
 happened to prevent me from carrying out whatever program 
 or plan I had in mind. He trained like the good horse he is 
 and gave me absolutely nothing to worry about. I knew 
 before we shipped to North Randall in 1921 that he had his 
 
90 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 speed, and knowing that I knew he was in condition to carry 
 it. Of course I finished his preparation as we went along, 
 for he had no races and was to make his first start at the 
 second North Randall meeting in August. That was to be 
 a mile against time and he was worked according to what 
 he would be asked to do. His best mile before the first 
 public start was around 2:05, but he was given his head on 
 occasions for quarters in 29 and 29^/4 seconds. 
 
 '^He wore throughout the season five ounce bar shoes in 
 front and four ounce swedge shoes behind. He requires 
 no toe weights and in his record mile he wore no boots in 
 front and those behind were light shin with speedy-cut at- 
 tachment." 
 
 As Mr. Murphy has stated that Arion Guy had no bad 
 habits at any time, it might be said here that there is but 
 one thing about him that has made him at all difficult to 
 train or race, and that is that he is what one writer has termed 
 "ticklish," and there is no better word to describe it. He 
 was, and to an extent still is, somewhat sensitive to the gnats 
 and bugs that hit him about the muzzle. He simply did not 
 like that sort of visitors, as they appeared to sting him a 
 great deal more than they do most horses. It follows that 
 dirt that hits him in the same place is, to him, nothing to 
 ask for more of. This ticklishness is also shown when dirt 
 or clods strike his stomach. Fortunately, owing to the care 
 of those who developed and trained him, he did not become 
 at all erratic, if that is the word which correctly expresses 
 the idea. Perhaps it would be better to say that it has not 
 made him unreliable. It appears to be not at all mental, 
 but is merely the sensitiveness of the particular parts named. 
 It is the opinion of those who should know about such things 
 that kindly care has brought this trotter up to the point where 
 he is not at all hampered by the failure of nature to endow 
 him with a tough muzzle and stomach hide. There is nothing 
 else that troubles him. Life is easy for him because of his 
 perfect disposition, splendid appetite and ability to do the 
 great things required of him. 
 
 It v^ould be doing the wrong thing to omit from this 
 chapter the observation of Markey on the Arion Guy way 
 
ARION GUY 91 
 
 of doing things. That accomplished writer printed this 
 about him: 
 
 "He is the quickest-moving horse that I ever saw in 
 harness, trotter or pacer. No other trotter, in my opinion, 
 has such remarkable use of its legs and none can so quickly 
 move from a 2:05 into a two-minute clip. His gait seems 
 suddenly to change when he opens up in high speed and 
 one constantly wonders just how much faster he could step 
 should Tommy feed him more gas. He is apt to rush at 
 any time, especially if the runner comes up to him suddenly, 
 and on the occasion of his 1:591/4 mile this was the case 
 shortly after the three-eighths pole was passed. He hit a 
 terrific clip instantaneously and the horsemen with whom 
 I was standing remarked that he was flying. We have had 
 a number of horses whose stroke was just as rapid, but none 
 who could handle themselves after the acrobatic fashion of 
 Arion Guy. As a general thing rapid striders among the 
 smaller horses do not stride far, but for his inches Arion 
 Guy certainly discounts that rule. He does not go at it with 
 the rhythmical precision of that beautifully gaited stallion 
 Etawah 2:03, but there is more flash to his gait. He has a 
 way of using his body muscles that reminds me of Minor 
 Heir. The muscles along their backs appeared to creep and 
 crawl as if they were boring themselves through the air." 
 
 Entering his fifth year Arion Guy does not appear to have 
 gained in heighth and looks as if his growth upward at least 
 has ceased though that is merely an opinion and has no value 
 nor would it make any difference if it had. He is an inch 
 and a quarter over 15 hands so that he is not a small horse. 
 It has been remarked of him that, unlike Lee Axworthy, he 
 is not a "big little" horse. He is not of the same general 
 make-up despite their very close relationship. (One was a 
 son of Guy Axworthy with a Bingen dam, the other is a son 
 of Guy Axworthy with a dam by a son of Bingen.) But 
 Arion Guy, like Lee Axworthy, looks the part of a fast trot- 
 ter and is not out of horse proportion anywhere. Maybe 
 that observation is of no particular value as it is made about 
 two horses that have established reputation as speed marvels. 
 There is that about him which prevents any one from at- 
 
g2 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 tempting to say how he would prefer to have his conforma- 
 tion changed if it could be done. 
 
 No photograph so far taken of him, in harness, does him 
 full justice. Tommy Murphy has one the execution of which 
 is most excellent but it is not at all a picture of the horse. It 
 has the same fault that most of the others have in that it 
 makes him look about as big as a bamboo pole around the 
 flanks. And it has the further fault that it makes his neck 
 look like it belonged to some other trotter. So have most 
 of the rest so far exhibited. The one used in this volume 
 is the best that has been found and it fails to show this great 
 young trotter as he really is and as rugged and full made. 
 Tommy Murphy explains the drawn-up "spindly" look 
 shown in the photographs to the fact that they were snapped 
 at a time when the colt was getting ready for a long breath 
 and had almost entirely emptied his lungs as well as con- 
 tracted his flank muscles. It should be added that the faulty 
 photographs are all of him standing and not of him in 
 motion. 
 
 It is doubtful if he will ever be any better-looking than 
 he now is for if so he will be more than a picture, for that 
 he is. There might have been a time when he would have 
 been considered too handsome to amount to much. But 
 that no longer obtains as an opinion among horsemen. We 
 have had too many good-looking, too many handsome fast 
 trotters in recent years. Much has been said about his gait 
 and no more need be added except that if one cares to com- 
 pare it with Lee Axworthy the chief diff^erence is that Arion 
 Guy does not "wing" with either front foot nor does he go so 
 high. Whether he is "Childs-gaited" or "Murphy-gaited" 
 those who care to do so may decide for themselves. There 
 is one fact that cannot be erased from the records and that 
 is that he is two-minute gaited. 
 
 Reference has been made to the speed shown in spots in 
 the race for the Kentucky Futurity which Arion Guy won, 
 hence there is but little to be added. It is however worth 
 while to say that the time made in either of the fast miles, 
 2:04'14 both the first and the third, was not a measure of 
 the speed of the winner. 
 
ARION GUY 93 
 
 No racing engagements were made for the colt for the 
 year 1921. By the conditions he was barred from the 
 $15,000 purse at North Randall. He had passed to the 
 ownership of Mrs. H. K. Devereux and with true "sports- 
 manship", if the word may be permitted, she did not want 
 the impression to prevail that the race was made for her 
 young trotter. There were no other purses to speak of and 
 the plans made for him in the Spring contemplated a two- 
 minute or better record and nothing more. He was prepared 
 w^ith that in view and was started but three times during the 
 season. His first start was at the second meeting at North 
 Randall and the mile in 2:03 was the trotting record for the 
 season to that date, August 9tli. The fractional time of the 
 mile was 31'^, 1:03, 1:33^, 2:03, showing that the last 
 quarter was trotted in 29'^4 seconds and proving that the 
 colt had lost none of his "whizz". The effort was merely 
 to lower his record of 2:04'*^. 
 
 At Syracuse he was started to beat 2:03. his record, and 
 he trotted the mile in 2:01 which made him the world's cham- 
 pion four-year-old trotter. The fractional time of that mile 
 was, 31, l:00yo, 1:307^, 2:01. The middle half, it will be 
 seen, was trotted in 59^ seconds forecasting a two-minute 
 mile in the near future. 
 
 The effort to add another member to the family of two- 
 minute trotters was made at Lexington, Ky., October 6th and 
 was, as had been anticipated, a most successful one. One 
 writer on turf topics who saw the mile trotted, it w as an effort 
 to beat 2:01, said: "The task set for the colt looked like an 
 enormous one but he surprised the crowd by trotting to a 
 record of 1:591/), finishing strong and full of trot." The 
 official fractional time shows that he reached the quarter in 
 30 seconds and that the half was trotted in a minute; the 
 third quarter was covered in 29-^4 seconds and the final 
 quarter in the same time, making the time of the last half 
 of the mile 5914 seconds. 
 
 Tliere had never before been a four-year-old two-min- 
 ute trotter and the enthusiasm shown at the conclusion of the 
 mile has probably not been equaled at a harness meeting 
 since the dav Lou Dillon trotted the first two-minute mile 
 
94 THE TWO-MINUTE TROTTERS 
 
 in 1903 at Readville. It is not unlikely that the youth of 
 the performer had much to do with the splendid reception 
 he received as the official time was announced for there must 
 have been many present who were looking for the arrival of 
 the two-minute three-year-old trotter and who felt that, a 
 four-year-old having trotted in time better than two minutes, 
 their hopes would, ere long, become a reality. At all events 
 the performer leaped to great popularity and predictions 
 were freely made that he was more than likely to become the 
 champion trotter. 
 
 On that score his trainer has expressed a conservative 
 belief which will be found in the chapter telling about Peter 
 Manning. He expects that great trotter to get to 1 :56, maybe 
 shade it, though he makes no boast to that effect being con- 
 tent with the belief that the horse is equal to it. That he 
 believes Arion Guy capable of lowering the record for trot- 
 ting stallions goes without the saying. 
 
 And regarding that it may be well to again quote from 
 Markey who records his ideas in this manner: "I heard 
 hundreds of initiated horsemen say that they believed Arion 
 Guy would eventually secure a faster record than would 
 Peter Manning. It wasn't that they failed to appreciate the 
 tremendous achievement of the world's champion, but that 
 the colt, through his more dashing style, had swept them 
 away. Personally I believe that Peter Manning will next 
 season (1922) trot right at or even shade 1:56, but, highly 
 as I regard Arion Guy's capabilities, I have not been able 
 to make myself believe that he will ever trot quite that fast. 
 That he will dethrone Lee Axworthy as the trotting king I 
 have slight doubt." 
 
 No story of Arion Guy would be at all near complete if 
 it omitted mention of the very capable young man who has 
 charge of him. He is George Yax, who has earned a high 
 reputation as a caretaker. He goes about his work after the 
 manner of one who has learned it thoroughly, not only, but 
 who takes a delight in it. Naturally he is proud of his cham- 
 pion but in addition to that he has a genuine affection for 
 him, just as the horse appears to have for him. They have 
 much the same disposition and George handles him much as 
 
ARION GUY 95 
 
 if he were just a good-natured, well-doing horse that had not 
 yet got his picture "on the front page". And that is why 
 George is a good caretaker and it is also one reason why 
 Arion Guy has always progressed. The combination has 
 been a happy and a successful one. May it continue until 
 all the possible honors have been acquired. 
 
 Arion Guy is the product of modern breeding, intelligent 
 breaking and developing, skillful training and driving and 
 capable caretaking and is justly entitled to be a champion. 
 
 Mr. Harold Childs, of Lexington, Ky., who developed 
 Arion Guy tells the story of the early lessons of the four- 
 year-old champion in the following highly interesting way: 
 
 "Arion Guy was placed with me early in 1919 by Mr. 
 Al D. Hughes, then Superintendent of Mr. C. B. Shaffer's 
 Cold Stream Farm, he having purchased him from Mr. 
 Shaffer and wanted him broken and developed. 
 
 'T found the youngster to be very sensible and with a 
 clever disposition both in and out of the stable. He was no 
 trouble to break but had great nerve force and was full of 
 'pep' and there is no doubt that rough usage or harsh treat- 
 ment of any kind would have ruined him. As he was but 
 two and entirely undeveloped as to speed I brought him 
 along slowly but soon found that he was beautifully gaited 
 and had a great amount of natural trotting speed for a short 
 brush and so I worked him well within himself with the idea 
 of getting him thoroughly seasoned and his muscles and 
 lungs well developed before asking too much of him in the 
 speed line. But I would brush him right 'up on his toes' for 
 a short distance at the end of his work and would do that 
 two or three times a week. 
 
 "About the first of July I began working him slow miles 
 and repeat every other day with an occasional brush at the 
 finish and kept gradually dropping him down until fall when 
 I started him at a record meeting and gave him a breeder's 
 record of 2:2014 which he took with all possible ease, with a 
 brush through the stretch at the finish. I have no doubt but 
 that he could have trotted in 2:12 that day but as that was 
 only the fourth time he had been asked to beat 2:30 it would 
 
q6 the two-minute trotters 
 
 probably have done him great harm to 'tear into' him for a 
 mile, so I resisted the temptation to do so. 
 
 "About this time, Mr. Shaffer having bought the colt 
 back from Mr. Hughes came to my stable to look him over 
 and said that having sold all the rest of his horse holdings 
 except two or three favorite mares which he had pensioned 
 he would like to sell the colt. During the Trots that fall 
 Mr. Thomas W. Murphy became interested in the youngster 
 and after driving him a half in 1:03'%|^, last quarter in 31^ 
 seconds against a very strong wind, (this was the first time 
 a stranger had ever pulled a line over him) bought him and 
 shipped him with his other horses to Poughkeepsie. 
 
 "Arion Guy wore light half-round bar shoes in front, 
 light swedged shoes behind. The front angle was 48 and 
 the hind angle 53. He wore very light quarter boots in front 
 and shin boots with speedy-cut attachment behind; no scalp- 
 ers nor toe weights. I understand that the shoeing has never 
 been changed. I used a Bristol bit with a chin strap buckled 
 into the check instead of a check bit. 
 
 "He never gave me any trouble about his gait, he was 
 always clean-gaited, went straight and true and never re- 
 quired side poles, side straps or any other gaiting devices. 
 He always was a very easy, nice colt to train and while I 
 had him he never made a speed break." 
 
 Harold Childs has been one of our most successful de- 
 velopers of colt trotters and his success with Arion Guy but 
 added to the long list of such successes he has scored. The 
 innate modesty of the man, his total lack of inclination to 
 brag was never more clearly shown than in the letter he has 
 written for use in this volume. 
 
 There has never been any question raised as to the game- 
 ness of Arion Guy but some adverse comment as to his dam 
 became current shortly after Mr. Murphy purchased him. 
 Perhaps something of the early history of the dam, Margaret 
 Parrish, will be of interest. There never was any question 
 as to her speed nor that she tried as far as she could go, 
 which is always the best evidence of courage. But there was 
 a time in her career when she suffered from the effects of a 
 severe attack of sickness and one of the after effects was a 
 
ARION GUY 97 
 
 collection of deep sores in her neck which healed very slowly 
 and she was an occupant of Billy Andrews' hospital for 
 weeks, he then having her in training. She was nursed along 
 carefully and finally raced and lowered the record for 
 four-year-olds to 2:0614 despite the fact that her trainer 
 and her owner had not the slightest idea that she would ever 
 recover sufficiently from her sickness to be of any account. 
 Eddie Wise, who took care of her during that siege is of 
 the firm opinion that but for the sickness she would have 
 been one of the most sensational race mares of her time. He 
 believes she was as game as most trotters and his belief is 
 based on the fact that when she let down it was always at the 
 finish of a mile and that nothing could make her stop until 
 she had tried for her life. His opinion, arising, as it does, 
 from actual knowledge of the condition of the mare and what 
 she did in her races, ought to be about enough to fix the 
 correct status of Margaret Parrish especially when it is con- 
 sidered in connection with the great colt she produced. He 
 finished his l:59l/> mile at Lexington "one-two-three-four" 
 as Eddie puts it and not with the air "full of legs". 
 
 On this same subject Mr. Murphy shows more enthusi- 
 asm than he does about most things connected with the horses 
 he trains. He had Margaret Parrish in her sixth year and 
 gave her a careful preparation for a Grand Circuit campaign 
 so he knows something about her ability. He said, when 
 asked about it: "Margaret Parrish was a great trotter. It 
 makes no difference now and it will make no difference to 
 me at any time what may be said about her, she was one of 
 the greatest trotters I ever trained and if I could have been 
 so fortunate as to get her to the races there would not be any 
 one now to talk about her being a quitter. She had entirely 
 overcome the effects of the severe sickness from which she 
 suffered when Billy Andrews had her and she showed me 
 enough to make me believe that there never had been many 
 trotters trained that could show more mile speed. The 
 reason she was not raced is that she bowed a tendon and we 
 could not go on with her. It was a source of great regret to 
 me for more than one reason." 
 
 That ought to settle the matter of the qualifications of 
 
98 ARION GUY 
 
 Margaret Parrish. The testimony of Mr. Murphy and that 
 of Eddie Wise make a case strong enough to convince the 
 most prejudiced jury. 
 
 After the mare broke down she was mated by Tommy 
 with Guy Axworthy, the latter then being in his charge at 
 Poughkeepsie. The credit of breeding the resultant foal, 
 Arion Guy, goes to the Hudson River Stock Farm, and that 
 is Thomas W. Murphy. John E. Madden owned the mare; 
 she was sired by his horse Vice Commodore. She was later 
 sold at public auction and purchased by Mr. C. B. Shaffer 
 and Arion Guy was foaled his property. 
 
 ^ 
 
THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 STAR POINTER 
 DAN PATCH 
 PRINCE ALERT 
 AUDUBON BOY 
 MINOR HEIR 
 WILLIAM 
 DLRECTUM I 
 FRANK BOGASH, Jr. 
 SINGLE G. 
 NAPOLEON DIRECT 
 MISS HARRIS M. 
 PRINCE LOREE 
 LOUIE GRATTAN 
 SANARDO 
 
Should ould acquaintance be forgot 
 
 An never brought to min ; 
 
 Should ould acquaintance be forgot 
 
 An days o lang syne? 
 
 — Robert Burns. 
 
 STAR POINTER 
 
 The World's First Two-Minute Performer 
 Record 1:591/4 
 
 TAR POINTER 1:591/4, a bay horse by Brown Hal- 
 Sweepstakes by Snowheels, was the world's first two- 
 minute performer. He took his record at Readville, 
 Mass., August 28th, 1897, driven by Mr. Dave McCleary 
 and the effort was to beat the world's pacing record of 
 2:00yo, held by John R. Gentry. 
 
 Mr. McCleary, to whose careful efforts were largely due 
 the coming of the two-minute pacer, had his troubles with 
 the fast son of Brown Hal, for it took almost constant work 
 to keep his feet and legs in shape to stand fast miles. Dave 
 writes under date of Januaiy 29, 1922, from New York, 
 where he is engaged in conducting a large garage: 
 
 'T am only sorry that there is not something to tell of 
 a method of training Star Pointer that was religiously ad- 
 hered to or in a measure consistently followed. But as he 
 had some ailments that would not stand the ordinary train- 
 ing that naturally should be given to the type of animal 
 he was and with the amount of speed he had, what he did 
 accomplish tends to show what a wonderful horse he was to 
 continue to go the fast miles he did under those conditions. 
 
 "He had no peculiarities that I recall, was just a good, 
 big horse. Nor had he any bad habits when he came to me 
 and he did not acquire any while I had him. 
 
 "I consider our great success w4th Star Pointer was due 
 to the fact that we had one of the greatest caretakers that 
 
I04 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 ever looked after the welfare of a horse — Jesse H. Smith — 
 who had all the care of him during the time he was in train- 
 ing- 
 
 "Regarding his shoeing — he wore seven ounce bar shoes 
 
 in front and four ounce open shoes behind. He wore a 
 plain snaffle bit and Raymond check. His boots were many — 
 knee and arm, front shin, ankle and quarter and behind 
 ankle and coronet. 
 
 "In training him we never allowed him to stand any 
 day without jogging. He was a very gross horse and filled 
 up considerably and our principal motto was 'plenty of 
 miles' without extreme speed, starting, of course, with a 
 lot of slow miles in the spring until reaching 2:40. After 
 that period we worked him twice a week, Tuesday and Fri- 
 day. The work on Tuesday would be light, consisting 
 usually of two or three slow heats. Friday was his hardest 
 work day and then we would aim to reduce his time from 
 the 2:40 period about three seconds in one or two of the 
 heats. Then, on the following Tuesday he would have an- 
 other light work and on Friday again he would be reduced 
 three seconds from the previous Friday until we would 
 reach the neighborhood of 2:15 with him. Then for two 
 weeks he would be trained back to 2:22 or 2:25. We would 
 then start him in the same rotation of increase until down 
 to 2:02. He was then ready for fast miles. 
 
 "All of this time, weather permitting, he did not miss a 
 day in harness; even after work days his jogging would 
 consist of two or three miles. We endeavored to score but 
 little, as his work did not require scoring and as a rule he 
 either raced against one horse or went against time." 
 
 Star Pointer made his first public appearance when he 
 was a five-year-old, at Chicago, August 20th, 1894 and raced 
 with success the seasons of 1895 and 1896. But it is of the 
 racing season of 1897 and 1898 that this story is most con- 
 cerned for it was in those two years that he set world's records 
 and entered the two-minute list — the pioneer of the twenty 
 whose stories make up this volume. 
 
 In 1897 he won the free-for-all events at Chicago, Cleve- 
 land and Hartford and was beaten by Joe Patchen at Colum- 
 
STAR POINTER IO5 
 
 bus. At Fort Erie he was started to beat 2:021/) and paced 
 the mile in 2:01%^. At Mystic Park he started against, 
 and defeated Joe Patchen, in the first two-minute class ever 
 put on a program, but over that slow track the time was far 
 away from two-minutes. Pointer winning in 2:03'%^, 2:04^. 
 That same year he lost a race to Joe Patchen at Milwaukee. 
 He set a number of track records, among which were the 
 following: Terre Haute, 2:001/2; Ottumwa, la., 2:011/4; 
 St. Joseph, Mo., 2:02; Omaha, Neb., 2:0214. He started 
 in several match races against Joe Patchen, the pair making 
 an extended tour of the west, and won most of them. Their 
 most sensational race took place at the Illinois State Fair 
 and came very near to being the most disappointing contest 
 ever staged by fast pacers. In the first heat Star Pointer 
 made an all-day break and Joe Patchen won in 2:14. In 
 the second heat Joe Patchen "obliged" and his break slowed 
 the mile to 2:06 — it was made at the head of the home 
 stretch to which point the pair had gone at a two-minute clip. 
 The immense crowd groaned and jeered and hissed. But 
 the third heat made history and slaughtered records. Both 
 horses paced straight and true the entire mile. It was an 
 evenly rated one, the pair passing the three-quarter pole in 
 1 :30 and almost head and head, with Star Pointer at a 
 slight advantage which he maintained to the wire and the 
 mile was done in 2:001/^, Joe Patchen but a quarter of a 
 second away. This mile set a bundle of records. It was 
 the fastest heat ever paced, by a horse of any sex; it was 
 the fastest third heat ever paced and it presaged the two- 
 minute race heat. And yet it stood as the world's race rec- 
 ord for pacers for nearly a dozen years. 
 
