Pete Supposed to Have a Cinch but 

 Buck Dickerson Won the Race 



(By J. B.) 



T 



HE late John Hood, who had a wide 

 circle of close friends throughout 

 Xew England, was one of the first 

 members of the Dorchester Driv- 

 ing Club. Long before the days 

 of this club, however. Mr. Rood owned the 

 boss of the snowpath on River Street, the 

 speeding ground for residents of Hyde Park, 

 Milton. Dorchester, Ouincy, Atlantic, etc., in 

 the trotting gelding Bob. While without a 

 known record, yet Bob held all comers for sev- 

 eral Winters. Trotters with marks right at 

 2:20, and it was the day of the high wheel, 

 were brought to the snow course to take the 

 measure of Bob, but the efforts always proved 

 fruitless. 



Likely the most satisfaction Mr. Hood ever 

 had was with the pacing gelding Buck Dick- 

 erson, 2:25 1-2, a Grand Circuit star in the 

 eighties. He purchased him in the fall of 

 1889. That season on the snow, for some rea- 

 son, Buck was a huge failure, not being able 

 to make even a presentable display of speed. 



The following Spring so much talk was 

 made about Mr. Hood being gulled in buying 

 the pacer that finally it led to a match over the 

 Readville track, then a twice-around, known 

 as Norfolk Trotting Park, with a trotting 

 gelding named Pete, but afterward found out 

 to be Peter, 2:28. A Dr. Stuart dug up this 

 Pete, or Peter, and, letting a few in on the 

 secret, made the match with Mr. Hood for 

 S400 a side, play or pay. 



So great was the interest that on the day of 

 the race, September 2, a crowd of 2,000 paid 

 admission at the gate. Henry Nay, then lessee 

 of Readville, had leased the track for the oc- 

 casion, receiving $50, and the agreement was 

 that the track receipts went to the victor. Mr. 

 Nay, finding out who Pete was, wagered what 

 he received for the track on that gelding to 

 win. James Wilde, of Quincy, was starting 

 judge. Just before the first heat a pool of 

 S400 more was raised to back Peter and flung 

 at Mr. Hood. He was game, and came back, 

 and the $800 was placed in Mr. Wilde's hands. 

 Outside of this Mr. Hood had wagered $600 

 against some $750 a few days previous to the 

 race that was posted in divers hands. 



Tames O'Donnell, still a trainer at the Read- 



ville track, had the mount back of Peter, while 

 Edward Cogsweh came over from Mystic to 

 drive Buck Dickerson for Mr. Hood. Read- 

 ville track was very slow, being deep in sand, 

 causing the narrow steel-tired wheels of the 

 high-wheel sulky to sink in a couple of inches. 

 At the word Peter, at the pole, went away at 

 an awful clip under the adverse conditions, 

 getting to the quarter in 34 seconds. Around 

 the lower turn Buck began to close the gap, 

 and at the half, in 1 :io, was just on even 

 terms. Here Peter called enough, making so 

 bad a break that when Buck Dickerson jogged 

 under the wire in 2 :2y 1-2, Peter was some 200 

 yards in the rear. 



The distance judge, having wagered $25 on 

 Peter, refused to drop the flag. After a wran- 

 gle of half an hour the judges decided to let 

 him start again, but that one heat had taken 

 all that was in the gelding, Buck Dickerson 

 winning handily the second heat in the slow 

 time of 2 133. Dr. Stuart drove Peter the third! 

 heat, but was beaten away off in 2 :t,J. 



Mr. Hood never tired of relating about this 

 race and how he was expected to be on the 

 other side of the killing. It was well mapped 

 out, but Dr. Stuart and his friends failed to 

 consider what they were up against in the 

 Dickerson pacer. Later Buck Dickerson was 

 sold to A. J. Legg, of Dover, N. H., who 

 thought so much of the gelding that, at his 

 death, he left in his will he never be sold out 

 of the family. 



WAR COST $305,000 HORSE DEAL 



W. E. D. Stokes, the New York and Ken- 

 tucky horseman, lost a $305,000 trotting horse 

 deal by the war of 1914. George Speaks was 

 captured in London as a spy and retained at 

 Scotland Yard. He previously came to Amer- 

 ica, acting for the Austrian and Russian Gov- 

 ernments, and secured a contract for forty 

 services of Peter the Great, fifty of Peter 

 Donna and fifty of Peter Volo for $80,000. 



Austrian and Russian Governments had op- 

 tion for purchase of Peter the Great, 2:07 1-4; 

 Peter Donna, 2:08 1-4; and Peter Volo, a 

 three-year-old, with a record of 2 103 1-2, of 

 $225,000. making a total of $305,000. War 

 prevented carrying out the contract. 



