34 



The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



programmer and E. E. Cogswell starting 

 judge of the matinee racing, Messrs. Jewell 

 and Cogswell being named as the matching 

 committee. It was voted to hold ribbon mati r 

 nees on Wednesdays and Saturdays, begin- 

 ning with ( (ctober 29, and ending Thanksgiv- 

 ing Day, November 24, with nine silver cups 

 to be offered for the holiday events. 



In the meantime, informal matinees had 

 been held on the speedway on October 15 and 

 22, the racing comprising of impromptu brush- 

 ing between the owners of the horses, without 

 any time being taken. So many of the mem- 

 bers came out on these occasions that at the 

 meeting of the club at Young's Hotel on Oc- 

 tober 25, a message was read from Thomas G. 

 Plant and his associates, who were owners of 

 the clubhouse and stables at the speedway, 

 that, to further encourage the new club, the 

 use of the clubhouse would be given the mem- 

 bers of the Metropolitan Club on race days, 

 beginning with the matinee of November 2.' 



Thus it was that the initial blue ribbon mati- 

 nee of the Metropolitan Driving Club was 

 held on October 29, 1904. Superintendent 

 John S. Oilman not only had the speedway in 

 excellent condition, but through his efforts a 

 telephone connection had been made from the 

 starter's post to the judge's, at the half-mile 

 pole, to be used in timing the heats. Some 

 very close racing was the feature that daw 

 The winners of the races were Miss Monroe 

 (Goodspeed) in 1:12; Scotia (W. T- Fur- 

 bush) in 1:14; Susie K. (Belledeu) in 1:11; 

 Special Roy ( \\". J. Furbush) in 1:061-4;' 

 Axtello (Harrison) in 1:05; and Tohn Shep- 

 ard drove his pole team. Altro L."and Prom- 

 ise, in 1:08 1-2. At the conclusion of the 

 races, Mr. Shepard announced to the press 

 representatives and the members present that 

 he was open to meet any pole team in New 

 England with his pair of trotters, for fun and 

 glory. 



So great was the rivalry among the mem- 

 bers to possess one of the nine silver cups on 

 Thanksgiving Day that more than fifty horses 

 were entered, and forty-five took the word, 

 there being from four to seven starters in 

 each class. Rain falling after three events had 

 been decided, the remainder of the card was 

 raced the following Saturday, with the fol- 

 lowing cup winners: 



T. J. Donnolly's My Chance (Crowley) in 1 :o; 1-4. 

 T. J. Donnolly's Madeline Electrite (Crowley) in 



1 :oo 1 -2. 



W. J. Furbush's Montana Maid (Furbush) in 107 

 W. J. Furbush's Scotia (Furbush) in 1:081-2 

 Thomas T. Murray's Pat L. (Crowley) in 1 :os 

 M. C. Harrison's Axtello (Harrison) in 1 033-4 

 C. G. Peck's Nigira (Peck) in 1:13. 



T. D. Blake's Pensive Maid (Parker) in 1 :o6. 



W. J. Furbush's Phoebon W. (Furbush) in 1:041-2. 



The fast trot, won by Axtello, was a thrill- 

 ing four-heat race, John Shepard's Altro L., 

 C. H. Belledeu up, winning the opening heat 

 in 1 :o4. Then Walter Farmer captured the 

 second heat with Fashion in 1 :o5. In these 

 heats A. W. Turner's Max G., M. A. Nevens 

 up, was barely beaten at the wire. Axtello 

 then won the next two heats, and by taking 

 the third in 1 :o3 3-4 placed a new speedway 

 record for trotters. A new speedway record 

 for pacers was, also, set by Phoebon W, cov- 

 ering the half-mile in 1 :04 1-2. 



The directors immediately announced an- 

 other series of matinees, to close Christmas 

 Day, with four silver cups for prizes. These 

 were a champion cup for the trotter winning 

 the fastest race, and a point cup for the trot- 

 ter winning the most points in the series. Two 

 cups were offered the pacers under the same 

 conditions as the trotters. 



In spite of the cold weather, and racing 

 over frozen ground, wonderful interest was 

 manifested by the members of the club; in 

 fact, on December 7, with a couple of inches 

 of snow. Superintendent Gilman ran his 

 scrapers over the course, permitting seven 

 well-filled classes to be decided, on very good 

 footing. 



It was on this date, also, that the members 

 of the club received a severe jolt upon arriv- 

 ing at the speedway, that came near disor- 

 ganizing the club. They found that the club- 

 house and stables had been closed to them, as 

 per order from the owners of the property, 

 and though it was a particularly blustering 

 afternoon the members and spectators were 

 obliged to witness the sport from the side- 

 walks, while the horses had no shelter between 

 heats, excepting what blankets the grooms 

 happened to have in covering them. A move- 

 ment was started by the directors of the Met- 

 ropolitan Club to erect a clubhouse and stables 

 of their own, and securing the land adjoining 

 the other clubhouse upon which to build their 

 new home. Events which developed immedi- 

 ately made this action unnecessary, thanks to 

 Walter B. Farmer. 



The first sleighing of 1904 was held on De- 

 cember 14, and the next Saturday was the 

 initial snow matinee of the club, with eleven 

 classes and twenty-seven starters. With the 

 beginning of the sleighing season, the Select- 

 men of Brookline issued a notice forbidding 

 racing to sleigh over the Beacon Street boule- 

 vard, which for years had been the sleighing 

 ground for the horsemen of Boston. This so 

 stirred up a lot of road drivers, who in the 

 order thought they saw a movement to com- 