 Star Pointer's crowning achievement of the year, was, of 
 course, his mile in 1:591 4, at Readville. A contemporary 
 account of the performance is somewhat unique and is as 
 follows : 
 
 "The big 1200 pound horse seemed stiff and sore, as he 
 jogged down the track. The first score, accompanied by a 
 running mate, was not satisfactory and starter Walker called 
 them back. The next trial was worse for just at the wire 
 Pointer went into a break while not stepping a 2:20 gait. 
 
I06 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 Bad scoring did not presage a fast mile. The crowd became 
 a trifle apathetic. But on the third time down, after having 
 scored nearly to the quarter in both the other attempts, 
 reinsman Dave McClary nodded for the word. 
 
 "The first quarter was an anxious one. A repetition of 
 the break was looked for but McClary was driving as usual 
 with a more snug hold of the pacer. As the watches snapped 
 the quarter a sigh of relief went up. With his big, easy 
 stride the stallion had stepped the first two furlongs in just 
 thirty seconds, a two-minute clip. Big Jim Murphy, the 
 owner of the horse, in a box in the grand stand took courage 
 and when Knap McCarthy, behind the runner, shouted to 
 McClary that the quarter was in 30l^ seconds the latter 
 asked the stallion to increase his clip. He wanted to get to 
 the half in a minute and was ready to take chances coming 
 home. 
 
 "A mighty cheer went up from the grand stand as a half- 
 thousand watches caught the half in 59%^ seconds. The 
 three-quarters in 1 :29 caused another cheer and starter Frank 
 Walker asked for silence. Around the turn the pacer stepped 
 a little to the outside but the waver was but for the fraction 
 of a second and once into the stretch the horse moved per- 
 fectly. 
 
 "The driver says that at the distance Pointer appeared 
 to be at his limit but when he called on him and the runner 
 came along the horse appeared to forget he had been beat- 
 ing the two-minute mark and responded with a burst right 
 at the wire. It was not so rapid as to cause a sensation but it 
 was sufficient to make the last quarter in 30^ seconds and 
 the horse seemed to be within himself. 
 
 "The two-minute mark was beaten by three-quarters of 
 a second. McClary was hoisted on the shoulders of his 
 friends and taken from the sulky to the stand. The crowded 
 grand stand went wild and horse, driver and owner received 
 an ovation. Scores of watches caught the time as announced 
 by the judges and Mr. C. W. Marks, of Chicago, who saw the 
 greatest rival to Joe Patchen widen the gap between the two, 
 declared that if anything, the mile was paced in 1:59." 
 
With strides like the stroke of a frictionless piston 
 And breath like the breath of the steam just beneath. 
 
 — John Troticood Moore. 
 
 PRINCE ALERT 
 
 Champion Racing Pacer, 1901 (2:00%) 
 Record 1:591/2 
 
 RINCE ALERT 1:59V1> (rejected record 1:57) was 
 perhaps more renowned as a race horse than as an 
 exhibition animal. He was a public figure in the 
 United States for ten years and in that time started in 81 
 races, paced 279 heats and won 143 of them. He started 
 in ten or more exhibition miles and while he equaled or beat 
 two minutes in some of them, it was as a race-horse that he 
 shone as is evidenced by his record of 2:02 in a race in 
 1900 and one of 2:00% in 1901, this latter being then the 
 world's record for a second heat. He held other world's 
 records, including that for pacing geldings, 2:00%; that for 
 the fastest three heat race on a half-mile track and he won 
 the then fastest four and five heat races on the small oval. 
 
 Mart Demarest trained and raced him in the hey-day 
 of his career and in answer to a request for information 
 concerning this great gelding wrote under date of January 
 29th, 1922: 
 
 "The preparation of Prince Alert for his fast miles was 
 very limited as I raced him wherever I could in purse races. 
 I never drove him, but once, in his training better than 2:04 
 and that was a mile at Empire City tracks when I was pre- 
 paring him for his effort against the record of Dan Patch, in 
 which effort he paced in 1 :57. I consider his mile at Bel- 
 mont Park, Philadelphia, the last of October, 1903, his best. 
 He paced in 1:59^. 
 
 "I think he was the fastest and gamest horse the country 
 ever saw up to that time. He was a very good feeder 
 
no THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 but required lots of slow work and had he been fortunate 
 enough to fall into Walter Cox's hands instead of mine, I 
 think they would still be shooting at his record. 
 
 "I rigged him with an open bridle, plain leather bit and 
 shod him with a six ounce bar shoe in front with calk straight 
 across the shoe and small heel calks. Behind he wore 
 three and a half ounce shoes with bar, the latter merely to 
 strengthen the shoe. 
 
 "The last two years I had him he could beat any horse 
 that was racing. I know you know how hard I tried to 
 match him against Dan Patch, but McHenry would never 
 let them make the race. The nearest I ever came to getting 
 a crack at Dan Patch was at Memphis, Tenn., where we were 
 both on the program to go the same day. I went with Prince 
 Alert in two minutes flat and McHenry would not start 
 his horse. That night McHenry said to Secretary Murray 
 Howe, in the Gayoso Hotel that he wanted Dan on the card 
 for the next day and I said: Tut Prince Alert on too. I 
 will go within ten minutes of the time he starts and will go 
 a faster mile than he will go.' Dan Patch went first, the 
 next day, and they hung out 2:00% and I never saw 
 McHenry drive harder. Ten minutes afterward I came out 
 with Prince Alert, went the mile and they hung out 2:0014' 
 
 "As these two miles were on consecutive days it was the 
 expressed opinion of Mr. Budd Doble and Mr. Geers that 
 it was a remarkable performance. The had coaxed me 
 not to start the horse the second day as they both said no 
 horse had ever gone two fast miles on two consecutive days." 
 
 In 1901 Prince Alert had been such a formidable an- 
 tagonist for the rest of the fast pacers that the opening of 
 the campaign of 1902 found him with no other opponent 
 than Anaconda who, as events speedily showed was reaching 
 the end of a great career as a pacer. He and Prince Alert 
 engaged in seven special races and the latter was returned 
 the winner in six of them. Prince Alert won at Brighton 
 Beach in 2:031/4, 2:04^4; at Hartford in the same time; at 
 Providence Anaconda beat him in 2:02%, 2:02. Over the 
 half mile tracks at Bethlehem, Pa., and Trenton, N. J., Prince 
 Alert was the winner and he paced the Bethlehem track in 
 
PRINCE ALERT III 
 
 2:05, 2:051/4 in his victorious effort, rare time those days 
 for a half mile track. He also won at Hagerstown, Md., also 
 a half mile track, and was the winner at Philadelphia. At 
 Memphis in the late fall he defeated Harold H. and Dan R. 
 in 2:021/4, 2:03^4 &nd also won the memorable match 
 race with Sir Albert S., a half mile dash originally made for 
 $5,000 a side. Prince Alert stepped the half in 57'^ sec- 
 onds, a sample of the wonderful speed he possessed. At 
 that same meeting he started three times for a record and 
 the first effort was in 2:01'^. The second attempt gave him 
 a new record of 2:00 and made him a member of the select 
 list. The next day he paced a mile in 2:0014- That was on 
 the 31st of October and ended his activities for the year. 
 
 In 1903 most of his work was in exhibition miles, though 
 he did engage in two contests against his old antagonist. 
 Anaconda, then racing under the name of Knox's Gelatine 
 King, the manufacturer of the gelatine having gathered a 
 stable to carry the factory colors. Prince Alert won all the 
 races he started in, losing one heat to Dan R. at Providence 
 in 2:0Vy^. Then he beat Dan R. at Bethlehem and the next 
 day set the world's record for pacers over a half mile track 
 at 2:03^3 lowering the track record of 2:04. At Lexington, 
 in the fall he started to beat 1:59 and paced in l:59l/o, a 
 two minute performance but a losing one. He had tried pre- 
 viously at Cincinnati and had done the mile in 2:01*3/4. At 
 Providence he started to beat his half mile record of 57*^ 
 and took off the fractional time doing the half in exactly 
 57 seconds. 
 
 That same year, on October 15th at Philadelphia he 
 lowered his record to 1 :59^/'o thus having to his credit three 
 different miles in two minutes or better. 
 
 Prince Alert was a hoppled pacer, was a giant physically 
 and was a true race horse and while at the time he was before 
 the public the hoppled pacer was by no means as popular 
 as he became later. Prince Alert was one of the popular 
 idols and the multitudes who saw him race made him one 
 of their chosen favorites. 
 
 Mart Demarest drove him to his official record of 1:591/0 
 and Jack Curry had to mount when Prince Alert paced a 
 
I I 2 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 mile in 1:57 at Empire City track. This was done behind 
 a regularly constructed windshield mounted on a sulky and 
 kept in front of the pacer until the stretch was reached. This 
 record was never allowed by the American Trotting Register 
 Association hence the official record of Prince Alert stands 
 at 1:591/2. 
 
 This iron-sided gelding raced for ten years and it is 
 worthy of recording that in his tenth year on the turf he 
 paced in two minutes on two different occasions and did a 
 mile on the half mile track at Allentown, Pa., in 2:03^. 
 Thus he has to his credit five different miles in two minutes 
 and better as well as one in 1:57 which, while rejected as 
 a record as already stated was an indication of his marvelous 
 speed. 
 
 Prince Alert was a bay gelding by Crown Prince — Till 
 a mare of untraced breeding and was bred by G. W. Fort, 
 Knightstown, Ind. 
 
In truth he icas a noble steed * * * 
 Who looked as though the speed of thought 
 IF ere in his limbs. 
 
 — Lord Byron. 
 
 M3 
 
 DAN PATCH 
 
 World's Champion Since 1903 
 Record 1:551/4 
 
 AN PATCH 1:551/4 was before the public for ten 
 years and in that time paced many races and two- 
 minute miles making a clean sweep of his Grand 
 Circuit engagements and taking a record of l:59l/> in 1902 
 in the hands of the late M. E. McHenry. In 1903 he passed 
 from the ownership of the late M. E. Sturgis to that of the 
 late M. W. Savage, of Minneapolis, Minn., and was placed 
 in the hands of Mr. Harry Hersey, then a hard-working 
 trainer who had been quite successful with such material 
 as had up to that time come to hand. Mr. Hersey gave Dan 
 his best record and drove him so many exhibition miles 
 around, at and below two-minutes that he lost the count. In 
 the course of a recent interview given for publication in this 
 volume he talked most entertainingly, as was to be expected, 
 and his contribution cannot fail to furnish most interesting 
 reading. He said: 
 
 "When Mr. Savage first spoke to me in regard to pur- 
 chasing Dan Patch I encouraged him. Though his banker 
 and other friends advised him to keep away from him, 
 he finally made the purchase and the horse proved to be a 
 veritable gold mine for him. 
 
 "After he had made the deal I tried to induce him to 
 give the horse to some other trainer as I had had no ex- 
 perience with exhibition horses. He would not listen to me 
 so I decided that if he was game enough to give me the 
 
Il6 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 horse I should be game enough to take him as the owner had 
 everything to lose while there could not be any loss to me. 
 
 "For me Dan kept big and strong and took his work very 
 kindly. His fastest mile before leaving the farm for exhi- 
 bition work would be around 2:04. I do not believe in the 
 seven years I had him he beat 2:04 more than once in his 
 preparatory training. I worked him fast halves, say in 59 
 seconds to one minute with quarters in 29 seconds but never 
 asked for a mile at top speed until he was going for the 
 money. He showed that this method suited him pretty well. 
 He had an early engagement at Galesburg, 111., and his best 
 previous mile was in just 2:04 yet he paced at Galesburg 
 in 1:57^, the last half in 571/4 seconds. That same year 
 he paced in 1:55. 
 
 "In warming up for an exhibition I would work him four 
 heats, sometimes more, none faster than 2:10. He was a 
 horse that observed everything, looked the grand stand over 
 carefully and saw everything on the race track. The instant 
 the runner would enter the track he knew it and would shake 
 his head and play, even if he were a half mile away. He 
 took tilings decidedly easy until the runner turned with him. 
 I would score him a couple of times and then go. He could 
 follow pace better than any other horse I ever knew. His 
 nose would be within three inches of the back of the driver 
 of the runner the entire mile. 
 
 "He was never nervous nor excited or anything different 
 on his exhibition days from what he was on other days. If 
 I were going to attempt to break a record with him I would 
 try to get a fast mile — two minutes or better — two days 
 ahead of the day of the effort; in other words I would try 
 to get a fast mile on Tuesday, say, if he was to go on Thurs- 
 day and not later than Friday, as he went but the one fast 
 mile in his exhibition. He invariably would give me a great 
 mile under that system. I have always figured that an 
 exhibition horse was a great deal like a thoroughbred in the 
 matter of training. It is a question of speed. But they lose 
 it in a very few hours so I figured that a horse's best effort 
 would be made with one day, perhaps two days, between a 
 fast work mile and a fast exhibition mile where only one mile 
 
DAN PATCH 117 
 
 is to be done at extreme speed. If, after a fast exhibition 
 mile, I wanted an exceptional mile a week the next workout 
 I would not beat 2:12 with him. We were compelled to go 
 many fast miles with him and load him on the cars within 
 three or four hours afterward. Yet, under those conditions 
 he would come right out and go another great mile. All 
 tracks looked alike to him and I cannot say that he ever went 
 a disappointing mile. He kept his form wonderfully well. 
 
 "In training him during the winter months we jogged him 
 five miles a day on the covered track. When spring came 
 I gave him three double headers, in about three minutes, 
 every week, gradually dropping him until I began to repeat 
 him twice each week, dropping him two or three seconds 
 a week until he went in 2:10. I also gave him five or six slow 
 miles on workout days. 
 
 "With one exception he had no habits that needed correc- 
 tion. Often in scoring him when I would pull up for some 
 reason or other he would not want to turn to the left. I 
 fooled along with him for a while, letting him have his own 
 way, but got vexed one day and hit him one hard rap, straight- 
 ened him out and from that day on never had a particle of 
 trouble with him and he would turn anywhere. I had him at 
 Indianapolis once and, jogging around the track slowly we 
 came to the gate on the back side and he started for the barn 
 right out of the gate, something he had never done before and 
 I could not stop him. I did nothing to him but in due time 
 just turned him around and took him back to the track as I 
 was not prepared for such a move from him at that time. 
 
 "He was a w^onderful feeder at all times and a wonderful 
 doer. I never knew him, except in case of illness to refuse 
 a meal. And he was sick but once — at Topeka, Kas., where 
 he was ailing for a week. Sixty days from the date of that 
 illness he beat the world's record at Memphis. The week 
 after he was sick he was walked by hand for a week, then 
 jogged one mile the first day and increased gradually up to 
 five miles and so on until I was able to work him. In Septem- 
 ber, about six weeks after that severe spell he gave an 
 exhibition in 2:04 at Springfield, 111., then was shipped to 
 
Il8 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 Memphis where he got two week's preparation and lowered 
 the world's record. He was then shipped to the home farm. 
 
 "He was infatuated with women. He would give careful 
 attention to every woman who visited him and there were 
 many thousands of them. He was very fond of Shetland 
 ponies, liked to get right close up to every one he ever saw 
 and would pull his groom right toward one and look him 
 over as though he were a freak. 
 
 "As to my personal opinion of the speed of Dan Patch 
 I want to say that I do not believe he ever went a mile his 
 best. I still think he was too smart for me. He would give 
 me a great effort, perhaps faster than any other horse went 
 but I still think it was not his dead level best. I laid awake 
 many nights figuring how to get him to go to his limit but 
 the problem was never solved. I tried everything I could 
 think of but was not successful. 
 
 "I used a Faber sulky weighing about thirty pounds with 
 81 inch shafts and very high as he had tremendous hock 
 action. He wore very light quarter boots and very light knee 
 boots but I seldom used the latter except on half-mile tracks 
 and he hardly ever marked them and then very lightly. He 
 wore five ounce shoes all round and all had all-round, sharp 
 grabs. The length of all his toes was 3'j/x inches with 54 
 angle in front and 56 angle behind. His harness was as 
 light as could be built, with open bridle, chin strap and plain 
 snaffle bit. 
 
 "We would start our exhibition tours in August, usually, 
 and wind up on or about the first of November and that was 
 the program for seven years. He paced, in that time, about 
 seventy miles that averaged two-minutes and my best recol- 
 lection is that I drove him in sixty-two of those miles. After 
 he was once in form a mile in two minutes seemed pretty 
 comfortable for him. He gave exhibitions from Boston to 
 California and kept absolutely sound until about the seventh 
 year and then we began to see a break. He earned in the 
 seven years we had him about $120,000 in exhibitions alone, 
 and that with incidental earnings on International products 
 advertised through Dan Patch, made him a pretty cheap 
 horse for Mr. Savage. All through those seven years Dan 
 
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DAN PATCH 121 
 
 proved himself to be a horse of wonderful constitution and 
 with a disposition the very best. He never worried or fretted 
 — everything was all right with him. 
 
 "Mr. Savage was very anxious to beat the world's record 
 at home, St. Paul. I tried to discourage him as the track 
 at Hamline had never, up to that time, been a record break- 
 ing track. But he insisted we would tiy, so we made all 
 preparations in his bookings and other details to bring him 
 to Hamline to try for his life. The record was 1:5514? 
 held by him and made the previous year, 1905. The Board 
 of the Trotting Register had barred records made with the 
 runner in front but Mr. Savage thought the public would 
 be pleased with a phenomenal mile following pace. When 
 the day for the trial came it was a perfect one. The track 
 had a three foot grade from the half-mile pole to the stretch 
 so we planned to go the first eighth in fifteen seconds and the 
 next three in fourteen seconds each, which would bring us 
 to the half-mile pole in 57 seconds; we figured the three- 
 foot grade would stop Dan one second if we could make it 
 and we would go the last three-eighths in 14 seconds each. 
 He went every part of the mile exactly as we had figured it 
 and finished well in 1 :55 the fastest mile to harness in his- 
 tory. Had it been on a track like Columbus or Lexington 
 it would have been much better. My recollection is that the 
 paid admissions that day to the Minnesota State Fair were 
 102,000. The big crowd surely w^ent wild for there never 
 had been a world record made over any track before in that 
 part of the country. 
 
 "We gave an exhibition at Des Moines one fall at the 
 Iowa State Fair and as we went around the track the crowd 
 was five or six deep. Near the quarter pole the man driving 
 the runner in front asked me if I saw the woman with the 
 green umbrella and I shouted 'y^^.' The next trip around 
 the weight of the crowd had broken down the fence and the 
 woman and green umbrella were out on the track. The 
 runner missed her but I brought the green umbrella to the 
 wire in the spokes of the sulky wheel. 
 
 "We put on a mile at the half-mile track at Oklahoma 
 City and the fair association offered extra money if we 
 
122 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 beat the world's record for the double oval, which was then 
 2:031/4- I looked the track over and found that the river 
 had flooded it the previous spring and made up my mind 
 we could not beat the record there. Returning to my hotel 
 I saw in the window of an enterprising merchant an alligator 
 grip full and overflowing with one-dollar bills, a huge sign 
 on it stating it would be given to the driver of Dan Patch if 
 he beat 2:031/4. Charley Dean, was driving the runner for 
 me at the time of the mile and we decided to go the first 
 half as near a minute as possible and take chances on the rest 
 of it. We made the first trip round in a minute and half a 
 second but the dust was so thick we could hardly see where 
 we were going. In fact I did not know where Dean was 
 except when I would feel Dan's nose hit him in the back, so 
 I drove absolutely by that sign. Coming to the lower turn 
 on the back side Dean was so blinded by the dust that he 
 did not know when he got to the turn and went clear to the 
 outside before he discovered where he was. But that let 
 us out of the dust. He snatched his runner, straightened 
 him up and got him back to the pole, I did the same with 
 Dan, who went to a break but recovered quickly and we 
 finished the mile; the time was 2:03 and the record was 
 lowered. 
 
 "After the performance was over and the horses cared 
 for we started for our hotel. On the way up I said to Dean 
 that it would be a grand idea to look in that enterprising 
 merchant's store and see where the dollar bills and the 
 alligator grip were. We found the window but no grip. 
 Arriving at the hotel we found the grip lying on my bed. 
 I delegated Charlie to open it as I did not feel I could stand 
 the shock of the surprise. He opened it and found the foxy 
 merchant had removed the bills. I still have the grip. 
 
 "Perhaps one of the most interesting financial incidents 
 of Dan's career developed at the Indiana State Fair. When 
 we were dickering for the booking we off^ered to go one mile 
 for $2,500 but the management thought that was too much 
 money to pay one horse to go one mile. So we made them 
 the proposition to take 60 per cent, of all over their average 
 paid Wednesday attendance for the previous three years. 
 
DAN PATCH 123 
 
 That was accepted and if my memory is not at fault we 
 were paid $7,800 for that mile. 
 
