170 CANADIAN TUEF RECOLLECTIONS 



A EEPEESENTATIVE EAILWAY CONTRACTOR 

 AND TURFMAN. 



Back in the '70 's Mr. John Shedden, head of the great 

 railway contracting firm of Shedden & Co., was one of 

 the representative turfmen of Ontario, and his farm at 

 Davenport, a few miles northwest of Toronto, was a 

 pleasant resort which his friends often visited. 



He owned the thoroughbred stallion Thunder, by Lex- 

 ington, a gray horse of great speed and endurance which, 

 after a most successful racing career in the United States 

 in which he defeated many of the best horses in training, 

 running long distances and winning many long drawn out 

 heat races, was brought to this country by the late Henry 

 Hogan, of Montreal, from whom Mr. Shedden purchased 

 him. He also imported Castaway, Sweetbread, Poetess, 

 Fidget, and other mares. Just when he had decided to 

 extend his operations as an owner, his untimely death 

 ended all. He was President of the Toronto and Nipis- 

 sing Railway, and was killed on the return journey of the 

 first passenger train that inaugurated the opening of that 

 road. He was one of the most popular men of his day, 

 and at his residence on the comer of Spadina avenue and 

 King street, he dispensed a hospitality unsurpassed by 

 any other citizen. 



His nephew, Mr. Hugh Paton, of Montreal, whose por- 

 trait appears in this book, is quite as strong a lover of 

 the horse as was his popular uncle. In the early '80 's 

 he won three Queen's Plates for the Province of Quebec, 

 and many other events both on the turf and field, includ- 

 ing the Montreal Hunt Cup in 1889. He is a Director of 

 the Montreal Jockey Club, and it is the presence of such 

 men as he on the Board of Management that has so 

 speedily elevated the Club in popular favor and ensured 

 for it a gratifying success. Personally, he is one of the 

 most genial citizens of the commercial metropolis, and 

 both in his city and at his country residence is as popular 

 a host as was his uncle thirty years ago. 



