The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston 



171 



L. G. Tewksbury, of New York, who used 



him for road driving. Thence he passed 

 through many hands, East and West, and was 

 last heard of in South Dakota. 



Robert J., the next pacing champion, was a 

 bay gelding, foaled 1888. 1894 was the "ban- 

 ner year" lor Robert. He made sixteen 

 starts, in but one of which he was not credited 

 with races or heats won. He encountered the 

 very flower of the pacing division and came off 

 with flying colors. He beat stout Joe Patchen 

 at Chicago, setting the record for three pacing 

 heats. At Fort Wayne he vanquished Mascot 

 and Flying Jib, marking himself down to 

 2:033-4, and at Indianapolis again beat Joe 

 Patchen, 2:021-2 being his record when the 

 smoke blew over. His other winnings were over 

 Joe and John R. Gentry, and at Terre Haute, 

 against time, he earned the championship rec- 

 ord of 2:01 1-2. During the best part of his 

 career he was owned at Village Farm, East 

 Aurora, N. Y., and driven by Ed. Geers. He 

 then passed to L. G. Tewksbury, who toured 

 him in exhibitions with John R. Gentry and 

 drove him on the New York speedway. Fi- 

 nally he was repurchased by the Hamlins and 

 retired at Village Farm, ostensibly to end his 

 days in peace, but not long after the death of 

 the elder Hamlin, in 1905, the turf world was 

 shocked to learn that an employee of the farm, 

 tiring of caring for him, had deliberately 

 killed him in a most brutal way. Thus died 

 one of the greatest and gamest pacers that ever 

 lived. 



It was now destined that a stallion should 

 for the first time hold the championship pac- 

 ing record. This was John R. Gentry, "the 

 little red horse," who was foaled in 1889. He 

 raced from 1892 to 1900. In 1894 he closed 

 with a record of 2:03 3-4, having been sold in 

 the Summer for $10,000 to Holt & Scott, of 

 Graham, N. C. In 1895 began his series of 

 duels with Joe Patchen, in which the two 

 proved so evenly matched. At Dubuque that 

 year he equaled his record of 2 :o3 3-4 in a 

 third heat. In the early spring of 1896 he was 

 sold at public sale to William Simpson, for 

 $7,600. He was started eleven times that 

 year, with varying success. Late in September 

 he was at Rigly Park, Portland, Me., where he 

 started against Robert J.'s 2:01 1-2, and paced 

 in 2 :oo 1-2. John R. Gentry afterward be- 

 came the property of the late E. H. Harri- 

 man, Goshen, N. Y. 



Heretofore the majority of the pacing 

 champions were mainly trotting bred, but a 

 year after John R. Gentry had made his rec- 

 ord, the crown passed once more to a member 

 of the Hal family, a pacing strain that has 

 stuck to that gait with remarkable tenacity. 



This was Star Pointer, a bay horse, foaled 

 [889, who first saw the light in Tennessee. He 

 was sold as a yearling to J. W. Titley, a Penn- 

 sylvania breeder, who started him as a two- 

 year-old and gave him a record of 2:341-4. 

 lie next appeared in his five-year-old form as 

 a member of the Geers stable, and from 189410 

 1899 was among the turf stars of the first mag- 

 nitude. At the close of the campaign of 1896, 

 previous to which he was purchased by Ed. 

 Mills, of Boston, and passed into Dave Mc- 

 Clary's hands, he was credited with 2:02 1-4, 

 which was the time of the first heat of a win- 

 ning race at Mystic Park, where he beat 

 Frank Agan and Robert J. His ever-mem- 

 orable year on the turf was 1897, when he- 

 started sixteen times, the majority matches, or 

 against time. After a few victories early in 

 the season he started in August at Readville 

 to beat the record of John R. Gentry, and pui 

 the high mark at 1 :59 1-4. This, the first 

 crossing of the 2 :oo line by a harness horse, 

 made a tremendous sensation, as was natural, 

 and the time of the quarters shows how splen- 

 didly he was rated: the first in 30s., the sec- 

 ond in 29 3-4S., the third in 29 1-4S., and the 

 fourth in 30 1-4S. Nearly all the other starts 

 of this king among horses were against time. 

 In 1898, he equaled his record, at Columbus, 

 and paced in 2:01 1-2 at Detroit. Three miles 

 in 2:00 and better in one season was a great 

 feat. His only two starts in 1899 were at Hart- 

 ford, where he paced in 2 :oo, and at New 

 York, where he was beaten in the free-for-all 

 stallion race by Joe Patchen and John R. Gen- 

 try and retired from the contest permanently 

 broken down. After a few seasons in Ohio, 

 Star Pointer was taken to California, making 

 several seasons there, and was then taken back 

 to his old home in Tennessee. 



Foaled 1896, the brown stallion Dan Patch, 

 1 :55 1-4, from the day he started in 1900 to 

 the close of his racing career in 1902, never 

 suffered defeat in a contested race. He paced 

 fifty-seven heats in the three years against 

 other horses, and lost but two. This record was 

 paralleled by but two other world's cham- 

 pions, Maud S. and Nancy Hanks, the trot- 

 ters. The first mile paced by Dan Patch that 

 was better than 2 :oo was at Providence, Aug. 

 29, 1902, when he stepped in 1 :59 1-2 to beat 

 2:00 1-4. All his subsequent starts were against 

 time. His first heat in 1903 was a half in 

 57 3-4 seconds at Columbus. His next was a 

 mile in 1 :59 behind a runner, at Brooklyn. 

 Again at Columbus he equaled his record. At 

 Lexington he started to beat 2 :oi 1-2 to 

 wagon and paced in 1 :5a. 1-4. At Macon, Ga., 

 he paced two miles in 4:17, to beat 4:19. At 

 Memphis he made his record mile for that year 