 "Mr. Savage was a great believer in Friday and thirteen 
 and if any time he could book Dan for Friday or for the 
 thirteenth of the month he would pass over all other offered 
 days and dates. He told me he had been uniformly success- 
 ful on those days. One time when Dan was in his prime his 
 owner told me he was mailing 100,000 lithographs of him 
 broadcast in the United States. He named a railroad for 
 him. Dan was known by every little boy wherever he went 
 and people by the thousands visited his stall. There was no 
 place we exhibited him that he did not increase the attendance 
 immensely. 
 
 "The day he went his mile at Lexington in 1 :55^/^ Mr. 
 M. E. Sturgis, now dead and who had sold Dan to Mr. Savage 
 asked me if the horse was for sale. I told him I thought 
 not. He then told me to wire Mr. Savage that he would 
 give him three times what he paid for him. The offer was 
 courteously declined. Dan made money for eveiy owner 
 he had from the breeder on to the end. Mr. Dan Messner, 
 his breeder, sold him to Mr. Sturgis for $20,000; Mr. Sturgis 
 sold him to Mr. Savage for $45,000 and he earned in exhi- 
 bitions $120,000 for Mr. Savage, to say nothing of the way 
 he increased his owner's business and that increase was 
 phenomenal. 
 
 "I cannot close this story without mentioning the way 
 Dan proved his gameness to me in two performances at 
 Allentown, Pa., over the half-mile track there. It was a 
 good course and Dan went his mile to sulky in 2:01 then 
 in forty-five minutes I brought him out to wagon to beat 
 2:11 and went the mile in 2:05'^. I had never before 
 started him to wagon on a half-mile track and I discovered 
 right away that he hit the outside wheel going round the 
 turns. There was no way to prevent it by changing the 
 hitch so I took him to the middle of the track and put a 
 runner on each side of him and he went the mile that way. 
 
 "Great horses must have great care-takers. I doubt if 
 any horse ever rose to real greatness who was not blessed 
 that way. And I want to say that Charles Plummer, who 
 
124 ^^^ TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 took care of this great horse for me for so many years, was 
 largely responsible for his many wonderful performances. 
 He was ever on the job, took wonderful care of Dan and is 
 entitled to great credit for his share in the champion's suc- 
 cess. 
 
 Mr. Hersey has stated that Dan Patch paced about seventy 
 different miles at an average of two minutes while he had 
 charge of him which would make it merely superfluous to 
 enumerate them but it should be stated that aside from the 
 1:55 mile at Hamline, Harry drove the horse to a reduced 
 record of 1:551/4, his previous record having been l:561/j|^, 
 and that he set many track records that still stand and all 
 of them close to or below two minutes. That he held his 
 record-breaking form through all those seven years, or at 
 least through six of them testifies to the remarkable stamina 
 of the horse not only, but to the splendid skill of his trainer 
 as well. It will be recalled that Mr. Hersey says it was not 
 until the seventh year that there were any signs of a break 
 and it must be remembered that was the tenth year of train- 
 ing for Dan. 
 
 The late M. E. McHenry gave Dan Patch a record of 
 1:561/4 and in the course of the year 1903 drove him eleven 
 exliibition miles in 1:561/^ to 2:013/4 on mile tracks; three 
 on half-mile tracks in better than 2:05; gave him a two- 
 mile record of 4:17, a wagon record of 1:571/4 and a half- 
 mile record to wagon of 56 seconds. 
 
 Dan Patch died in 1916, his owner, Mr. M. W. Savage, 
 having passed away the previous day. Dan was by Joe 
 Patchen — Zelika by Wilkesberry. 
 
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The race may not be always to the suift 
 But if the sicift have courage they achieve. 
 
 — Rowena Sprague. 
 
 AUDUBON BOY 
 
 Great Racing Pacer of 1901-2 
 Record 1:5914 
 
 UDUBON BOY 1 :5914 a chestnut horse by J. J. Audu- 
 bon — Flaxey by Bourbon Wilkes, was the sensational 
 stake pacer of the sensational year 1901, and was 
 trained and raced for the Gatcomb-Hudson partnership by 
 Mr. Scott Hudson, then of Lexington, Ky., and now one of the 
 leading business men of Atlanta, Ga. Mr. Hudson did not 
 give the horse his best record, but did drive him in all his 
 races and in the course of them Audubon Boy took a record 
 of 2:031/4. After the partnership was dissolved in 1902, 
 Mr. Gatcomb retired the pacer to the stud and in 1905 again 
 put him in training with a view to lowering his record and 
 succeeded in his effort, driving him to a record of 1:5914 ^t 
 Readville, Mass., September 22nd, 1905. 
 
 When the big crowd at Lexington in the fall of 1899 saw 
 a two-year-old chestnut colt win in the even then slow time 
 of 2:24, little note was made of him and it is altogether 
 likely that nobody expected him to be, two years later, one of 
 the most talked-of pacers in the world. He was staked at 
 some western meetings and at many Grand Circuit points, 
 filled all of his engagements, won ten races and found but 
 one horse that could beat him and that was Shadow Chimes, 
 who turned the trick two times, one of the victories over the 
 Hudson-Catcomb pacer being a false verdict. Audubon Boy 
 retired with a record of 2:06 and was, of course, heralded as 
 a coming two-minute pacer. 
 
 In 1902 Audubon Boy was started in six races and made 
 a clean sweep of his engagements, taking his record at Read- 
 
128 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 ville, Mass., August 23rcl, of 2:031/4- No attempt was made 
 that year to give him a faster record and the following year 
 found him retired from the track so that his thousands of 
 admirers who believed him destined for two-minute honors 
 were compelled to wait two years before they were able to 
 say "I told you so." 
 
 Mr. J. Y. Gatcomb, who had become sole owner of Audu- 
 bon boy at the dissolution of the partnership with Mr. 
 Hudson, gave Audubon Boy his opportunity in 1905 and 
 made but three attempts to drive him into the list of two 
 minute pacers. After a mile in 2:00^/4 at Syracuse, N. Y., 
 on September 15th, he took the horse to Readville and started 
 him on September 22nd. That trip was a successful one 
 for Audubon Boy paced a nice mile in 1:591/4. That really 
 closed his career as a public performer and he was retired 
 to the stud where, with limited opportunities, in fact one 
 might truthfully say, none at all, he demonstrated that he 
 had the ability to sire trotting speed of a high order. His 
 1906 efforts are worthy of note for the reason that he paced 
 a mile in two minutes and another in 1:591/2, making three 
 miles in two-minutes or better to his credit. 
 
 Mr. James Clark, Assistant Secretary of the American 
 Association of Trotting Horse Breeders, and who was for 
 many years a leading shoer on the Grand Circuit, furnishes 
 the only available information concerning the shoeing of 
 Audubon Boy. He wore 51/0 ounce swedge bar shoes with 
 full pad in front and 4 ounce outside swedge shoes behind. 
 His front toes were 3'^ inches with a 48 degree angle and 
 his hind toes were 3^ inches with a 55 degree angle. He 
 wore no extra rigging of any kind, except, possibly at times 
 a shadow roll and never wore hopples. 
 
 There never appeared on the Grand Circuit a more coura- 
 geous race horse and many of his victories were achieved 
 in the face of most formidable odds. His stake race at 
 Providence, in which there were seventeen starters was a 
 case well in point. He won about as he pleased and it did 
 not seem much difference to him whether he got away in 
 good position or bad — the result was the same. He was 
 an airy, showy horse in action and one of his infirmities, 
 
AUDUBON BOY I 29 
 
 indeed the only one that is recalled, was curbs and they in 
 combination with an extra hard track were the cause of one 
 of the only two defeats in races he ever sustained. 
 
 It is safe to say that had he been prepared for the season 
 of 1904 and had anything like an even break in luck, he 
 would have taken a record far below the one with which 
 he finally retired. But he was one of the turf idols of his 
 day and the list of two-minute pacers is graced by his pres- 
 ence. 
 
 Mr. R. Scott Hudson, then of Lexington, Ky., now of 
 Atlanta, Ga., said of Audubon Boy: "When I arranged with 
 Mr. E. P. Weathers to train and race this pacer I outlined 
 all my plans for him, namely, to give the colt slow work, and 
 very little fast work during 1900 and turn him out for his 
 1901 campaign early. He showed me in his work in his 
 three-year-old form that he was, beyond doubt, the grandest 
 horse I had yet handled. He could do things then that 
 would make a man want to buy a new watch and believe 
 some one had changed the quarter poles, and he did it all 
 well within himself. I gave him but few miles better than 
 2:20 but then I made up my mind to stake him every place 
 along the line in 1901. This I did. He was taken up Janu- 
 ary 1, 1901, and his road work began and a lot of it he got. 
 When our track opened and the weather settled I began slow 
 miles and gave him them in abundance. June 1st a mile in 
 2:22^ was his best. But he could do the trick if I would 
 only let him. I gave him plenty more slow heats in June 
 with some few miles in 2:15, one in 2:13'%|^ and no quarter 
 better than 311 {>. 
 
 "I won with him at Tiffin, best time 2:1514, laid up a 
 week at Cleveland and not a mile better than 2:18^, yet won 
 with him there in 2:09'Y^. At Columbus, with no miles 
 better than 2:30 between races, he won in 2:081/). On down 
 the line with no work at all save a little to blow him out the 
 day before a race and still he won. He took the prevailing 
 disease and I raced him just the same. 
 
 "At Boston and Providence, when most horses would have 
 been in the barn, he was raced and how he tried and won, 
 no one who was there will soon forget. 
 
130 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 "I give myself but little credit for the showing of this 
 wonderful horse. He was a natural born race horse about 
 the only one I have had out of the hundreds I have handled. 
 His speed is marvelous and looks to have no limit. He has 
 never been beaten when half in form. * * * He started 
 in twelve races his 1901 campaign, winning ten first and two 
 seconds and $19,650." 
 
 Audubon Boy was kept at North Randall race track for 
 several years until in the early winter of 1921-2 Mr. Al 
 Pennock purchased him and through an arrangement made 
 with Mrs. Jessie W. Nims, owner of Ridge Lawn Farm, 
 Bellevue, Ohio, the one-time Grand Circuit star will spend 
 his last days there, in the midst of peace and plenty. 
 
 Audubon Boy was bred in Kentucky by Mr. E. P. 
 Weathers and the Patchen Wilkes Stock Farm, that establish- 
 ment owning his sire and Mr. Weathers being the owner of 
 his dam, the famous Flaxey. 
 
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 So gentle, yet so free. 
 
 - — Caroline Newton. 
 
 MINOR HEIR 
 
 Champion Green Pacer (1:5914) 
 Record 1:581/9 
 
 INOR HEIR had no bad manners to correct, no faulty 
 gait to worry about and I do not claim any credit for 
 his developement — he was born, not made, says Mr. 
 Charles E. Dean, of Palatine, 111., the highly capable trainer 
 who introduced this handsome son of Heir at Law to the 
 public and drove him to membership in the list of two-minute 
 performers. 
 
 For this volume Mr. Dean has written a most entertaining 
 story of the great Illinois-bred pacer and it is herewith pre- 
 sented : 
 
 "Minor Heir was bred by Mr. J. B. Ewing, of Roseville, 
 111., and was foaled June 1st, 1902. Nothing was done 
 with him until the Spring he was two years old when he was 
 broken to harness by his owner. He was jogged on the road 
 the balance of that season but was given no training. At 
 that time he was mixed-gaited, would trot or pace but showed 
 no marked speed at either gait. He was a stout, hardy colt 
 and the next Spring when he was three, Mr. Ewing used him 
 with another horse on the mail route and during the Summer 
 did some light livery work with him. Mr. Ewing ran a 
 small livery and sale stable at that time. 
 
 "That fall Minor Heir was sent to Mr. D. Patten, at Win- 
 field, la., one of the leading trainers of that section. Before 
 the season was over he had worked the colt a mile in 2:14^ 
 at the pace and in the fall returned him to his owner who, not 
 thinking very highly of him offered him for sale at a very 
 modest price but did not succeed in selling him. I met Mr. 
 
134 ^^^ TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 Ewing in Chicago the following winter and made arrange- 
 ments with him to train the colt the next season. He said he 
 was anxious to send him up to me to find out whether the 
 youngster was of any account. 
 
 "Minor Heir reached my place July 5th, 1907 and I want 
 to say that I was never before so favorably impressed by a 
 horse as I was by this one. I considered him the best horse 
 I ever saw. He was just the right size, fifteen hands and 
 three-quarters of an inch; weighed about 950 pounds and 
 full made all over. 
 
 "The day after he arrived I had my first ride behind him 
 and I made up my mind, then and there, that he was a two- 
 minute pacer and that was after he had only gone a mile in 
 three minutes with the last quarter in but forty seconds. 
 I never trained another horse in my life that I had so much 
 confidence in or felt so sure of. He was the easiest horse 
 to train that I have ever had in my stable; he had no bad 
 manners to correct, no faulty gait to worry about and I do 
 not claim any credit for his developement. He was born, 
 not made. 
 
 "He wore six ounce plain shoes in front with small jar 
 calks at the heel and the toes were 3% inches. Behind he 
 wore four ounce shoes with small heel calks and the toes 
 were 3I/2 inches. He wore a pair of light quarter and tendon 
 boots in front and coronet boots behind. His harness was 
 plain, with blind bridle, snaffle bit and overcheck bit and no 
 extra rigging of any kind. He carried his head rather low 
 and straight as an arrow. He had a splendid mouth but 
 very sensitive. 
 
 "As it was late in the season when he was shipped to me 
 I decided it was not good policy to attempt to race him that 
 year so I took plenty of time for his education. With very 
 moderate training he improved rapidly. Mr. Ewing came 
 to see him about the middle of August and saw him work 
 a mile in 2:25 with the last quarter in Sl^/o seconds over 
 our half mile track and was well pleased with him. But 
 he was anxious to sell him and I was just as anxious for him 
 to keep him and assured him I was confident he would pace 
 a mile in two-minutes or better the following year and, as 
 
MINOR HEIR 135 
 
 he had bred him and raised him I desired very much that 
 he reap the benefit. He was not to be convinced, however, 
 as he felt that the horse was getting too valuable for him to 
 own. That fall I sold him for Mr. Ewing to Mr. P. C. Isaacs, 
 of Johnstown, Pa., one of my patrons, and that gentleman 
 owned him until he was sold to Mr. M. W. Savage. 
 
 "The next spring after Mr. Isaacs bought him Minor 
 Heir suffered a severe attack of influenza from which he 
 did not fully recover until about the first of April. His 
 sickness left him poor and weak and for a time it looked 
 as though we could not possibly get him to the races that 
 year. His recovery, however, was unexpectedly rapid and 
 by the first of May he was working miles in three minutes. 
 Most of his work consisted of slow repeats with very little 
 brush work. I never jogged him more than three miles a 
 day, winter or summer. On the first of June he stepped his 
 first real mile of the training season, in 2:30 and I did not 
 beat 2:25 with him until June 15th, on which date he paced 
 a mile in 2:15. I did not go another good mile with him 
 until the latter part of June, just before shipping to Peoria, 
 111., for the opening of the Great Western Circuit and that 
 mile, still over our half mile track, was in 2:08-^, last half 
 in 1 :03 and with perfect ease. This was the only fast mile 
 he got during the entire training season. 
 
 "When we left home he had regained all his flesh, was 
 big and strong and ready to race. He was quite fortunate 
 in one respect and that was in having a great caretaker in 
 Robert Bradley ('Old Bob') who came with him when Mr. 
 Ewing shipped him to me from Roseville. 'Old Bob' cared 
 for Minor Heir during the two seasons I had him and to his 
 faithful attention and capable work much of the success of 
 the horse should be credited. He was with him constantly 
 night and day and seemed to never tire of work or watching. 
 
 "During the racing season. Minor Heir required very 
 little work between his engagements and was never worked 
 faster than 2:25. What he did during that season is history 
 and I do not think it is necessary for me to go into the details 
 regarding his races. He was a horse with a marvelous flight 
 of speed. While I never 'set him down' to see how fast he 
 
136 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 could pace a quarter I got a sample of what he could do one 
 day at Columbus. At the end of a 2:10 mile he paced the 
 quarter in 27^ seconds. With conditions favorable, if he had 
 been asked for a supreme effort I am confident he could 
 have stepped a quarter a full second faster. 
 
 "He was a tough, rugged horse, a great feeder and had 
 the sweetest, mildest disposition I ever saw in a stallion. 
 
 "Some of the critics attributed the breaks Minor Heir 
 made to cross-firing but in that they were mistaken as he 
 was an exceptionally steady-going pacer and I remember of 
 his making but three or four breaks during the two years 
 I handled him. In his race at Terre Haute he made his first 
 break in the third heat. After he had won the first and 
 second heats in 2:01^, 2:01 so easily I decided to let 
 him step the third heat somewhere near his limit. When 
 he got to the half he seemed to be going very easy but as 
 there was nothing near him he let go of the bit just a little 
 and he did the same thing in the fourth heat and in each 
 instance went to a break. The only way I could figure out the 
 cause of his breaking was that his shoes were worn thin 
 and light. I weighed them the next day and found they 
 weighed but 5^ ounces. That made it necessary to take a 
 slight hold of him to keep him steady. In the third and 
 fourth heats when there was nothing near him he did not 
 take hold enough to keep him balanced. In the fifth heat 
 he was as steady as a clock. I kept him in behind until the 
 finish; when in that position he was up on the bit all the 
 time and did not act as though he could break. The last 
 break I ever knew him to make was in the Chamber of Com- 
 merce race two weeks later. He was going true and steady 
 at the time and when just past the three-quarter pole jumped 
 over a large wet spot in the track. There is no question in 
 my mind but that with a horse right at him all the way he 
 would have paced well below two minutes in his third mile 
 at Terre Haute. I merely mention these facts to correct the 
 false impression some people have that his breaks were caused 
 by cross-firing. 
 
 "There is an old saying, 'the world loves a winner' and 
 this was plainly shown in the Terre Haute race. After the 
 
MINOR HEIR 137 
 
 first and second heats the crowd around Minor Heir's stall 
 was so large we could hardly get him in or out of the door. 
 It seemed that every one on the grounds followed him to the 
 stable. After the third and fourth heats he was deserted 
 by every one but 'Old Bob' and his assistant caretaker. I 
 asked the boys what had become of the crowds. They 
 pointed over to The Eel's stable and there they were, battling 
 for a sight of The Eel. After the fifth heat the crowd was 
 back with us and larger than ever. 
 
 "It is too bad The Eel could not have lived, for he was 
 certainly a very great horse and one of the gamest and best 
 race horses I ever knew. Had he lived there certainly would 
 have been another two-minute pacer." 
 
 As Mr. Dean says, Minor Heir was sold to Mr. Savage 
 by Mr. Isaacs so was raced but a single year by the Palatine 
 trainer. Of Minor Heir, Mr. Harry Hersey, trainer of the 
 horses owned by Mr. Savage, has this to say in a letter written 
 to the publisher of this volume: 
 
 "Another purchase of my employer to fill a combination 
 we had in view was Minor Heir and he proved to be one of 
 the greatest little pacers in the land. His manners were the 
 best; he was a good doer, cheerful, everything that a trainer 
 could desire; tried every time his best and could go about 
 as far as anybody's horse. 
 
 "One special event I recall was his exhibition at Indian- 
 apolis, at the State Fair where he raced with three other 
 horses and won in 1 :59, started back with the same horses 
 on Wednesday racing in 2:00%^, started again on Friday 
 and lowered his record to l:58l/>, then was put on the cars 
 that night and shipped to the Kentucky State Fair at Louis- 
 ville where he gave an exhibition on Saturday, a half over 
 the half-mile track in a minute. I call that a very good 
 week's work. He continued on South that fall and paced 
 the Dallas, Texas, mile track in 1:591/4, a mark that will 
 stand there for some time. 
 
 "He was a most lovable horse, clever in and out of the 
 stall, a good shipper and if he had had the same opportunities 
 that Dan Patch had — days and tracks picked for him and 
 
138 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 not asked to go two or three exhibitions a week, I believe 
 his record would have been materially reduced. 
 
 "Charles Dean brought out this great little horse and 
 I am depending on him to give him his just dues." 
 
 It is left to Mr. Hersey to decide whether Mr. Dean has 
 fully justified his expectations and it is almost certain that 
 he will say the work was well done, despite the modesty of 
 the man from Palatine who never was easily induced to 
 toot his own horn and even then would not do it very loudly. 
 The evidence of two men who loved him is that Minor Heir 
 was one of the world's greatest pacers and that evidence is 
 also by the records. This pacer is, so far, the only one that 
 has started the season as a green horse and ended it with a 
 time record of 1:59^ and a race record of 2:00^. 
 
 There are others who testify to the impressive manner 
 and lovable disposition of this champion. One of them 
 is the noted turf writer "Volunteer," who wrote of him some 
 three years ago, when Minor Heir and The Eel, the two great 
 rivals of the 1907 season had become but memories, and 
 feelingly said: 
 
 "If I had to select one among them all" (the great pacers 
 of that period) "to remember forever it would be him" 
 (Minor Heir). "I do not propose to string together all my 
 reasons for holding this opinion. But I will mention one or 
 two. For instance, he is the only pacer in history that began 
 the season without a record of any sort and ended it in the 
 two-minute list. He was the first horse to do a mile in two- 
 minutes flat, in actual contest and the first to beat two-minutes 
 in one. He was an exquisite individual and one of the 
 most lovable horses I ever came in contact with. * * * 
 Few people have ever known or realized how superlatively 
 great a horse was this son of Heir-at-Law and Kitty Clover. 
 * * * He was a horse that you could not become fa- 
 miliar with and not love for he was as sweet-tempered as a 
 mare, without trick or fault and apparently unaware of his 
 greatness." 
 
^ 
 
 in 
 
 < 
 o 
 o 
 
 -*; 
 
Never the battle raged hottest, but in it 
 Neither the last nor the faintest was he. 
 
 — Edward E. Bowen. 
 
 FRANK BOGASH, JR. 
 
 Champion Pacing Gelding 
 Record 1:591/4 
 
 RANK BOGASH, Jr., 1:5914, holds the world's rec- 
 ord for a pacing gelding and has the further distinc- 
 tion of being the fastest pacer yet bred in Canada and 
 one of the only two that the country has yet produced. It 
 might be added that he is one of three two-minute pacers that 
 carried the hobbles as part of his racing equipment and he is 
 also the fastest of that trio, the others being Prince Alert 
 1 :59l/2 and Louie Gratton 2:00, the latter also Canadian bred 
 and the fastest mare that Dominion has produced. 
 
 The best record of this brown gelding is, to an extent, 
 an index to his ability. But that is all for he was a real 
 warrior on the race track and his prowess is proved by his 
 winnings in 1913, when he had to his credit the always 
 goodly sum of $23,325. One writer on turf topics gives 
 this as his opinion of the Canadian gelding: ''When one 
 considers the number of his starts and the amount of money 
 he won in his 1913 campaign and then weighs the quality 
 of the opposition he encountered, the conviction is necessarily 
 arrived at that no more meritorious campaign was ever 
 accomplished." 
 
 Tommy Murphy, who campaigned this good gelding on 
 the Grand Circuit in 1913 and 1914, said of him recently: 
 ''I would like nothing better than to have Frank Bogash, Jr., 
 back again with the same record he had when I got him. 
 He would not only be a factor in his races but there would 
 have to be a whole lot better material in sight than there is 
 
142 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 now if he failed to repeat. He was a great little race-horse 
 and the speed he had when I raced him would get just as 
 much money now as it got him then and maybe more. He 
 was never an exhibition horse. His business was to get the 
 money out of purses and stakes and the records show that 
 he won his share and some in addition." 
 
 The Canadian champion made his first public appear- 
 ance during the racing season of 1912, when he was a seven- 
 year-old and in its course he started in thirteen races and, 
 while the number was unlucky for his opponents it was 
 anything else for him as he won every start and the total of 
 his winnings reached to a comfortable sum, $4,000, and 
 more, which it must be conceded was quite imposing for a 
 half-mile track campaign. 
 
 It naturally followed that a campaign of that kind 
 would attract the attention of those looking for Grand Cir- 
 cuit material and there were many who secured the price 
 and opened negotiations. Thomas W. Murphy was the one 
 whose offer was accepted and the racing season of 1913 
 found the brown gelding's name in all the Grand Circuit stake 
 books. He met formidable opposition from the opening 
 meeting at North Randall and in his first three races was 
 beaten by Del Rey and in his next two Leata J. defeated 
 him. Nothing daunted, for there never lived a gamer pacer, 
 he kept right on trying. His first victory on the Grand Circuit 
 was scored in the Chamber of Commerce purse at Detroit, 
 and he took with it a record of 2:0314- That race opened 
 the eyes of the circuit followers to the fact that a new pac- 
 ing star had made his appearance and that from that time 
 on he would most likely be the commanding figure among the 
 fast pacers of the year. And he was all that and there was 
 no question about it, for he won nine out of the ten starts he 
 made after the Detroit race and the California mare, Leata 
 J., who had beaten him twice earlier in the season, was the 
 only one to score an additional victory over him. 
 
 That year he reduced his record to 2:01'^ in the free- 
 for-all pace at Lexington and that ended his campaign for the 
 year. It was in this trip through the Grand Circuit that his 
 winnings passed the $23,000 mark. 
 
FRANK BOGASH, JR. 1 43 
 
 Evidently the strenuous campaign he had made during 
 the year 1913 had no appreciahle ill effect on the Canadian 
 for he was never better than in 1914, and in the course of the 
 season, racing in the free-for-all division all the time he won 
 eight races out of his total of ten starts and lowered his 
 record to 1:59^4 i^^ ^^^^ second heat of his race at Detroit, 
 making him the world's champion pacing gelding, an honor 
 which has not yet been wrested from him. It took a pacer 
 of the calibre of Directum I to defeat him, and Flower 
 Direct, then in her prime, turned the trick once. But the 
 pair only succeeded in administering two defeats. 
 
 All through the year he retained his good form and added 
 to his reputation though his winnings did not begin to com- 
 pare with those of the previous year, the purses offered by 
 more important tracks for free-for-all pacers not amounting 
 to any great sum. Yet Frank Bogash, Jr., was returned the 
 winner of nearly $9,000, which l^rought his total for the 
 two Grand Circuit campaigns to more than $32,000. Few 
 pacers have ever done better and it was with deep regret 
 that the regulars on the Grand Circuit received the announce- 
 ment that one of their greatest favorites had handed in his 
 resignation and would go to the "minors." He made but 
 one start in select society in 1915 and that was at the Mon- 
 treal Grand Circuit meeting, where he won the free-for-all. 
 That indeed was his only race of the year and he next ap- 
 peared among the free-for-all pacers on the half-mile tracks. 
 
 That Mr. Murphy is right in his estimate of Frank Bo- 
 gash, Jr., is evidenced by the fact that the gelding in the 
 four seasons he was raced before being sent back to the minor 
 tracks, he started in forty races, of which he won thirty-two, 
 was second in seven and third in the other. It will thus 
 be seen that Frank Bogash, Jr., as already stated, was out 
 for business during his entire career and was never keyed 
 up for any sort of assault on the records. His world record 
 is a race record. While there is never any great amount of 
 enthusiasm over the hobbled pacer, it can be said for this 
 gelding that he had a great following, admirers who never 
 looked at his hobbles, but did take keen delight in seeing him 
 lead the field home in a series of heats in which the time 
 
144 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 was exceptionally fast and would not be considered any- 
 thing else even in these days of extreme speed. 
 
 He was one of the nicest horse to have about that ever 
 was raced, is the testimony of those who had the care of him. 
 The boys call him a "good doer" and that is about as highly 
 complimentary as anything they can say about any horse. 
 If he is a good doer and feeder the rest is comparatively easy. 
 
 His training was just about the same, we are told, as 
 would be given any other sound horse, to fit him for a long 
 campaign where the time was certain to be fast. His oddi- 
 ties, if any he had, have been forgotten but there is no record 
 of any such. 
 
 He wore most of the rigging that goes with the hobbled 
 pacer and that, of course, included knee boots, without which, 
 one turf writer avers, there would be no successful pacers 
 in hobbles. Be that as it may, Frank Bogash, Jr., carved 
 his name on the wall in the hall of pacing fame and for that 
 reason his hobbles and his frailties, if, indeed, he had any, 
 may be forgotten. 
 
 This pacer was bred by E. C. Warner, Sand Hill, Quebec, 
 and was sired by the former Indiana pacer, Frank Bogash 
 2:03'*^ and his dam was Phyllis Stanford by Stanford. 
 
> 
 < 
 
 00 
 
 ^ 
 
On came the ichirluind — like the last 
 But fiercest sweep of tempest blast. 
 
 — Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 WILLIAM 
 
 Champion Four- Year-Old Pacer (2-00) 
 Record liSSl/o 
 
 ILLIAM 1 :58l/o, was the king of racing pacers in 
 1915, and W. W. Marvin, of Lafayette, Ind., who 
 trained him and drove him in all his races, says in 
 a letter written for this volume under date of February 1st, 
 1922: "I do not know the limit of his speed on August 16, 
 1915, the day he took his record at North Randall in the 
 race against Directum I., but I do know that no horse in the 
 world had a chance to beat William that year." There is 
 no room for even the slightest doubt that in the event spoken 
 of, Mr. Marvin could have driven his great pacer at least 
 one second faster in each mile and there was almost universal 
 regret that he did not at least beat two minutes in the second 
 heat, for after he had Directum I soundly beaten he was 
 allowed to take it easy the rest of the way. The miles were 
 paced in 1:58^/2, 2:00. It is possible that it was understood 
 that no matter which horse was the best in any of their races 
 the winner was not to make the loser look cheap. It is some- 
 what odd, to be sure, that any one should say, after a horse 
 had gone two race miles in two minutes or better, that he 
 could have done better in both. But that is precisely what 
 everybody thought who saw the race. Mr. Marvin was not 
 known to express his opinion about it. 
 
 The letter Mr. Marvin sends for use in this publication, 
 an extract from which is given above, is a most interesting 
 and entertaining document and is as follows: 
 
 ''William came to my stable in September of the year 
 1912, when he was two years old and did not leave it until 
 he was sold to Mr. C. K. G. Billings in late August, 1915. 
 
148 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 "He had not been with us very long until I discovered 
 that he was a colt quite different from all the others ever 
 trained by me. He had a will of his own and was very 
 determined in carrying out what he undertook to do. And 
 yet he was kind, liked children, cats and our old dog, and 
 would spend much time with them if given a chance. But 
 he would not stand punishment nor rough treatment of any 
 kind. 
 
 "I spent seven years on horseback on the prairie and 
 during that time rode many horses, but when William took 
 a notion he could put to flight any broncho I ever saw; could 
 jump farther and higher and show you that he had a way 
 of his own. 
 
 "After trying to drive him to do things he did not want 
 to do he most always won and I said 'we will train your way 
 awhile and see if we will be better friends.' 
 
 "The road running past our track at Lafayette runs east 
 and west. If William wanted to go east he went east and if 
 {le wanted to go west he went west. He did not like to go 
 over the same road often and he has been over every road 
 and by-road near his home. I also discovered that there were 
 very few men about the barn he cared for. But there was a 
 young man by the name of Frank Mackessy who said to me 
 one day: 'I like this colt.' I found him much around the 
 colt and one day, after watching them I said to Frank: 'He 
 seems to like you. I believe he will be a great horse some 
 day if we manage him the proper way. You take him.' 
 So Frank cared for William and I trained him. For three 
 years no one else was ever up behind him except Mr. W. J. 
 Andrews whom I asked to train him a mile for me one day 
 at North Randall so that I might see him while he was going 
 fast. Mr. Andrews said he would be pleased to drive the 
 mile and asked how fast he should go. I told him a mile in 
 2:07 or near it would do. They went the mile in 2:05 and as 
 Mr. Andrews gave me back the lines he remarked: 'He 
 slips away from you. I had no idea he was going that 
 fast. He is the best hitched, most perfectly balanced horse 
 I ever drove.' From that casual remark I felt that I was 
 getting some place with William. 
 
WILLIAM 149 
 
 "One thing about him was that as a two-year-old and a 
 three-year-old he had speed for three-quarters of a mile and 
 then would go rough, yet would not slow up. He could go 
 a quarter as a three-year-old in 29 seconds. I first tried 
 him light as most pacers go that way and then he would trot 
 and mix. He went best in his three-year-old form with 14 
 ounce shoes and 4 ounce toe weights and won his first race 
 shod that way, pacing one of his miles in 2:111/4 over a 
 half mile track which was at Terre Haute, in July. 
 
 "After that I began taking the weight off a little at a 
 time every week until I had his front shoes 8 ounces and his 
 hind shoes 41/^ ounces, all with bars, placing his toes at 
 3'*^ inches in front with 50 angle and 3^ inches behind with 
 55 angle. I continued to train him much as other horses. 
 He did not have many fast miles. In 1914 he began to leave 
 off his rough way of going and before starting in a race that 
 year he could go a mile and a quarter without getting rough- 
 gaited. 
 
 "I have been asked many times what I gave William that 
 made him go so fast and so far. The only answer is that 
 William never had any drugs inside or outside. We did 
 not use any bandages on him. He never was shipped in ban- 
 dages or cotton by me or my men and we had him three years 
 and when he was turned oxer to Mr. Billings after his return 
 from the Montreal race he was as sound as any horse that 
 ever lived. 
 
 "The day William paced in two-minutes in his race at 
 the Grand Rapids Grand Circuit meeting, Mr. Walter Cox 
 asked me if that was a hard job. I forget just what I said 
 to him in reply but in substance it was that I could truth- 
 fully say I had worked much harder to get a horse to go a 
 mile in three minutes and then did not succeed. 
 
 "History can tell you better than I can what William 
 was as a race horse from July, 1913 to September, 1915." 
 
 Adding to what Mr. Marvin says about the shoeing of 
 William it might here be noted that Arthur Thomas, writing 
 for The Chicago Horseman stated that he wore only quarter 
 boots in front and coronet and shin-and-ankle boots behind, 
 remarking: "The latter somewhat unusual on pacers." He 
 
I^O THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 also was surprised at the bar shoes behind, but Prince Alert 
 wore that kind and Mart Demarest says the object was to 
 strengthen them. 
 
 William's first two-minute mile was the first one in 
 time so fast to be done in a regular race though Minor Heir 
 had paced in 1 :59 when he was a member of the exhibition 
 stable of M. W. Savage. Treating the William mile as a 
 world's race record the statisticians gave him four world's 
 marks as the result of his Grand Rapids Grand Circuit race 
 which he paced in 2:001/,, 2:00, 2:02l/>. Those marks 
 were: Fastest mile in a regular race; fastest second heat; 
 fastest mile by a four-year-old; fastest three-heat race. At 
 the beginning of 1922 his record for a four-year-old still 
 stands as well as his record of l:58l/i> for a five-year-old. 
 As these were both race records they in reality give William 
 four world's records. 
 
 The fractional time of William's record mile, 1 :58l/2 
 and of the two-minute mile in the second heat of the same 
 race is: 3014, 1:0014, 1:30, l:58yo and 31, 1:01, 1:30%, 
 2:00. That is evidence of the fact that on that particular 
 day he was master of the pacing division and serves to bear 
 out the belief of Mr. Marvin that no living pacer could have 
 beaten him that year had he gone on racing. The time of 
 the two miles was within a half-second of the world's two- 
 heat record set by Directum I the previous year at Columbus 
 and William was the horse that forced him to do it. In 
 the race in which he made his record William also lowered 
 the world's record for five-year-olds. 
 
 Mr. Marvin has referred us to the history of the American 
 turf for the great achievements of William. Let us glance 
 at that history and see something of what he did. 
 
 As a three-year-old he took part in six races and won all 
 of them. In doing so he secured the world's record of 2:05 
 for three-year-old pacers and the record of 2:09 for three- 
 year-old pacers over a half-mile track. As one writer on 
 turf topics said: "Although the good colt's campaign was 
 confined to a very small section of the United States the 
 harness horse world was aware that a star of the first magni- 
 tude was arising in the Central West." 
 
WILLIAM I 5 I 
 
 The Indiana pacer did not invade the Grand Circuit in 
 1914, as a four-year-old unheralded and unsung. He was 
 shipped to North Randall for the finishing touches to his 
 preparation and no track in the world has a greater array 
 of morning spectators when the period for fast miles ar- 
 rives. And so William not only gave a multitude a line 
 on his speed but made all of them his admirers, no one of 
 them more pronounced than "Billy" Andrews and it may 
 be well to state here that when Mr. Marvin asked him to drive 
 the colt a mile Mr. Andrews was more than delighted for 
 a few moments before he had said to an intimate friend: 
 "How I would love to ride one mile behind that pacer. He 
 looks to me like a world beater." The latter part of the 
 remark was no guess. Billy Andrews was a man who knew 
 horse quality when he saw it. And what he said, by way 
 of encouragement to Mr. Marvin when he dismounted was 
 just a little added to the mass of evidence that he was the 
 possessor of the right sort or heart. Mr. Marvin testifies 
 that it did him a lot of good. 
 
 Returning to the 1914 campaign. William made his 
 first start of the year and his first in select society at North 
 Randall in the 2:05 class and won it as he pleased in 2:02, 
 2:02'*^. He won his next start, the following week at De- 
 troit and then came his sensational race at Grand Rapids, 
 which has already been mentioned and in which he paced 
 the first two-minute race mile on a Grand Circuit track. 
 As he had no stake engagements that race meant either trials 
 against time or match races. He was soon matched against 
 Directum I, a horse that in the hands of Raymond Snedeker 
 had paced in even time on two occasions after William had 
 turned the trick. The race was made for Comstock Park 
 track at Grand Rapids and William won it in 2:01-^, 
 2:0114, 2:021/2. This was the first pacing race ever put on 
 in which both starters had records of two minutes. Directum 
 I defeated him a week later at Columbus in 1:58, 2:00 and 
 also defeated him in a poor contest at Grand Rapids about 
 the middle of October, neither horse being what he had been 
 because, with no engagements in sight, neither had been kept 
 on edge. Directum I won in 2:041/4? 2:011/4. That ended 
 
152 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 the efforts of both for the year. William had started at 
 a few tracks during the season against the watch but his 
 best mile was in two minutes. He seemed to be a race 
 horse and nothing else. 
 
 The year 1915 saw William at the top of his form and it 
 is of that year that Mr. Marvin speaks so confidently in his 
 letter. He began the season in the race for free-for-all 
 pacers at the Detroit Grand Circuit meeting, purse $5,000, 
 and after Directum I had won the first heat William won the 
 next two, and the race, in 2:02 and 2:04. The time was slow 
 because of the fact that the contending drivers were sparring 
 for advantage but the tremendous speed of William and his 
 superb condition made him master of the situation when time 
 came for the inevitable brush. The last appearance of 
 William that year with a professional driver was at Montreal 
 where he again defeated Directum I in 2:04, 2:00^/^. His 
 record race at North Randall has already been told in detail. 
 
 As a member of the Billings stable William set a world's 
 record when his owner drove him a mile to wagon in 1:591/2, 
 the fastest mile ever driven by an amateur. He paced to 
 wagon in 1:59'^ for Mr. Billings at Lexington that fall. 
 
 "Billy" Marvin should not be considered as having been 
 "made" by William. In other words, he had quite a repu- 
 tation as a capable trainer long before he brought out the 
 great son of Abe J. And the best evidence of his ability 
 is shown in the fact that when he was so fortunate as to get 
 one of the truly great he proceeded to handle, condition and 
 develop him properly and the result of his intelligent en- 
 deavor was one of the greatest pacers yet brought before 
 the public. It may be true, as many writers insist, that 
 "great horses make great drivers" but it is equally true that 
 it takes a great trainer to make a great horse. William was 
 a great horse and W. W. Marvin "made" him. 
 
 William is a bay horse, foaled 1910, sired by Abe J. 
 2:10 pacing (son of San Meto 2:131/4) dam Lizzie C. by 
 Jaywood. He was bred by Mr. A. E. Vanatta, Otterbein, 
 Ind., and was owned by him during his racing career. 
 
^ 
 
 
Under his spurning feet the road 
 Like an arrowy Alpine river flowed. 
 
 — Thos. Buchanan Read. 
 
 DIRECTUM I 
 
 Champion Racing Pacer 
 Record 1:58, Race; 1:5634 Against Time 
 
 IRECTUM I, 1:563/4, "in the open", which means 
 with no front pace, wind-shield so-called, is ac- 
 claimed world's champion by his admirers and they 
 number countless thousands. One of them has recorded his 
 opinions in this manner: "If I were pinned down to it and 
 called upon to declare my choice of the one greatest pacer 
 of all time, based on public performances I would certainly 
 have to select Directum I. This opinion is based upon 
 careful analytical survey of everything included. His rec- 
 ord as an index of his speed, not only, but his entire history 
 as a race horse, including individuality, gait, manners, 
 gameness, stamina, consistency, campaigning quality, ability 
 to negotiate all kinds of tracks and with all kinds of driv- 
 ing. Based upon these qualifications it is stating the simple 
 truth to record the fact that Directum I surpasses all other 
 pacers yet seen." 
 
 Which, it will be admitted is exceedingly great praise. 
 But all others of the great army which is made up of the 
 admirers of Directum I say about the same things and 
 refuse to be budged from their belief. So it must be set 
 down as one of the facts of pacing horse history that Direc- 
 tum I must have had all the necessary qualifications else 
 there would not be so much said in praise of him. William 
 defeated him in four of the six races in which they met but 
 the followers of Directum Kelly's noted son, says about those 
 races that "William's career in its entirety, makes a sorry 
 showing in comparison." Let us here set it down that the 
 
156 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 champions of both great pacers are correct. They were a 
 mighty pair when in their prime and on two occasions, each 
 being returned once winner, showed the public two marvel- 
 ous contests. Directum I winning in 1914, in 1:58 and 2:00, 
 William winning the next year in 1:58^/2 and 2:00. A 
 tick of the watch marks the recorded difference in their 
 racing ability on those two occasions and, furthermore, 
 neither can profit at all by any attempt to detract from the 
 abundant merit of his rival. They did great things and 
 Directum I, let it be recorded, did more of them. May we 
 be allowed to see more of their kind. 
 
 John Ryan brought Directum I before the public, and 
 drove him in a lot of sparkling races. Raymond Snedeker 
 had him later and it was he who drove him to his world's 
 race record of 1:58. Tommy Murphy was his next driver 
 and he drove him to four world's records — a half mile in 
 55^4 seconds; a mile and one sixteenth in 2:09'^; a mile 
 and one eighth in 2:16%; a mile in the open in 1:56%. 
 It will not do to say that the pacer was badly driven by any 
 one for the proof of the ability of his pilots is shown in what 
 he did for them. Indeed, in talking about this wonderful 
 pacer Mr. Murphy but recently said to an acquaintance: 
 "Directum I was a great horse for every trainer that had 
 him. John Ryan brought him out and did great things with 
 him; Ray Snedeker had him in world-beating form; the horse 
 did great things for me. Give the horse some of the credit, 
 but do not take any from the boys who had him before he 
 came to me. What he was as a race horse and what he 
 could do when asked to beat the watch fills no inconsiderable 
 space in the history of the pacer." 
 
 It is noted in the annals of the turf that Directum I 
 was foaled in 1907 and that he began his racing career as 
 a four-year-old and that John Ryan brought him out and 
 that during his first season he made a total of nine starts 
 winning five races and retiring with a record of 2:16%. 
 There was not much in that to create any great amount of 
 enthusiasm nor to indicate that a new turf star was about to 
 burst forth. But as little as it meant, there was at least one 
 trainer who knew something. He let the public in on the 
 
DIRECTUM I 157 
 
 secret the next season, that is, the portion of the public 
 which goes to the half-mile tracks, for he started his pacer 
 ten times and the summaries tell us that he was ten times 
 announced the winner and that he reduced his record to 
 2:0814? ^vhich was no mean performance for a twice-around. 
 Next year he was raced a few times on the half-mile 
 tracks and at Goshen set the world's race record for the 
 two-lap oval at 2:02'^, and that mark stood until Single G 
 reduced it to 2:01 at Des Moines, la., five years later. The 
 Grand Circuit was then invaded and in the course of the tour 
 Directum I proved to be practically unbeatable, scoring vic- 
 tories over the best in his class and reducing his record to 
 2:0214- It was a matter of keen regret on the part of his 
 admirers that he fell a victum to sudden sickness at Lexing- 
 ton and was drawn from his race after forcing Frank Bogash 
 to a mark of 2:01'^ in the opening heat. 
 
 That campaign indicated that a new pacer was ready to 
 enter the two-minute list and the next year, 1914, he came 
 in, pacing the second and thrid heats at Syracuse, N. Y., in 
 two-minutes flat, breaking the record for a three-heat race, 
 divided heats. Within a few weeks he lowered his record to 
 1:58'^, at Detroit, and then the public knew the new star 
 had arrived with all four feet. 
 
 This performance brought about the match races with 
 William, then a four-year-old, who had paced a race at 
 Grand Rapids in exactly two minutes, shortly before Direc- 
 tum I did the same thing at Syracuse. William won the 
 first of these races, which was staged at Grand Rapids, but 
 the miles were all three short of two minutes. Within a few 
 days the pair met again at Columbus and it was then the 
 world's record for pacing races was set at 1:58, Directum 
 I winning. Another match at Grand Rapids in the late fall 
 gave Directum I another victory and again there was no two- 
 minute mile. Meanwhile, Directum I had won the free-for- 
 all at Lexington, pacing the third heat in 1:591/2 and after 
 Grand Rapids he reduced the track record at Kirkwood, Del., 
 from 2:04% to 1:59^. The victory over William at 
 Grand Rapids was destined to be the last, for in 1915 
 he met William three times, and lost on each occasion, but 
 
158 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 his speed was such that at North Randall the Indiana pacer 
 was carried so fast, parts of both miles, that they were 
 paced in l:58l/{> and 2:00. That year Directum I paced 
 a mile in 1 iSSy^ at Hartford, defeated Peter Stevens in a 
 match at Allentown, Pa., and then, at Syracuse, N. Y., paced 
 his most sensational mile, in the open, in 1 iSG'Y^. 
 
 His work in 1916 consisted in some record making 
 efforts which resulted in new records at odd distances from a 
 half-mile to a mile and one eighth, and these records have 
 already been given in this chapter. 
 
 Few pacers of better gait than Directum I have ever been 
 seen. He wore knee, ankle and quarter boots forward and 
 light scalpers behind, and it follows that they were necessary 
 but he was by no means hard on them, hence it is safe to 
 assume that they were largely used to guard against mishap. 
 His shoes were as light as they could be made. 
 
 His "stealing" way of going, especially when racing 
 alongside the high-striding William, gave one the impression 
 of a swallow in easy flight and if there is anything in the idea 
 that the gait of no lost motion is the best, certainly the way 
 Directum I went at speed would seem to bear it out. There 
 has lived no other pacer that could go a piece of the way as 
 fast as he and he seldom turned that he did not show it. 
 And again let us quote from the admirer whose views on 
 another phase of Directum I have already been presented. 
 He says: "Directum was faster than William for a burst." 
 He is writing of the time when both horses appeared to be 
 at their best. And there is no doubt that he is right. There 
 are few men who saw Directum I race who will not testify 
 that for pure speed we have never had his like. His records 
 show that he could sustain it for long flights, too, but not the 
 rate he so frequently showed when called upon, for that 
 would not be expected of any horse, even one so great as 
 Directum I. In other words, for a short distance, he seemed 
 to possess the speed of a quarter horse. 
 
 Directum I was bred by Jas. Butler at his East View 
 Stock Farm in New York, and was by Directum Kelly out of 
 Izetta R. by Pactolus. He was owned after 1914 by the late 
 M. E. Sturgis who also, at one time, owned Dan Patch. 
 
w 
 hJ 
 
 1-4 
 
 <: 
 
 Q 
 
 
 O 
 
// old age would overlook me 
 Like the horse that Time forgot. 
 
 — Walter Palmer. 
 
 SINGLE G 
 
 Holds All World's Records For Three-Heat Races 
 
 Record 1 ^59 
 
 INGLE G 1 :59, has paced race miles in two-minutes 
 or better for four different drivers — Mr. Curt Gos- 
 nell, Mr. Fred Jamison, Mr. E. F. Geers and Mr. 
 Ed. Allen and that cannot be said of any other horse that 
 has enrolled his name among the elect of the pacing division. 
 This Indiana pacer began racing in 1913, and is to be pre- 
 pared for the 1922 campaign for, despite his twelve years 
 of life and nine years of campaigning he came to the dawn of 
 the New Year looking like a five-year-old. 
 
 Howard Vickery gave the colt his first lessons in 1912 
 and that included breaking. The youngster had quite a 
 temper and willful ways but he came along nicely after he 
 learned what he was required to do and worked in 2:1514 
 the first season he was trained. Through the winter of 
 1912-13, he was jogged and Mr. Vickery trained him and 
 raced him in his three-year-old form giving him a record 
 of 2:1214- That year he raced with William and Russell 
 Boy and that trio became about as famous as any bunch 
 that learned their first racing lessons together. He won four 
 of his races and was second in the other four. After Single 
 G uas broken, his manners were the best and in his eight 
 starts at three he was returned winner often enough to indi- 
 cate that he would become a pacer of real class. From the 
 time he made his first start as a four-year-old he was always 
 in the public eye because he was always doing something 
 to merit attention and approval and at last he became the 
 idol of Indiana horse lovers. 
 
162 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 Mr. Ed. H. Allen had Single G for the first time in 1918, 
 driving him in a race at the Illinois State Fair and then taking 
 him to Des Moines, where at the Iowa State Fair he won the 
 free-for-all pace and took the world's record over a half- 
 mile track of 2:01 as well as the record for a three-heat race 
 over a half-mile track. He then defeated William in a 
 match race and also Russell Boy, the latter at South Bend, 
 where he lowered the state record for a half-mile track. 
 He beat the same pacer again the next week at Danville, 
 111., and again lowered a state record for a half-mile track. 
 He was then shipped to Mr. Geers at Lexington, who won 
 and lost with him in the two races he started for. 
 
 Mr. Allen wintered him at Indianapolis and raced him 
 in 1919 until he had to go to other hands because of an acci- 
 dent to Mr. Allen which resulted in a broken arm. Up to that 
 time he had won four races out of six starts, the losing races 
 being on half-mile tracks. At Toledo, he won, and paced 
 in 1 :59'%|^, the fastest heat of the year. After the accident 
 to his regular driver the horse was turned over to Harry 
 Stokes who drove him in three races, in one of which he 
 forced Grace Direct to a record of 2:00^. Mr. Dick 
 McMahon drove him in his next race, at the Wisconsin State 
 Fair, where he was second to William. He then went back 
 to Mr. Allen who took him to Allentown, Pa., and beat Adioo 
 Guy, then retired him for the year. 
 
 "I jogged him that winter five to six miles every day." 
 Said Mr. Allen, in an interview for this volume. "Up to 
 that time I had never changed his rigging in any way from 
 what it was when I first got him. He wore a Jaynes bit 
 which I took off and in its place put a common snaffle bit 
 which I found made him a lot easier to guide. He wore a 
 six ounce shoe and his front toes were 3'|4 inches. I cut them 
 down to 3'^ and shod him with an open swedge shoe the 
 same weight he had worn. His hind shoes were 8l/> ounce 
 swedge. I cut his hind feet to 3'^^ inches, same as his front 
 feet and shod him with 5I/2 ounce swedge shoes. With the 
 weight and longer toes he would brush his hocks quite a little 
 and, at times, would get very rough gaited and roll and 
 tumble about a lot. After cutting his feet down and changing 
 
SINGLE G 163 
 
 his shoes I found he went much truer and straighter. After 
 rigging him this way I took off his hind shin hoots and have 
 never used them since. 
 
 "He wears quarter boots in front and also races in front 
 bandages. Little coronet boots behind and a neck pole com- 
 plete his equipment. 
 
 "I started going miles with him in the spring of 1919 
 around 2:45 a little faster each succeeding week until I got 
 to 2:15. The same way the next two springs. I never brush 
 him any fast eighths or quarters, just go the miles all about 
 the same. Then I go a lot of miles around 2:15. I have 
 never worked him a mile faster than 2:04l^ before a race 
 and between his races I work him once, going four or five 
 heats, two of them as fast as 2:15. I do not make a practice 
 of working him the day before he is to race, usually just 
 jog him two or three miles. 
 
 "His first start in the 1920 campaign was at North Ran- 
 dall, where he won, the best time 2:01*'^. The fastest mile 
 he had previous to that race was in 2:06. After that race 
 he had quite a trip. He raced and won at Toledo, was second 
 at Columbus, then was laid up two weeks and invaded the 
 Great West. He won at Davenport, la., half-mile track, with 
 Hammie Allen driving 'and beat Russell Boy in 2:061/4. 
 Then he went to Madison, Wis., where 'Billy' Marvin drove 
 him an exhibition mile in 2:04l/o. At Milwaukee I drove him 
 and won the free-for-all at Hamline, Omaha and Columbus. 
 Louie Grattan beat him in her record-making two-minute 
 race at Lexington and the next week he beat her back in 
 straight heats. At Atlanta he won and paced the fastest 
 three consecutive heats on record — 1:59, 2:00, 2:00^. 
 
 "He was shipped to Indianapolis and wintered about 
 the same as usual and again he opened the racing season 
 (1921), his ninth, in Ohio, at Canton. And he came home 
 as frisky as a colt. The campaign was a long one and 
 a strenuous one and no pacer beat him. You can find the 
 story of it easily if you care for it. ( It appears in this 
 chapter. — Ed). 
 
 "He is what we would call a good doer. He never misses 
 
164 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 a meal and his feed is just good oats and hay, and plenty of 
 it, with bran once in a while. 
 
 "In all his work and racing for me he has made but one 
 break and that was in 1921, at Columbus, in the second heat 
 just after we got the word and were going into the first turn. 
 Murphy was going to the front with Sanardo and in crossing 
 to the pole his wheel caught the buckle of Single G's quarter 
 boot. He only made about two jumps, lost no more than two 
 or three lengths and won the heat in 2:0iy^^ which is prob- 
 ably the world's record for a heat with a break in it. 
 
 "I suppose there are a lot of people who think that Single 
 G is sour or cross about going back to the score after a false 
 start. But he is not. He just wants to take his time. When 
 he turns with his field he is always ready. He knows as 
 much about trailing and racing from behind as any horse 
 in the world. On the other hand, he has proved that he can 
 race out in front and take pretty good care of himself in that 
 position. When he got his record of 1 :59 at Atlanta in 1920, 
 he trailed Sanardo until past the three-quarter pole yet 
 when he got his record of 2:01 over a half-mile track he 
 raced in front all the way." 
 
 "His owner's instructions are not to start him until he 
 is ready and give him the best of everything in the way of 
 feed and care. John Phillips, who has had him for the past 
 three years, and still has him, cannot be given too much credit 
 for the splendid form in which Single G has raced for me." 
 
 So remarkable were the doings of Single G in Ed. Allen's 
 hands in his eleventh year, 1921, that this story would not be 
 complete without the details. He started sixteen times, eight 
 races on the Grand Circuit, all of which he won; three regular 
 events on half-mile tracks, all of which he won; two match 
 races on half-mile tracks, both of which he won ; an effort to 
 lower his record, in which he just equalled it, going in 1:59; 
 a match race with Peter Manning, which he lost; and an 
 exhibition mile at Poughkeepsie. His winnings for the year 
 amounted to more than $20,000, a sum no other horse of his 
 age ever turned in and a sum larger than most of those in the 
 younger division have ever been able to get together in a 
 single season. He paced three different miles in two minutes 
 
SINGLE G 165 
 
 or better and many in 2:0014 to 2:03 and his great form 
 made his work look quite easy. This was his fourth cam- 
 paign in the hands of Mr. Allen and it is noteworthy that 
 in its course he made his first starts against time on Grand 
 Circuit tracks, pacing the one at North Randall in 1:59 and 
 that at Poughkeepsie in 2:01')4. 
 
 Mr. W. B. Barefoot, breeder and owner of Single G says: 
 "In all his nine years of racing he has started in every 
 race in which he was entered if it went and he has never been 
 drawn from a race. The fact that he is as sound as a dollar 
 at the beginning of his twelfth year may be due to his an- 
 cestiy. His dam was twenty-two years of age when he was 
 foaled and his sire was twenty-six when he was begotten. 
 Single G's dam was destroyed after an accident, at the age 
 of thirty-one. 
 
 "While he was willful as a colt he has always been kind 
 if well treated and is easy to get along with, but if mistreated 
 will always take care of himself and fight to the finish. 
 
 "He is a very close observer. For example, in the fall 
 of 1916, when he was shipped home to Cambridge City, the 
 house where his trainer had lived had burned and the wreck- 
 age was entirely cleared away. It had been just across the 
 street. He stopped, looked over that way and for quite a 
 while refused to go in the barn. 
 
 "He seems to have a perfect understanding with me and 
 knows me as far as he can see me. I say 'Hello, Dick' (that 
 is his stable name) and then he puts his head over my 
 shoulder and I give him a chew of fine cut tobacco, of which 
 he is very fond. In the racing season I carry a big bunch of 
 carrots to him ever^^ morning and he is fed a lot of them 
 and when race day comes he has an extra portion, as he 
 eats carrots all the time between heats." 
 
 Harry Williams, a groom who sees a lot of things worth 
 while as he goes along, says of a recent visit to Cambridge 
 City: "There must have been something about Single G 
 when he was a colt that innoculated the entire population of 
 his home town for they always had confidence that he would 
 become a champion. Ever\' man, woman and child you talk 
 to in that town claims the horse as his or her own. 'Our 
 
1 66 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 horse' they all say. In Big Dick's restaurant the walls are 
 full of pictures of Single G. The one I admire the most was 
 taken in the pasture with his dam and is the only photograph 
 of a suckling colt that looks exactly like he looks at the age 
 of twelve. On the other hand, the indication of his great 
 future may have been in the peculiar mark, a distinct G in 
 his forehead, a mark that I suppose everybody who knows 
 horses already knows about and that from it he was given 
 his name." 
 
 'T am told that Mr. Barefoot has made provision for the 
 care and burial of his great horse if the latter should sur- 
 vive him. And that strikes me as showing some of the 
 feeling that makes men better and more worth while. For 
 it means that Single G will never be called on to do hard 
 labor in his old days — that is if ever he grows old." 
 
 Going back to the earlier racing career of Single G we 
 find that Howard Vickery trained him again for the 1914 
 campaign and also raced him with more than ordinary suc- 
 cess, for the four-year-old won fifteen races out of sixteen 
 starts and tied the world's record for a pacer his age on a 
 half-mile track. The late Curt Gosnell drove him in one of 
 that year's races and the late Fred Jamison had him the latter 
 part of the season, giving him a record of 2:07^ on a half- 
 mile track, which was at Saginaw, Mich. 
 
 He was wintered by Gosnell at Cambridge City and 
 trained by him for the 1915 season, making his bow to the 
 Grand Circuit and winning many races, among them the 
 Chamber of Commerce Purse, where he took a record of 
 2:03^, then his best mark. He retired for the year, one of 
 the most talked-about pacers that had ever been raced, for 
 the public realized that he had done more than most pacers 
 had ever before accomplished and that his half-mile track 
 campaigns were the evidence of genuine merit. It was freely 
 predicted that he was destined to enter the two-minute list 
 but it is doubtful if his most ardent admirers believed he 
 would accomplish as much as he did and last for so many 
 years that were to be marked by campaigns about as strenu- 
 ous as any horse can possibly make and survive. 
 
 He was wintered at Muncie, Ind., by Gosnell, who again 
 
SINGLE G 167 
 
 prepared him for the ensuing campaign and who started him 
 first at North Randall, the opening meeting of the Grand 
 Circuit where he set the world's record for a three-heat race 
 by winning all three heats in 2:0014, 2:0014, 2:0114. At 
 Kalamazoo he entered the select list with a heat in two-min- 
 utes flat in a race which he won from Napoleon Direct. He 
 had won at Detroit the previous week, pacing a heat in 
 2:0014. His Kalamazoo victory was destined to be his last, 
 but one, for the year. That was the season in which Napoleon 
 Direct was at his best and while the Indiana warrior was 
 good, he did not have the lick necessary to beat the great 
 Geers pacer who defeated him in all the eight races which 
 followed Kalamazoo. 
 
 At the second North Randall Grand Circuit meeting, 
 Curt Gosnell met with the accident which resulted in his death 
 and his great pacer went into the stable of Walter Cox, 
 the New England reinsman. driving him in all his races 
 the rest of the year. Gosnell drove him in three winning 
 and two losing races and gave him his first two-minute record. 
 Cox was able to force Napoleon Direct to pace many miles 
 close to two-minutes but the fastest heat he won with him 
 was in 2:02^, when he beat Ben Earl at Lexington. In 
 Gosnells hands he forced Napoleon Direct to a record of 
 1 :59''^, at Columbus. It is doubtful if Single G ever raced 
 more gamely than during the season of 1916. He was try- 
 ing, nearly every week, against one a trifle superior to him 
 in point of speed, yet that campaign does not appear to have 
 disturbed him at all nor lessened his splendid courage. 
 
 He was ready for the fray early in the season of 1917. 
 The previous fall he had been sent to Fred Jamison, who 
 brought him out for the races in splendid form and who 
 raced him all year, the first time since the horse was a three- 
 year-old that the fortunes of war had permitted him to be 
 in the care of one trainer an entire season. This was in no 
 sense due to changing notions of the owner but was because 
 of circumstances over which he had no control. The desper- 
 ate sickness of Curt Gosnell had caused one change of 
 drivers; his untimely death had caused another and another 
 untimely death, that of Fred Jamison, was to cause still 
 
1 68 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 another, while an accident was destined to bring about 
 several changes so that Single G at last came to have the 
 honor of having given numerous trainers some of the fastest 
 race rides of their lives. 
 
 During the season of 1917 Jamison won five races with 
 Single G on the Grand Circuit but did not lower his record 
 nor drive him a mile as good as two minutes. But the season 
 was an entirely satisfactory one, Single G was always in 
 the middle of the fray and nobody had any complaint to 
 make. He met Miss Harris M. that year and she finally be- 
 came good enough to beat him but in all cases the time was 
 quite fast. 
 
 He started the season of 1918 in charge of Jamison and it 
 was at Toledo, with that capable driver in the sulky, that 
 Single G won the sensational pacing race which still stands 
 as the best on record for a contest of divided heats. Miss 
 Harris M. won the first heat in 1:581/4, still the world's 
 record for a pacing mare and for a regular event (not a 
 match) and then Single G won the next two heats in 1:591^, 
 1:59'*^, the first time in pacing history that two-minutes had 
 been beaten in all the heats of a regular race. 
 
 And that was the last time Fred Jamison had the pleasure 
 of driving this great pacer for the grim reaper took him from 
 the scenes of life within a very few days and again Single G 
 must make the acquaintance of a new driver. Ed. Allen 
 took him on the western trip which has already been told in 
 detail after Mr. Geers had won a race with him at North 
 Randall's second Grand Circuit meeting and also drove him 
 in two races at Lexington, one of which he won breaking even 
 in the two with Miss Harris M. 
 
 Single G was then returned to Mr. Allen and his great 
 deeds in the hands of that highly capable reinsman and 
 courteous gentleman have already been told in this chapter. 
 He threatened to go through the campaign of 1921 unbeaten 
 and his friends can still say that no pacer was able to take 
 his measure. Age will undoubtedly exact his toil from this 
 two-minute race horse, in due time, but if he never again 
 does lug things his name will shine among the stars as long 
 as men love the light-harness race horse. 
 
SINGLE G 169 
 
 Single G has started in 107 races, has won sixty nine, 
 was second in twenty-five; third in ten; fourth in two and but 
 once outside the money. In other words he has won prac- 
 tically two-thirds of his races. 
 
 A Detroit man, looking for a bargain, offered $7,500 
 for him in 1914 and that was a lot of money for a half-mile 
 track pacer that particular year. The offer was refused and 
 so was every offer that followed it though the price went up 
 to more than $20,000. How much would have been offered 
 by the Detroit fancier if he had been possessed of second 
 sight and known that in the campaign to be made seven years 
 later Single G would win $20,000? In fact that campaign 
 appears to be a most remarkable thing no matter how you 
 look at it. Here is a horse that had raced for eight years 
 and had never really known what it was to have an easy 
 race; had made a wonderful reputation on the half-mile 
 tracks during two years of campaigning then had cast his hat 
 into the "Big Ring", met all comers and triumphed in a 
 majority of his efforts. In his eighth campaign he had 
 reduced his record to 1 :59 in a race and few there were 
 who expected to see him equal it the following year or even 
 be up to two-minute racing. Small wonder then that a 
 prominent turf writer printed this in April, 1921: 
 
 "Looking younger than ever and showing all of his old- 
 time whizz that wonderful old war horse, Single G 1 :59, is 
 being prepared for his ninth campaign. After the bay stal- 
 lion had gone through five or six of his lengthy campaigns 
 the dopesters began to figure that the son of Anderson Wilkes 
 was about through — at least they thought no horse could go 
 through the hard campaigns that he did and come back 
 strong. No ordinary horse could. But Single G is an extra- 
 ordinary horse and just like 'licker' he seems to improve 
 with age. * 
 
 His racing ability, now so well known, was first shown to 
 the followers of the Grand Circuit in the 1915 race for the 
 Chamber of Commerce purse of $5,000. Of it the well- 
 known writer, Frank S. Cooke, said the day after in his story 
 in the Detroit Free Press: 
 
 ''While victory was comparatively easy this does not 
 
170 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 detract from the prowess of the winner. In the first place 
 he picked up the biggest field in the history of the event, 
 fourteen scoring for the word and among the lot were a half 
 dozen that were rated as better than 2:05 pacers in a race. 
 Drawing a poor position in the first heat, Single G was 
 nursed carefully until the time came and then he drew away 
 impressively, his own mile in 2:02, which is faster than the 
 record of this event, although the heat was in 2:031/?. Next 
 time he rolled, went bad-gaited in spots, was hard driven at 
 the end and many thought he was through, but in the third 
 heat he won off by himself." 
 
 And that was seven years ago. Certainly some sort of 
 elixir of life and youth must be filtered into the lungs of 
 this Indiana wonder from the air he breathes, for the feats 
 he accomplished that day at Detroit have paled into the 
 almost ordinary in the light of his most recent achievements. 
 It is no doubt true that on that day he was very nearly as 
 good as he has been on any day since, though perhaps not 
 quite so fast. But the unbelievable thing about him is that 
 for seven years in a row he could maintain that very form. 
 The year Napoleon Direct defeated him so often, he was the 
 only pacer in training that could do it, and that year "Pop" 
 Geers' pacer was the pacer of the season yet he was com- 
 pelled to go many, many miles very close to the two-minute 
 mark to stall off the Indiana speed marvel. And yet the 
 very next year Single G came back to the Grand Circuit 
 with all the courage, speed and stamina — and more — that he 
 had always had. How many other horses would have done 
 it? 
 
 In 1921 a Toledo turf writer, heralding the appearance 
 of the old warrior at the local Grand Circuit meeting said 
 of him: "At eleven years of age he is meeting and beating 
 his third successive string of free-for-all pacers, having dis- 
 posed of two generations." 
 
 As already stated Mr. W. B. Barefoot bred Single G and 
 the mating was Anderson Wilkes, then 22 years old and 
 Little Gyp, then 26 years old, by Shoo Fly Gyp. Single G 
 has had many drivers but one owner only. 
 
o 
 
 Oh 
 O 
 
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 ON 
 
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 hJ 
 
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The time to succeed is when others 
 Discouraged, show traces of tire. 
 The battle is fought in the homestretch 
 And won — twixt the flag and the wire. 
 
 — John Trot wood Moore. 
 
 NAPOLEON DIRECT 
 
 Grand Circuit Champion Racing Pacer 1916 
 Record 1:59% 
 
 APOLEON DIRECT 1:59% gave the Grand Old Man 
 of the trotting world his first ride a mile in two 
 minutes or better. Mr. Geers developed and "made" 
 this great racing pacer, and the fame of his horse rests not 
 upon his dashes against time but his exceptional accomplish- 
 ments as a racing tool. In fact he was never started save in 
 actual contests — regular events on the Grand Circuit. 
 
 He is a Tennessee product, sired by Geers' old pupil, 
 Walter Direct and out of Lady Erectress by Kendall a grand- 
 son of Director 2:17. 
 
 Mr. Geers first introduced the big horse to Grand Circuit 
 followers in 1914 when he was five years old and the new- 
 comer made good by winning ten of his fourteen starts that 
 year and taking a record of 2\02}/U- He was retired in 
 1916 holding the world's record of 2:011/> for a fifth heat 
 and the world's five heat race record. 
 
 His best record was taken in 1916 at Columbus, 0., and 
 of his preparation for the campaign of that year Mr. Geers 
 writes under date of January 25, 1922: 
 
 "Napoleon Direct was handled just about as we would all 
 handle a good horse when starting in with him to get him 
 into condition for what we knew would be a very hard 
 campaign. And that we were sure was ahead of him. 
 
 "I gave him a good many slow miles in the spring, going 
 just a little faster each succeeding week. While he was 
 asked to increase his speed as the time for racing approached, 
 still I never drove him any work miles better than 2:04 or 
 
174 ^^^ TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 2:05. I always let him finish through the stretch good and 
 strong and a few weeks before his time for starting in a 
 race I would work him the last half of his 2:04 or 2:05 miles 
 in about one minute. Then, with that work he was ready 
 to pace around 2:02 to 2:03 in a race. Then two or three 
 races would put him in order to go a mile better than two 
 minutes. 
 
 "Of course, if I had been conditioning him for fast miles, 
 only, or one fast mile I would have brushed him a little 
 more and would have gone miles around 2:02 to 2:03 with 
 the last half better than one minute. 
 
 "As to his rigging. When he took his record he wore 
 a plain open bridle with over-check and snaffle bit. He wore 
 a light swedge bar shoe in front and each shoe weighed 5^/2 
 ounces. The front toes were 3')>^ inches. He wore about 
 the same behind except with calks and the hind toes were 
 about 3I/2 inches. He also wore very light shin and coronet 
 boots behind. He wore no boots at all in front the year he 
 took his record of 1:59'^." 
 
 As Mr. Geers indicates in his very interesting letter. 
 Napoleon Direct was used as a race horse during his entire 
 career and it is notable that while he was a two-minute horse 
 practically all of the three years he was raced, he was never 
 shaped up for anything but fast race miles. And those he 
 showed the public in profusion. His record of 2:02^, 
 taken in 1914 was not at all a measure of his speed; nor 
 was his record of 2:00'^ taken in 1915. And, for that 
 matter, neither was his record of 1 :59'^. His wonderful 
 bursts of extreme speed through the stretch were the talk 
 of the entire Grand Circuit but it was his racing ability that 
 made him one of the most popular pacers that has ever 
 appeared. 
 
 His three years on the Grand Circuit were all great 
 years for him but his final year was one that will never be 
 forgotten. He had no easy task, for he had the redoubtable 
 two-minute pacer Single G to show^ his speed and stamina 
 against and any pacer good enough to beat that kind is 
 worthy a very high place on the roll of honor. 
 
 Single G defeated him at Kalamazoo but Mr. Geers, pu- 
 
NAPOLEON DIRECT 1 75 
 
 pil compelled the pride of Indiana to pace the opening 
 mile in two minutes, beat him back the second heat in 2:01% 
 but lost the third heat in 2:00%. And that was the only 
 defeat of the year for the chestnut stallion. He met Single 
 G in eight other contests, all regular class races on the 
 Grand Circuit and was returned the winner in all of them. 
 There were other starters but Single G was always the horse 
 to be beaten and he was nearly as good, most of the time, 
 as ever in his life, though he trained on and won miles in 
 much faster time than those in which Napoleon Direct de- 
 feated him. But that may not mean as much as the casual 
 observer thinks for it is doubtedly true that while but one 
 of the Napoleon Direct-Single G miles was in time better 
 than two minutes, both horses were able to do better than that. 
 Racing and going against time are two entirely different 
 propositions. 
 
 After Kalamazoo, Napoleon Direct won at Pittsburg in 
 2:0], 2:03V4, 2:031/4. At Columbus, the summer meeting, 
 he won in l:59-)4, (his record mile) and 2:01^. The fast 
 mile fractional time was 30%, 1:01%, 1:30%, 1:593/4, 
 making the time for the last half SSYj seconds, a fair indica- 
 tion of the tremenduous speed the horse possessed. At North 
 Randall's second meeting he won in 2:01%, 2:04%, 2:00%. 
 At Poughkeepsie his miles were paced in 2:02%, 2:00%. 
 At Hartford 2:04%, 2:05%, 2:05%, over a heavy track. 
 At Syracuse 2:00%, 2:04l/>. At Columbus, fall meeting, 
 2:06%, 2:00% in the first race and 2:013/4, 2:011/2 i" the 
 second. 
 
 Napoleon Direct was bred by Clark E. Jones, of Colum- 
 bia, Tenn., and when retired from racing was taken back to 
 the place of his nativity. 
 
 While Napoleon Direct is the only performer that has 
 gone in two minutes or better for Mr. Geers, he is by no 
 means the only sensational performer that great reinsman 
 has developed. In fact it is doubtful if Napoleon was at all 
 necessary to the career of the ''Silent Man from Tennessee," 
 though he was the greatest pacer "Pop" ever developed. 
 
 Inasmuch as Mr. Geers celebrated his seventy-first birth- 
 day in January, 1922, it follows that he has been before the 
 
176 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 public in his chosen profession for a great many years and 
 as he has always had some good horses, sometimes the best 
 of their years, many famous names are to be found on the 
 roster of the Geers stable. In the hustle and bustle of the 
 passing years there is apt to come a time when the great 
 ones are momentarily forgotten. Yet it is doubtful if many 
 ever think of Mr. Geers without recalling the great achieve- 
 ments of Hal Pointer, the first really great pacer he cam- 
 paigned through the Grand Circuit, one of the most wonder- 
 ful horses known to pacing annals. 
 
 It cannot be possible that any one has forgotten Robert 
 J. and that Mr. Geers drove him to a world's record — 2:01% 
 — as long ago as 1895. More recently he made The Abbot 
 the world's champion trotter with a record of 2:03^. 
 
 His list of 2:10 or better trotters was quite a formidable 
 one when that rate of speed was considered something out 
 of the ordinary. None of the Old Guard will ever forget 
 the wonderful campaigns of the famous Hamlin's Nightin- 
 gale 2:08 and it is probable that this work with her brought 
 Mr. Geers more real fame than his recent accomplishment 
 with the far more speedy St. Frisco 2:01^, who holds the 
 world's race record for a trotting stallion. 
 
 Year after year for so many years that it taxes the 
 memory he has been a commanding figure among Grand 
 Circuit trainers. Every so often he has come along with the 
 winner of the Chamber of Commerce purse at Detroit, as 
 long as that rich and much-coveted event was annually re- 
 newed. He won it with the sire of Napoleon Direct and, 
 speaking of the Directs no one will ever forget the great 
 campaign of Direct Hal, another Geers pupil who became 
 one of the popular idols. Mr. Geers also drove Single 
 G. to a race record of 1:59%. 
 
 His wonderful record seems destined to stand unsur- 
 passed perhaps not equaled. In one respect it is certain that 
 his career will stand alone and that is in the unbounded love 
 and respect that have come to be his portion from the many 
 thousands in every section who admire the trotter and pacer 
 and the men who make them. There has been but one Geers 
 identified with the great sport of harness racing. 
 
She may be uell compared unto the Phoenix kind 
 
 Whose like nas neve?- seen nor heard that any man can find. 
 
 — John Heyicood. 
 
 MISS HARRIS M. 
 
 World's Champion Pacing Mare 
 Record 1:58^ 
 
 [ISS HARRIS M. I:58l4, the world's champion 
 pacing mare, and the first of her sex to enter the 
 two-minute pacing list was bought at public auction 
 by Tommy Murphy when her record was two minutes and 
 the purchase was made with one object in view and that was 
 to give the mare a race record as far below the two-minute 
 mark as possible which would carry with it, for him, another 
 world's record and he thought that sort of mark would look 
 pretty well along with the others he had. He had just sold 
 Roan Hal 2:00'^ for a long price so he became a bidder 
 on the mare and secured her for $4,500. 
 
 That was during the winter of 1917-18 and the season 
 of 1918 the mare did what Mr. Murphy expected of her 
 when he made the purchase. In addition she raced pretty 
 well for him and the race in which she made her best record 
 is still in the statistics of the harness turf as the fastest three 
 heat race in which the heats were split. It was the memor- 
 able contest at Toledo, July 23rd, which quite fittingly was 
 the first on the program for the first day of the first Grand 
 Circuit meeting ever held in the metropolis of northwestern 
 Ohio. And, while Miss Harris M. was unable to win the 
 race, she was the winner of the first heat and it still stands 
 as the fastest heat ever paced in a regular event and it is 
 further important from the fact that but one race mile faster 
 has ever been put on the records, that of 1:58 by Directum I. 
 in his match with William at Columbus in 1914. Further- 
 more the mare forced the winner of the race to beat two min- 
 utes in each of the next two heats so that the event is the 
 only one of three heats in which the two-minute mark was 
 beaten in every heat. 
 
l8o THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 That year Miss Harris M. started in ten races of which 
 she won six and paced six heats in better than 2:03 but in 
 most of her starts there was always a heat around two min- 
 utes. The fractional time of her record mile affords an 
 interesting study in race speed. In actual contest there is 
 a difference in the rating as compared with flights against 
 time for in the race what the other drivers are doing cuts no 
 small figure. In the first heat of the Toledo race the first 
 quarter was paced in thirty seconds; the second quarter in 
 twenty-nine seconds; the third quarter in 30 seconds and the 
 final quarter in twenty-nine and a quarter seconds. Thus, it 
 will be seen, the mile was what might correctly be termed 
 evenly rated. In the second mile there was a different style 
 of racing. The first quarter was paced in 31^ seconds 
 while the second one was covered in 29*^ seconds and the 
 third at exactly the two-minute rate. From there on the clip 
 increased until the wire was reached and the official time of 
 the last quarter was 281/0 seconds. The slow first quarter 
 was just enough to account for the ll/j. seconds difference in 
 the time of the two heats. Again in the third heat the first 
 quarter, but 311/), a 2:06 gait slowed up the mile but left 
 room for a great exhibition of racing speed, for the second 
 quarter was in 291/0 seconds and the third in 29 seconds yet 
 the horses paced the last quarter in 29')4 seconds. Two dif- 
 ferent miles better than two minutes with very slow first 
 quarters shows what great pacers Miss Harris M. and Single 
 G. were that day. 
 
 During the year 1918 Miss Harris M. met Single G six 
 times and defeated him twice — at North Randall and at 
 Lexington and it was largely because of her strenuous efforts 
 that the time in most of the races against the Indiana warrior 
 were so fast. Mention has already been made of the Toledo 
 world-record race. At Kalamazoo she forced the G horse 
 to pace the last two heats in 2:00l/> and 2:01. At North 
 Randall's second meeting she forced him to pace in 2:01 
 and 2:02. She paced a second heat over the slow track at 
 Poughkeepsie in 2:00')4. Day and track right, she was a 
 two-minute pacer every time she scored for the word that 
 eventful year and but for Single G she would have been 
 
Miss Harris M IrSS^^— Alonzo McDonald 
 
MISS HARRIS M. 1 83 
 
 the leader of the free-for-all division. That is no faint 
 praise for it is no disgrace to play second fiddle to any pacer 
 as good as Single G was in 1918 or has been in any of his 
 years, for the matter of that. 
 
 Miss Harris M. passed to the ownership of Mr. Paul 
 Kuhn, of Terre Haute, Ind., at the close of the 1918 racing 
 season and was started in a few races in 1919 bv Mr. Will 
 Fleming who raced her against Single G twice and broke 
 even with him. He won at Toledo but she forced him to pace 
 the second heat in 1:59%. She turned the tables on him at 
 Columbus and paced the final heat, the third, in 2:0034. 
 Thus it will be seen that in all four of her racing years this 
 daughter of Peter the Great was a two-minute pacer. 
 
 As she is the world's champion pacing mare it follows 
 that she holds more than one record. Those to her credit 
 are: Fastest mare 1:5814; fastest four-year-old filly, 
 2:01^; fastest five-year-old mare, 1:581,4^ fastest heat by 
 a mare, 1:5814; fastest three-heat race by a mare, 2:011/4-» 
 2:01'>47 2:04l/>. That is sufficient to give her the stamp of 
 greatness and to fix her place among the many great stars 
 of "pacerdom". It seems rather remarkable that the stal- 
 lions continue to be the greatest pacers. They hold about all 
 of the more valued records and even the geldings, many of 
 which are good race horses, fail to race on to the low 
 records. And there are but two pacing mares with records 
 of two-minutes or better, the other being the Canadian-bred 
 Louie Grattan whose record is exactly two minutes. Of the 
 fourteen pacers in the two-minute list but four are geldings 
 and the best record held by any one of them is the 1:59^4 of 
 Frank Bogash. 
 
 In the light of those facts the achievements of Miss 
 Harris M. stand out in bold relief and stamp her a pacer far 
 above the ordinary. She was bred by Mr. A. T. Harris, 
 Versailles, Ky. and is by Peter the Great and out of Maiy 
 Allen Stout by Ondale. It might be added that she is the 
 only two-minute performer to the credit of Peter the Great, 
 something rather odd when one remembers the great army 
 of exceedingly fast trotters he has sired. 
 
 Miss Harris M., when but a weanling, became a member 
 
184 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 of the String of Mr. Alonzo McDonald, of Indianapolis and 
 he kept her until she had taken a record of exactly two- 
 minutes. His brief story of her life while in his charge is 
 this: 
 
 "Not much was done with her in the way of training 
 until she was two years old. I worked her on the trot that 
 season and drove her a mile in 2:16, starting her in one 
 race — at Dallas, Texas, where she won second money. 
 
 "As she was a filly that carried considerable weight as 
 a trotter and was inclined to pace, I shod her light after 
 her Dallas race and started her as a pacer. I wintered my 
 horses at Los Angeles, Cal., and it gave me a good chance to 
 work her. That was the year of the harness races at the 
 San Franciso Exposition and I started her at the June meet- 
 ing when she was three. She won money in the race and 
 paced in 2:10l/>. 
 
 "She raced well for me in the pacing futurities on the 
 Grand Circuit and won second money in The Horseman 
 Stake, raced at Indianapolis and also won second money in 
 The Horse Review Stake, raced at Columbus. In both events 
 the time was as good as 2:0414- 
 
 "I then sold her to Mr. S. A. Fletcher, of Indianapolis, 
 and raced her for him the two following years, which was 
 until she was sold. As a four-year-old she won all of the 
 important pacing stakes on the Grand Circuit and in the 
 Chamber of Commerce at Detroit she defeated what I think 
 was the best field of pacers that ever raced. The time of 
 the three miles was 2:0114, 2:01^^, 2:041^. 
 
 "As a five-year-old she won seven straight free-for-all 
 races and raced several heats close to two minutes. The 
 last race I drove her in was a match with Hal Boy at Atlanta, 
 which she won and entered the two-minute list. 
 
 "She wore plain rigging and ordinary boots for pro- 
 tection. I shod her with seven ounce bars shoes in front, 
 with leather rim pads. She carried two ounce toe weights. 
 Behind she wore four ounce swedge shoes. 
 
 "There never was a better headed mare nor a more per- 
 fect race mare. She was always ready and willing to do 
 her best." 
 

 TO 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
Be Mercury; set feathers to thy heels 
 And fly like thought. 
 
 — Shakespeare, 
 
 PRINCE LOREE 
 
 Champion Double-Gaited Performer 
 2:00 Pacing; 2:03V4 Trotting 
 
 RINCE LOREE 2:00 pacing, 2:031/4 trotting, the 
 world's double gaited champion, was rescued from 
 the discard and made a stake-winning trotter and a 
 two-minute pacer by Mike McDevitt, of Berea, a suburb of 
 Cleveland and was given his record at both gaits without 
 hobbles. He was bought for Capt. David Shaw and raced in 
 his colors. This brown gelding figured in the transaction 
 which made both him and Lee Axworthy 1:58^4 members 
 of the Pastime Stable. Prince Loree had something the mat- 
 ter with him. The doctors disagreed and so it came about 
 that the colt was put into a public vendue that Homer J. 
 Kline conducted for the Pastime Stable and others at the 
 North Randall race track in the late fall of 1915 and was 
 sold, on a cold, miserable day in the presence of about fifty 
 people, to Mr. A. C. Pennock, for $50. The bid was intended 
 to be a complimentary one as the gentleman who made it did 
 not want the colt nor expect to get him on that bid. It was, 
 however, not raised and the bidder paid for his purchase. 
 Late in January 1916 Mr. McDevitt bought Prince Loree for 
 $120 and Capt. Shaw advised turning him out for a year. 
 
 'T did not buy him to turn out, I bought him to race" was 
 the reply of Mr. McDevitt and so the brown "pony" was 
 sent to school. The story of his education, as told by Mr. 
 McDevitt for publication in this volume is this: 
 
 "He was always a funny horse. We had to get him 
 civilized before we could do anything with him. We passed 
 that job up to Mr. Dutton, our training stable superinten- 
 dent, who wouldn't 'take hold' of a horse if he was going to 
 run through fire. I guess they had used ropes and about 
 
1 88 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 everything on the little horse. It was said he threw his stifle 
 out sometimes when he was worked. He never did but they 
 believed he did and blistered him to cure him of it and as 
 they made the blister very severe they always tied his tail 
 with a rope to an overhead stringer when they applied it. 
 That left it awfully sore and when I got him it was so sensi- 
 tive that when he switched it and hit the shaft he would nearly 
 go crazy with the pain. 
 
 "Well, Mr. Button just jogged him to heavy cart and let 
 him 'slop around,' as he said it. Then Capt. Shaw took a 
 great fancy to him and as part of his education he drove him 
 in the matinees at North Randall all summer, giving him a 
 record of 2:07'^, the best of the year for that track at mati- 
 nee racing. And he fed him sugar every day and that helped 
 to civilize him. I seldom sat behind him except on the 
 days when I wanted him to step. The alleged ailment never 
 bothered him at all except in the stall when his stifle muscles 
 would sometimes cramp the same as a man's legs often cramp 
 while he is in bed. He always had the cleanest legs you 
 ever saw. 
 
 "He was the oddest horse in the world about his feet. 
 If there was one shaving too much off^ of a foot he was un- 
 balanced. He did not need so much weight but must have 
 the right length and the proper angle. As a trotter he wore 
 7 ounce swedge shoes in front with 3 ounce toe weights; the 
 toe was 3%^ inches and the angle 47^/2. Behind his shoes 
 were 3 ounce plain with 3^ toe and 53 angle. His rigging 
 was a plain bit, check as loose as could be worn, elbow boots. 
 
 "We tried him out as a pacer for the reason that when 
 he won the Transylvania he took a race record of 2:031/4 ^^^ 
 that meant there would be no classes to speak of for him at 
 the trot. I told Capt. Shaw if he would let me put him to 
 pacing I would give him a record as fast as his trotting rec- 
 ord. He said he did not believe I could do it but finally 
 agreed and let me have my way. And I might say that 
 making a pacer out of Prince Loree put a lot of these white 
 hairs in my head. 
 
 "All my best friends, following their best judgment, gave 
 me their advice regularly. Some would say to use a lot 
 
PRINCE LOREE I 89 
 
 of weight — my good friend Jim Clark was one of them and 
 he was sincere about it, so were all the rest. The case had 
 me puzzled because the little fellow had sometimes shifted 
 to the pace in his trotting races and that made it look easy 
 to convert him. One night as I lay in bed I heard the rain 
 pattering on the roof and I said to myself that the track would 
 be hea\y the next day and I would try an experiment. 
 
 "I will take him to the shop, pull his shoes and work him 
 barefooted. And I did. I shortened his toes up all round 
 and went out with no shoes and no check and he was a pacer 
 right then. After that I shod him with 3 ounce running 
 horse shoes all round, his toes as short as I could get them; 
 no boots and his head carried the same as when he trotted. 
 You never could fool with his head. He wanted to go with- 
 out any rigging and a heavy-handed man could not drive him 
 at all because just as soon as he was taken hold of he began 
 to mix in his gait. 
 
 "No tougher horse, I mean no more enduring horse, was 
 ever raced. Why did he fail as a pacer? Just simply this: 
 He's got too much brains — he did not like it; he said: 'I've 
 paced as far as I'm going to pace' and he passed the gait 
 up. I have said he was a funny horse. That is not quite 
 right. He was a great horse. I think my wife is the 
 greatest woman in the world, but I get along with her by 
 letting her have her own way. That taught me how to devel- 
 op Prince Loree. I found that I could get him to do things 
 by letting him have his own way in certain other things. So 
 when he decided to quit pacing I let him have his own wav. 
 
 "I expected great things of him in the mile at Lexington 
 where he took his best pacing record but the day after the 
 race he was seriously sick of distemper so he could not have 
 been in condition to do even as much as he did. To get him 
 ready for that effort I worked him some miles at North Ran- 
 dall in 2:031/2 to 2:04 and one, only, in 2:003/4. Then I 
 shipped him to Syracuse to give him a fair mile and he 
 paced in 2:0214. Then I sent him to Columbus and there I 
 worked him a mile in two minutes, going around a lot of 
 other horses and the track harrow and I figured that he 
 would go a mile at Lexington as fast as any pacer had ever 
 
190 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 gone. But he was off and besides the runner that went with 
 him stopped up the stretch at the finish and the little fellow 
 did what he always did when he had no competition — just 
 loafed the rest of the way to the wire. 
 
 "He won the Edwards Stake at North Randall in 1921, 
 and also won at Toledo, but he very soon showed that he 
 did not care for the new idea and that ended his career as 
 a pacer. It was just a matter of the gait, that is what he did 
 not like for he was always a very steady, reliable horse as 
 a trotter. And he is just like a big dog around the barn, he is 
 so good natured and a better feeder never lived. I will 
 always believe that the thing that made him cramp in the 
 stifle was a faulty operation when he was made a gelding and 
 that is all there is to it, and that little mishap is what even- 
 tually enabled me to get a stake trotter for $120." 
 
 Mr. McDevitt's story, so graphically told, leaves nothing 
 to be added so far as the training of Prince Loree is con- 
 cerned. But — if this were a collection of tales of the turf, 
 page upon page could be filled with stories of the brilliant 
 doings of the little brown pony who added to the wonderful 
 history of the Capt. Shaw stable that had been made by 
 Lillian R., Joan and Grace as well as Peter Mac and others. 
 
 One of those stories must not be omitted. It concerns 
 the foray of the little trotter into and out of the "bushes," 
 in 1918 his race in which he defeated a good field in the 
 mud and while the race was in such slow time as 2:181/4, 
 it took so much out of him that he was distanced the next 
 week at Canton. 
 
 And then a feat unparalleled in the annals of the trotter. 
 Mr. McDevitt put him in a box car and ticketed him for 
 Syracuse, N. Y., and then told his owner what he had done. 
 Let us pass over the scene that ensued. The intent of the 
 box car journey was to meet an engagement in the Empire 
 State purse of $10,000 for trotters. The only apparent ex- 
 cuse for the venture was that the entry had been made and 
 was fully paid up. Evidently l)ox car and occupant reached 
 Syracuse in prime order, for the records tell that the "pas- 
 senger" won the big stake, beating a large field including 
 the redoubtable Ante Guy. It is said that Mr. McDevitt was 
 
PRINCE LOREE IQI 
 
 fully and freely forgiven when the late Harry Neely wired 
 Capt. Shaw the result of the race. 
 
 And following the Syracuse race Prince Loree went 
 jauntily about his business and won first money in the $10,000 
 trot at Columbus, giving him the honor of winning two of the 
 three purses of the year of that goodly size. 
 
 He tried for the Transylvania in 1918 and Royal Mac 
 and others beat him. He went back the next year for the 
 same event, defeated Royal Mac and won the coveted prize. 
 He won the Tavern Stake the same year at North Randall. 
 He was a busy and a highly successful trotter. And it might 
 be added that he is the only trotter that was sold for a fairly 
 long price, discarded and sold for $50 and in spite of all 
 his adversities became a Grand Circuit stake winner and 
 the holder of two world's records for trotters, which he was 
 at the close of the racing season of 1919. One was the green 
 gelding record of 2:051/4, held jointly with Just David and 
 the other was the fastest race heat by a gelding — 2:03^/4, 
 held jointly with Early Dreams. The latter has since been 
 lowered by Peter Manning to 2:02l/> and in 1921 to 2:021/4 
 by Greyworthy. 
 
 The fractional time of his record mile at the pace which 
 made him the world's champion double-gaited performer was 
 30, 5934, 1:30, 2:00. 
 
 Prince Loree was foaled in 1911, was bred by the late 
 J. H. Shults, at Portchester, N. Y., and was sired by Prince 
 McKinney and his dam was the noted trotter Deloree 2:091/4, 
 a daughter of Axtell's great performer, Elloree 2:08l/o. 
 Walter Cox says that Prince Loree was a long ways the fast- 
 est trotting colt he had ever sat behind and as he was to go, 
 when he sold him, into the hands of W. J. Andrews, Walter 
 expected great things of the youngster. Failure to solve 
 the problem of his stifle muscle ''kink" made Prince Loree 
 almost an outcast as has already been told. 
 
fa 
 
 > 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
Here comes the lady, oh, so light of foot 
 Will ne'er near out the everlasting flint. 
 
 — Shakespeare. 
 
 LOUIE GRATTAN 
 
 Champion Canadian-Bred Pacing Mare 
 Record 2:00 
 
 OLIE GRATTAN 2:00, the fastest Canadian-bred 
 mare, enjoys a unique position among the two minute 
 performers in that she is the only one to have paced 
 two consecutive heats in a race in exactly two minutes each. 
 She is one of the only two mares that have so far enrolled 
 their names among the ultra-select. Miss Harris M. 1:58149 
 being the other. And that calls to mind the peculiar fact 
 that of the twenty two minute performers to the close of 
 he racing season of 1921 but three are of the "gentler" sex, 
 the third one is the pioneer two minute performer, Lou 
 Dillon 1 :58y25 ^^ho ^^^ reigned as queen of the trotting 
 turf since 1903, no other mare of her gait having beaten 
 2:0114- Yet, despite the fact that the stallions and geldings 
 have taken most of the honors among the holders of the best 
 records, the world's race record for trotters is held by a 
 mare, Hamburg Belle 2:0114, and the best pacing record 
 in a regular race is held by Miss Harris M. 1:5814' 
 
 Mr. Vic. Fleming, of Dundas, Ont., Canada, who trained 
 and drove Louie Grattan, tells this brief story of her career 
 in his hands: 
 
 "In 1918 I inquired from different parties where there 
 was a good pacer in Canada, as there has always been a 
 good one show every year and all I talked to said there was 
 nothing of any account that year. 
 
 "I went to Mt. Clemens, Mich., to the fall meeting, fol- 
 lowing Lexington, and saw a mare called Louie Grattan start 
 there. Let me tell you, she could fly. But in spite of the fact" 
 that she acted awfully bad I thought she was the making 
 
196 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 of the best pacer I had ever had, if one could get her man- 
 nered. 
 
 "I bought her about a month later for Mr. J. A. Mclrvine, 
 of Gait, Ontario, for $3,000. We took her to Mt. Clemens 
 that winter and raced her over the ice, and in her race she 
 acted bad and lost the first two heats but went on and won 
 the next three and the race. Then we shipped her home to 
 Gait, where she was prepared and we staked her over the 
 half mile tracks. She won two or three of her early stake 
 starts but continued to be a very, very bad actor. 
 
 "We at last concluded that she might become a better 
 actor if raced on the mile tracks and in acting on that con- 
 clusion we shipped her to North Randall for the second 
 Grand Circuit meeting and she arrived there about ten days 
 before she was to race. I worked her in 2:03'%|^ but in her 
 race she was again bad mannered and got beat in 2:051/4. 
 
 "Mr. Mclrvine sold her that night for $1,000 to Mr. 
 Robert Merrigold, of Hamilton, Ontario, and we shipped her 
 back to the half-mile tracks and won the rest of the stakes in 
 which she was engaged. Then we tried the mile tracks again. 
 At the Columbus fall meeting she was beaten in 2:0314 ^^ 
 her first race. Before I started her the following week I 
 found she was brushing one of her knees and so I went at 
 her shoeing and had some changes made. I had her feet 
 made perfectly level and also equipped her with a pair 
 of heavier knee boots. 
 
 "The changes must have done her good for when T 
 started her the next week, the second week of the meeting, 
 she won in 2:031/4. When we took her on to Lexington and 
 she won both of her races. We then went on to Atlanta and 
 she won her race there. 
 
 "That ended her first season's campaign in our stable 
 and we took her back to Canada and jogged her all winter 
 and in the spring prepared for another Grand Circuit cam- 
 paign. After her first race at Columbus, she seemed to 
 change her view of things generally, for from that time on, 
 she was always a good actor and made no trouble at all. 
 
 "She wore hopples, shadow roll, knee boots and side 
 pole. Her bridle was an open one, the bit a Blue Ribbon. 
 
LOUIE GRATTAN 1 97 
 
 She was checked just medium but wore no check bit, just 
 a strap under her chin. 
 
 "Her feet were level all around and the length of front 
 toes was 3->>> inches, her hind toes 3% inches. She wore 
 five ounce sharp swedged shoes in front and four ounce half 
 swedged, half-round shoes behind. 
 
 "Her disposition was rather funny. She was rather 
 nervous and she appeared to have no affection for any one 
 in particular and did not like to have many people around 
 her so on race days we tried to get her in a stall where there 
 would not be many around her. The day at Lexington when 
 she took her record, we took her to the paddock after the 
 first warming-up mile but had to move her right out because 
 of the crowd around her and the noise overhead. I had to 
 get permission from the judges to cool her out in a near-by 
 barn. 
 
 "The day we went to buy her she was in a big stall and 
 was so nervous when she saw strangers that it took three 
 of us to get a halter on her. 
 
 "But she was one of the best feeders I ever trained and 
 would eat at any time or any place on or off cars." 
 
 Mr. Fleming says nothing of Louie Grattan's record 
 race which was at Lexington, Ky., October 8th, 1920. The 
 other starters were Sanardo, Directum J., Single G, Royal 
 Earl and Gladys B. The Canadian champion won both 
 heats in the same time — two minutes and the fractional time 
 was: 29V2, 5914, 1:29'>^, 2:00— SOV^, 1:001/., 1:30%, 
 2:00 showing her ability to step either end of a fast mile at 
 better than two -minute speed. 
 
 She started out well for the racing season of 1921 and 
 was a factor in the free-for-all races at North Randall and 
 Kalamazoo, forcing Single G to a mile in 2:001/0 at the latter 
 place. At Toledo the first mile was paced in two minutes 
 and she was second. At the Columbus Summer meeting she 
 started against Single G, Hal M. and Sanardo and was sec- 
 ond the first heat but did not race so well the remaining two 
 heats. The next day she died quite suddenly and thus ended 
 the career of Canada's greatest pacing mare and one of the 
 onlv two of her sex in the two minute list. 
 
198 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 The racing career of this good Canadian mare was one 
 that would be a credit to any pacer. Her opponents were 
 always the best in her class along the Grand Circuit and 
 included the celebreties most of the time as is shown by those 
 mentioned above that were beaten by her in the race which 
 gave her a two-minute record. There never was any question 
 as to her courage and when she became a good acting per- 
 former she could be relied upon to go to the limit of her 
 speed and endurance whenever called upon. 
 
 She is the fastest performer descending in the direct 
 line from Wilkes Boy, her sire being a grandson of that 
 noted progenitor. It might be noted in this connection that 
 the world's champion trotter gets the same blood through the 
 sire of his dam who is a son of Grattan (son of Wilkes Boy) 
 as is the sire of Louie Grattan. 
 
 Louie Grattan was a foal of 1913 and was a bay mare 
 by Grattan Royal — Camilla by J. L Case and was bred by 
 Mr. W. H. Taylor, Park Hill, Ont., Canada. 
 

 'Ti 
 
Moving light, as all young things 
 As young birds or early icheat 
 IP hen the ivind blows o'er it. 
 
 — Elizabeth Barrett Broivning. 
 
 SANARDO 
 
 Fastest Racing Gelding of 1921 
 Record 1 -'SQ^ 
 
 ANARDO 1 : 59*^/4, world's champion free-legged 
 pacing gelding, took his record in the second heat 
 of a race at Syracuse, N. Y., in 1921, and was the 
 fourteenth of his gait to find a place in the two minute list. 
 He was bred for a trotter and in his colthood an effort was 
 made to educate him to go that gait but he had other ideas, 
 apparently, for the attempt met with no encouragement from 
 him and the job was abandoned. He has had no other edu- 
 cator than Tommy Murphy, who says of him: 
 
 "He just would not learn to trot. He was a natural pacer 
 and pace he would, no amount of care, no coaching, no shoe- 
 ing and no rigging had any appreciable effect on him. He 
 was of the same mind about trotting, I suppose as Mike 
 McDevitt says Prince Loree was about pacing. He did not 
 like the gait, or else he could net acquire it, or it was too 
 hard for him, or something else. He would not learn and so 
 I stopped trying to teach him to trot and let him have his 
 own way as to gait, rigged him accordingly and he very soon 
 made a very fast pacer. 
 
 "There is nothing to tell about him except what you 
 will find in the records and that is not a little for he has been 
 a very busy horse for three years, beginning with 1919. 
 He is a great racing tool for what he can do and as he 
 was compelled to show very close to two minute speed in his 
 very first campaign and in his second and third had to be 
 raced where nothing short of that would get any amount of 
 
202 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 money there is ample evidence that he has been one of the 
 very best of racing pacers, although there have been some, 
 scattered along the years, that were faster than he has yet 
 shown. He has probably paced as many fast race miles as 
 any other pacer with the probable exception of Single G for, 
 as I have already said, he has been kept quite busy and 
 the mile I drove him in 2:02^ at Syracuse, in 1918, merely 
 for a record one at the same track in 2:01^ in 1920, and 
 one at Atlanta in 1:59'^, are his only heats against time." 
 As Mr. Murphy says, Sanardo most surely has been kept 
 quite busy and his list of race starts has grown to be quite 
 formidable. When his education at the pace appeared to 
 have reached a stage satisfactory to himself and to his 
 trainer he was entered in many stakes through the Grand 
 Circuit and, having shown, in 1918 that he had the neces- 
 sary speed and manners, by his mile at Syracuse, he was 
 quite naturally expected to render a good account for him- 
 self at the races. It is but simple truth to say that he did 
 quite well for he ended the season with a race record, in a 
 winning effort, of 2:00^, which made him the champion 
 five-year-old pacing gelding, as well as the champion free- 
 legged pacing gelding. 
 
 While circumstances have combined to deprive Sanardo 
 of the bravos that are bestowed upon most two minute per- 
 formers, it is safe to say that in the distant future when the 
 student of the history of light-harness racing comes to the 
 career of the dapper, unsexed son of San Francisco, he will 
 more than pause to scan it, for he will discover that up to 
 his time, at least, there were few that were more reliable, not 
 many did more to make race history and none that were more 
 useful. When he got around to it the speed and courage 
 of a Single G were necessary to encompass his defeat and, 
 as will be seen as the reader goes on with this sketch, he was 
 the one that made the winner of the fastest three consecutive 
 pacing heats "go out and do it." Many who are not close 
 observers entirely overlook the second horse in a great race, 
 but there would be no great races if he were not there and 
 while no one would attempt to rob the winner of a record- 
 breaking, record-making race of an iota of the credit due 
 
SANARDO 203 
 
 him, there is always glory enough to reach all concerned 
 and certainly the second horse must have his just share and 
 that share is a liberal one, always. So, we say, while San- 
 ardo has not been praised in song and story to any great ex- 
 tent, those who know race-horse quality have all along given 
 him the praise that is justly his and that is no small portion. 
 He has been a worthy representative of a great tribe albeit 
 he declined to adopt the gait to which he was supposed to be 
 bred. 
 
 It may be well, at this point, to put in something in the 
 way of details as to the racing career of this gelding who is 
 a champion and as the pages are turned it will be disclosed 
 that what has been said heretofore is in no sense fulsome 
 praise but a deserved tribute to a great little horse. 
 
 His first start was made at North Randall, July, 1919, 
 and with the exception of a special against John R. Braden 
 and others at Allentown, Pa., in 1920, he has done his big 
 game hunting entirely on the Grand Circuit. 
 
 After a careful preparation with the Grand Circuit stake 
 races in view Sanardo was taken to the races, for the first 
 time, in 1919 and in the course of that season was a starter 
 and, with the exception of one event, a real contender in 
 fourteen races in which the time of the heats ranged from 
 2:001/2 to 2:0914 but mostly better than 2:06. He won 
 ten of the sixteen and in the fourteenth took a record of 
 2:00^, which was then and at the beginning of 1922, still 
 remains the world's record for a five-year-old pacing geld- 
 ing. That race was one of the best ever paced anywhere. 
 As already stated, Sanardo won the opening heat in 2:00^; 
 the second went to Adioo Guy in 2:00'^4 ^i^^ Sanardo won the 
 third and final round in 2:031/^, making the average time 
 of the three heats a trifle slower than 2:011^. The following 
 week he beat Adioo Guy in straight heats, pacing the opening 
 one in 2:0114 and at Atlanta he paced the second heat in 
 2:01, when he gained a three heat victory over Grace Direct. 
 The season was a most successful one, despite a few unex- 
 pected obstacles which included the good Goldie Todd and 
 Roy Grattan as well as Grace Direct. But he triumphed on a 
 majority of his public appearances. 
 
204 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 The campaign of 1920 was just as creditable to Sanardo 
 as was that which he made the previous year, though the 
 rewards were by no means so great. There was no class but 
 the free-for-all for him, with his record of 2:00l/() and the 
 perennial Single G was to be reckoned with. The fortunes 
 of war found that great pacer as good as ever, perhaps im- 
 proved and Sanardo was able to score a victory over him 
 but once and that was at Columbus. But his most sparkling 
 performance was a losing effort. Of that more will be said 
 a little further along for it is well worthy extended mention. 
 
 His starts for the season numbered eleven in races and 
 once against time and his name was placed at the head of 
 the summary in five. He got away to a bad start, so to speak, 
 and in his first two races was not at anything near his best. 
 But he had his right foot forward in his third start, which 
 was at Columbus and there he scored over Single G. The 
 first mile was paced in the always creditable time of 2:01 
 and Single G was the winner. In the second heat a stretch 
 brush of amazing swiftness gave the victory to Sanardo and 
 he won the third heat in slow time. The second mile was in 
 2:03^/) and the final quarter was in 29l/> seconds. He won 
 at Toledo's second meeting and won at Readville and Hart- 
 ford. To add to his experiences he was taken to Allentown, 
 Pa., to try conclusions over the half-mile track there with 
 some of the pacers who had been making history over the 
 minor ovals. John R. Braden won the first heat in 2:061/4 
 and Sanardo wound up the entertainment by winning the 
 second and third heats, pacing each of them in 2:05'%^, 
 which was a pretty fair performance for a pacer who had 
 no half-mile track experience. After that he was taken to 
 Columbus and was beaten that time by Single G. Then he 
 paced two of the best races of his career, one of them, already 
 merely referred to, about the best he has so far paced. The 
 first one was at Lexington. In it he was second in both heats 
 to Louie Grattan, forcing her to pace each heat in exactly 
 two minutes. The time of those miles by quarters will show 
 that there was some pacing speed on tap. The first half of 
 the first mile was paced in 59^ seconds and the last half of 
 the second mile was also covered at that rate and at the end 
 
SANARDO 205 
 
 of both Louie Grattaii had "a shade" as the newspaper deci- 
 sion of a boxing match has it. 
 
 The race at Atlanta is the one heretofore mentioned as 
 a great performance for a loser. Again it was Single G 
 to start against. There may be something in the belief that 
 certain horses get cunning enough to discover those they can 
 defeat and will come to the point at which they refuse to 
 try against them. Maybe Sanardo is "horse blind" and 
 cannot distinguish between the ones he can beat and the 
 ones that are his masters. At all events he appeared to have 
 lost none of his courage, for at the end of the argument it 
 was found that he had forced the winner to set a new world's 
 record for three consecutive heats, — that is, three heats won 
 by one horse, — and the figures were 1:59, 2:00, 2:001/4. 
 Mr. Ed. Allen, who drove Single G in that race, testifies 
 in his story of Single G elsewhere in this volume, that 
 Sanardo was the pacemaker, and that makes his perform- 
 ance all the more creditable and shows that he merely suc- 
 cumbed to superior speed. 
 
 He was not able, in 1921, to win an argument from 
 Single G, and he found another tough problem in Hal 
 Mahone, who beat him in a great race at North Randall 
 in which the time was slow, for the mile in the second and 
 third heats, but in which every final quarter was paced in 
 291/4 to 29I/0 seconds. The first heat went to Sanardo in 
 2:01%. It was late when he evened up matters with Hal 
 Mahone but he did it in good style by beating him two races 
 at Lexington. There were five miles paced in the two races, 
 Hal Mahone winning the second heat of the second race, and 
 the average time of the five was 2:02^4. 
 
 One of the best races of the year was paced by Sanardo, 
 and won, at the New York State Fair, and in that race he 
 became a member of the colony of two-minute pacers, tak- 
 ing a record of 1:59% in the second heat. That race gave 
 him the honor of holding the world's record for a three-heat 
 race by a gelding. At Atlanta he was started to beat 1:59, 
 the track record, and while he did not succeed he did pace 
 the mile in 1:59%, and that ended his work for the year. 
 His score shows that in the three vears he has been raced 
 
2o6 THE TWO-MINUTE PACERS 
 
 he has started in thirty-eight events, of which he has won 
 nineteen — exactly one-half. 
 
 He raced about as lightly-equipped as to boots as any 
 horse can go, wearing nothing but quarter boots. He was 
 shod in front with 4^ ounce bar shoes, swedged and with 
 full pads and sponges. His hind shoes were full swedged 
 bar and weighed the same as his front shoes. The front toes 
 were 3%> inches with 48 angle and the hind toes were 3^ 
 inches with 52 angles. An open bridle and plain Stalker 
 bit completed his equipment. 
 
 Sanardo is a bay gelding, foaled in 1914, and was sired 
 by San Francisco, and his dam is Andorra by Mobel. He 
 was bred by Walnut Hall Farm, Donerail, Ky. 
 
MR. C. K. G. BILLINGS 
 
 World's Leading Amateur Driver Whose Two-Minute 
 Miles are Championships 
 
 work of this nature would be complete if it omitted 
 mention of the miles in two-minutes or better that 
 have been driven by the distinguished amateur Mr. 
 C. K. G. Billings, whose record in that respect stands alone. 
 
 As is, perhaps, well known, Mr. Billings did not race his 
 horses for purses. They were what may best be described 
 in the language of the day as '"fun" horses, and that included 
 Lou Dillon, Lhlan and William, as well as the trotters and 
 pacers he owned that were not so well known. 
 
 He delighted to exhibit his great horses for the entertain- 
 ment of the public and that public owe him a debt of grati- 
 tude that is not easily paid. His horses were trained and 
 shipped at much expense to many points and it can be said 
 for them that they seldom disappointed. 
 
 In the course of the period in which Mr. Billings main- 
 tained his stable of matinee horses, he had the pleasure of 
 riding three different miles in two-minutes or better, some- 
 thing no other amateur ever even approached. He drove to 
 wagon on these three occasions and the miles were as fol- 
 lows: Lou Dillon 2:00; Uhlan 2:00, both of Avhich are 
 world's records and William, pacer, l:59l/> which is the 
 worlds amateur record. 
 
 When in 1903 Lou Dillon trotted her two-minute mile to 
 wagon at Memphis, Tenn., with Mr. Billings driving the best 
 previous record for a trotter at that style of hitch was her 
 own 2:0134 which she had made at Lexington, with Mr. Bill- 
 ings driving. The two-minute mile still stands as the world's 
 record for trotters to wagon, Uhlan having tied, but not beat- 
 en, it in 1911. Both the record of Lou Dillon and that of 
 Uhlan are double records, no professional ever having 
 driven a trotter to wagon as fast as two-minutes in a public 
 
2IO MR. C. K. G. BILLINGS 
 
 trial. The next best performance by a trotter to wagon 
 with amateur driver is the 2:02'>4 of Lee Axworthy which 
 mile was trotted at Lexington, Ky., in 1916 with Mr. H. K. 
 Devereux driving. 
 
 In addition to his two-minute miles Mr. Billings holds 
 the race record for trotters to wagon, Lou Dillon having 
 given him a race ride in 2:04*%|^ and as she won both heats 
 of her race in that time, that performance gives Mr. Billings 
 the credit of having driven the fastest two-heat race to wagon, 
 by a trotter. 
 
 Lou Dillon became his property in 1903 and he never 
 sold her. Uhlan he purchased in 1910 and the gelding 
 remains his property. Both were taken to California some 
 years ago to spend the remainder of their days. William 
 was kept but a year and was sold to Mr. George Crouch of 
 Lafayette, Ind., going back into the hands of Billy Marvin, 
 the man who brought him out. 
 
 THE TROTTING CHAMPIONSHIPS IN FEET 
 
 Lou Dillon at 44.556 ft. per second trotted 5280 feet in l:58i/2 
 
 Cresceus at 43.19 ft. per second trotted 5118 feet in l:S8V2 
 
 Lou Dillon beat Cresceus 162 feet 
 
 Uhlan at 44.755 ft. per second trotted 5280 feet in 1:58 
 
 Lou Dillon at 44.566 ft. per second trotted 5257.6 feet in 1:58 
 
 Uhlan beat Lou Dillon 22.4 feet 
 
 Peter Manning at 44.84 ft. per second trotted 5280 feet in 1:57% 
 
 Uhlan at 44.755 ft. per second trotted 5268.88 feet in 1:57% 
 
 Peter Manning beat Uhlan 11.12 feet 
 
1^ 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 H 
 D 
 
 ON 
 
 i-O 
 
 O 
 
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 c7i 
 
THE \\ ORLD'S CHAMPION TWO-MINUTE 
 HORSE TRADE 
 
 Involving Lee Axworthy 1:581/4 and Prince Loree 2:00 
 
 From an interview accorded especially for publication in 
 
 this volume. 
 
 HEN in the early summer of 1913 Walter Cox traded 
 two two-year-old colts to the Pastime Stable for 
 Sir Thomas Lipton 2:121/4 ^i^d $2,000, there was 
 consummated the only deal so far recorded in the history 
 of the trotter in which two two-minute performers, both 
 great race horses, were concerned. The colts were not then 
 two-minute horses — indeed they were just colts, and there 
 was no indication, at that time, that either of them would 
 ever be worth their keep. In fact, both came very close to 
 fading into obscurity when they were three-year-olds. But 
 it is undoubtedly true that given the opportunity true great- 
 ness always asserts itself. At all events the two colts be- 
 came great performers, for one was Lee Axworthy 1:58^, 
 world's champion trotting stallion, and the other was Prince 
 Loree 2:03^4 trotting, 2:00 pacing, a Grand Circuit stake 
 winner at both gaits and also a world's champion. 
 
 The details of this famous horse trade as they will now 
 be presented were furnished by Mr. P. W. Harvey, of Cleve- 
 land, a member of the racing syndicate known as the Pas- 
 time Stable. 
 
 The members of that now famous syndicate had no colt 
 training ideas in mind when they began in a small way 
 with a racing stable on the Grand Circuit. They had made 
 a beginning by purchasing among others the trotter Sir 
 Thomas Lipton, which in his races the year prior to his sale 
 to the Cleveland people had made himself look like a "bear 
 cat." He was one, but not at the races. W. J. Andrews 
 was installed as trainer. At a time when no particular 
 
214 THE WORLDS CHAMPION 
 
 policy had been adopted Walter Cox endeavored to sell a 
 little bay colt to the syndicate. His horses were at the North 
 Randall track getting ready for the opening meeting of the 
 Grand Circuit the first week in July, 1913. As had always 
 been their custom when Walter arrived the Pastime folks 
 inspected his horses in their stalls and then watched them 
 in their work. On this particular year Walter endeavored 
 to interest them in the little bay colt. They saw him out 
 on the track one day and Walter was unable to direct his 
 attention to anything pertaining to the race course. Instead 
 he gazed at the birds, looked over the fence, pricked up his 
 ears at the grey team pulling a float, strutted airily as a 
 piece of paper passed him flying in the wind; indeed did 
 everything but take heed of his lesson. No colt had a better 
 time, no colt took training less seriously. And that appar- 
 ently settled one fact — that he would never become a mem- 
 ber of the Pastime string. 
 
 In due time came the Detroit meeting and Mr. Coburn 
 Haskell and Mr. P. W. Harvey, of the Pastime syndicate, 
 attended. One morning Walter hailed them and said: "I'm 
 going to give that colt a record today." And he did. The 
 mile was trotted in 2:28 or slower and the colt did not make 
 more than two breaks. After the performance Walter found 
 his prospective customers and inquired: "How do you like 
 him?" The only possible reply was made and it was in 
 substance: "There is nothing about him to like." 
 
 But Walter must have seen something in him to like 
 for he talked about him as though he believed he had a 
 fairly bright future and he did not let anything in the way 
 of a rebuff move him from his determination. The Cleve- 
 land gentlemen were leaving Detroit that evening. As they 
 neared the door of their hotel on the way to the night boat 
 they met Walter again and his query to them was: "Ain't 
 you fellows going to buy that colt?" The answer was the 
 familiar two-letter word. "Well," he retorted, "you ought 
 to, and I've got another one up home, the same age; he's a 
 corker. Had to make a gelding of him or I'd have him 
 along, ril sell you either of them for $1500 or I'll sell 
 you both of them for $2500." 
 
TWO-MINUTE HORSE TRADE 
 
 215 
 
 And one of the syndicate gentlemen ventured the opinion 
 that the price was too high for "that little scrub;" then he 
 went on to say: "I will tell you what we will do. We have 
 a great race horse, Sir Thomas Lipton. But he is a puzzle 
 to us. What he needs is some one to solve him. He went 
 some great races but 'Billy' cannot solve his problem. We 
 will trade you that horse for your two colts." 
 
 "Like hell you will," retorted Walter, then added: "I 
 suppose a problem Bill Andrews can't solve would be dead 
 easy for me." 
 
 He was quiet for a moment and then said: "I'll give 
 you those two colts for Sir Thomas Lipton and $2,000; is 
 it a trade or not?" 
 
 "Good night!" shouted both of the Cleveland men and 
 away they rushed for their boat. The night was a fine one 
 and they sat on deck until late talking about the colts. Sir 
 Thomas Lipton had become a veritable thorn in the flesh, 
 and that means the flesh of everybody who had anything to 
 do with him, and they were ready to bid him farewell with 
 never a tear in any eye. Besides the fact appeared to have 
 stuck in the heads of the men on the boat that there must 
 be something about the colts that was worth while. They 
 were more than well bred and in addition here was a chance 
 to get two colts for no great sum and at the same time pull 
 the thorn before every one was compelled to treat festered 
 wounds. They might not make the situation any better but 
 they could not possibly make it any worse. Then again, it 
 is not unlikely that something Walter had said about the 
 black colt back at Dover had taken pretty deep root and 
 made them want him. These two had wanted colts; Billy 
 Andrews had wanted colts. So next morning they hurried 
 to North Randall to take the matter up with Mr. Devereux, 
 another member of the Pastime Syndicate. They told him 
 of the off^er they had made and of the counter proposition 
 and urged that with two colts they would have something 
 to look forward to. After a certain amount of delil^eration 
 Mr. Devereux said: "Walter likes a gamble; wire him you 
 will toss a coin to decide whether we give him $1500 or 
 $2000 to boot." 
 
2l6 THE world's CHAMPION 
 
 The telegram was sent and then Mr. Andrews was called 
 by telephone for the purpose of talking it over with him. 
 He furnished this information: "I was driving a race this 
 afternoon and had dismounted and was on my way to the 
 barn when I heard some one hailing me as if he had a life 
 or death matter on his hands. He was waving a telegram 
 at me and I saw it was Cox. He was coming on the dead 
 run. He showed me the message from you, pulled a quarter 
 out of his pocket, flipped it up and you owe him $2,000." 
 
 That week in company with Uncle Biff" and Robert 
 Milroi the ''little scrub" was shipped by boat from Detroit 
 to Cleveland, and so Lee Axworthy became a member of 
 the Pastime Stable. There was more or less concern as to 
 how the youngster would stand the awful morning racket at 
 the Cleveland dock and the overland journey to North 
 Randall through the great traffic of the Ohio metropolis. 
 Henry Knowles was commissioned to lead him or have him 
 led behind his light wagon, and no horse ever had so good 
 a time. The racket at the dock interested him greatly, there 
 was much to see on the way to North Randall, and through 
 it all Lee Axworthy toddled along, missing nothing and 
 never showing the slightest sign of fright. It might be stated 
 here that he was just that way all his life and as Ben White 
 says in his story about him in this volume he was a good 
 feeder and a good doer, always and everywhere. More of 
 that appears further along in this story. 
 
 The little fellow was put in Mr. Devereux's barn and 
 Harvey Shorts exercised him until fall. Once a week or 
 oftener Mr. Harvey drove him and he says that he never was 
 able to drive him a full mile at the trot. He did not know 
 he was at school or else he did not know that Mr. Harvey 
 was the teacher. Finally, one day, the colt allowed himself 
 to be "shooed" around the mile track in about 2:50 and in 
 that mile there flashed the first ray of hope. The colt 
 had trotted into the stretch and was nearing the seven-eighths 
 pole when he suddenly turned on some steam. His teacher 
 looked down to see if he was running or had stuck to the 
 trot and finding him trotting wondered what had changed 
 him so suddenly. Ahead he saw the white horses pulling a 
 
TWO-MINUTE HORSE TRADE 217 
 
 harrow and thought they had caused the commotion; just 
 then he heard a horse coming at them from behind, one 
 that was stepping at a fast clip. The horse behind and Lee 
 Axworthy reached the wire together — the other was the fast 
 mare Ruby K. with M. McDevitt driving. Mike inquired 
 the name of the little fellow^ and when he was told he was 
 a two-year-old that had recently been bought he expressed 
 his doubt with the familiar expression, "Go on," and went 
 his way. Two weeks later Harvey Shorts reported that he 
 had the same experience except that he had been carried to 
 the quarter pole from the wire. These two little incidents 
 were believed to be proof that Walter Cox had been shown 
 something of the same kind or he would not have kept on 
 training the colt. 
 
 That fall the colt was shipped with the other horse to 
 Thomasville and while he was worked with steadily, the last 
 of March had arrived before Mr. Andrews was able to get 
 him to go a full mile on the trot. He simply would not 
 learn. Side poles, side straps and everything that appeared 
 to be worth while found a place in his rigging at some time 
 during the winter and early spring. Billy Andrews had a 
 fertile brain and he would try anything that appeared to 
 have a reason for its use. Along in late March or perhaps 
 it was in April the colt trotted a mile in about 2:30 and 
 never lifted his nose. When his trainer brought him in he 
 exultantly shouted: "Fve got him". From that time on he 
 made but one break in a race, which was at Kalamazoo when 
 he was bumped into in a stake for three-year-olds. He made 
 two or three breaks in scoring that day but that was in 
 efforts to get away from a bad actor. 
 
 From all of which it appears that with Lee Axworthy it 
 was not so much a matter of rigging to make him trot as it 
 was a matter of inclination. It may be that Mr. Andrews 
 finally got him "hung up" so that he was quite comfortable 
 and he is entitled to great credit for his perseverance and 
 his display of great ability for without them Lee Axworthy 
 would have been sold at work horse price. But there may be 
 something in the belief that the colt suddenly discovered 
 that he had a career before him and that having had his play 
 
21 8 THE world's CHAMPION 
 
 he was ready for carrying out the intention of Nature and 
 he went at it in splendid style. 
 
 In this connection it is well worth while to tell the story 
 which Charles (''Doc") Tanner loves so well to tell on him- 
 self. To fully understand its import one must remember 
 that "Billy" Andrews appeared to have set his heart on 
 making a trotter of Lee Axworthy and the mental torture 
 through which he suffered was not suspected at the time, nor 
 will some of the inside history of the matter ever be dis- 
 closed because it is nobody's business. Be that as it may, 
 Tanner took a great interest in everything connected with the 
 winter training operations at Thomasville and he had, with 
 his keen eye, discovered that Andrews had a tough problem 
 not only but that he had evidently made up his mind that he 
 would solve it or die in the attempt. 
 
 One day, it was about the middle of March, Tanner took 
 "Billy" to one side, led him to a secluded spot back of the 
 barn where no other ears could catch a word and said to 
 him : 
 
 "Don't take these fellows' money for training a thing 
 like that; he is nothing but a piece of meat; put a halter on 
 him, hand it to the first black man that comes along and tell 
 him to lead him as far away as he can go and keep him." 
 
 History does not record what Andrews said in reply but 
 it does bear in plain words the fact that inside of a very 
 few days the "piece of meat" set his head and went to trot- 
 ting and it further records that what he finally did was far 
 more and far greater than any other stallion ever did. 
 
 He took a record of 2:08 in his first race, which was 
 as a three-year-old, and he never needed any racing educa- 
 tion. But, great doer and hearty feeder as he was, he had 
 some periods of ailing that, while never particularly ser- 
 ious, did cause a heap of anxiety and sometimes required 
 patient treatment. One of the anxious hours was at North 
 Randall when he warmed up for the first race of his four- 
 year-old career and suddenly went lame behind, unable to 
 put one hind foot to the ground. Mr. Andrews tried to draw 
 him and went to the judges — for the race had been called — 
 and made his request. Under the rules he was required to 
 
TWO-MINUTE HORSE TRADE 
 
 219 
 
 bring the trotter out for inspection, and was asked to take 
 liim up the stretch a short distance, turn him and jog to the 
 wire. He did as directed and the second time he turned 
 him the lameness disappeared, the colt started and won, trot- 
 ting to a record of 2:0514 and did not take another lame step. 
 
 That was not to be the end of his troubles. The next 
 morning a flabby swelling appeared on the inside of his 
 right fore leg extending across the right side of his breast 
 and down to the knees. That was a new one on all concerned 
 but finally it was decided to try to steam it out and that plan 
 worked all right. It was a new experience for Lee but it 
 is recorded that from the very first he never as much as 
 moved a foot and would stand for hours taking the treatment. 
 
 He was a veritable hog for feed. He would go at his 
 oats so ravenously that they would be thrown out of the feed 
 box into the bedding all around him. But he did not allow 
 them to go to waste. After he had cleared the feed box he 
 would put in the rest of the time, if nothing else was asked 
 of him, rooting around in the bedding until he found and 
 ate the very last of the spilled oats. 
 
 There are innumerable stories about him and some of 
 them in addition to the above will be found in the chapter 
 in this volume dealing with his training but to those who 
 owned him and who knew him best, the most marvelous 
 thing about him was that he was a perfect racing tool from 
 the very beginning and that was best exemplified in his win- 
 ning race for the M. and M. Purse at Detroit. He took the 
 lead at the word in the first heat and kept it. In the second 
 heat he got the word with enough horses ahead of him to 
 compel him to race in the bunch and there he stayed until 
 well into the stretch when he was pulled out and won at the 
 wire from Peter Scott. The third heat Peter McCormick went 
 away in the lead and Lee contentedly trailed him until time to 
 set sail for the money and won heat and race. 
 
 There might })e written some interesting Lee Axworthy- 
 "Billy" Andrews stories about that big event in the lives of 
 l^oth but perhaps it will be just as well to say that after the 
 first heat ''Billy" was quite downcast though he had won the 
 round for he declared that the clip in the stretch had made 
 
220 THE WORLD S CHAMPION 
 
 his horse try to go to a pace. But after the second heat in 
 2:04'%^ he was smiles all over and from that day never lost 
 faith in his great pupil. 
 
 In closing, the sad chapter written by fate in the lives of 
 this great man and horse at the New York State Fair may 
 be briefly mentioned. The day was one of sizzling heat and 
 Lee had an attack similar to blind staggers after winning the 
 first heat in 2:05^. Mr. Andrews tried to draw him but 
 failed to get the consent of the judges and it was with 
 extreme difficulty that the horse was brought on the track for 
 the second heat. But when he got out where the business in 
 hand was to be looked after he pointed his ears, scored up 
 like the real trotter he was and won the second heat. And 
 then his driver said: "No matter what happens to me I'm 
 going to let this little horse go where wants to go in this third 
 heat; I do not intend to drive him a step nor speak to him." 
 He kept his word and in spite of that was beaten but a short 
 neck. The loss of the heat made no material diff^erence for 
 it was a three-heat event and had been won in the first two 
 heats. 
 
 Lee Axworthy recovered from the experiences of that 
 day but Mr. Andrews did not and they practically ended 
 his career as one of the greatest trainers ever identified with 
 the light-harness horse. 
 
 Prince Loree, as already stated, passed to the hands of 
 Mike McDevitt and he, too, became a world's champion with 
 a trotting race record of 2:0314 ^i^d a pacing record of 
 2:00, making him the world's double-gaited champion. 
 
5ter Family Library of Veterinary MedicinQ 
 nings School of Veterinary Medicine at 
 
 Universitv 
 
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