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_ , _ 1 — — . ■HMy Mbbb bV * - -I W| |HjHiF% J« ► +• — — — + ONE OF AMERICAS BEST KNOWN RACING OFFICIALS *U . ■ .«. . STARTER A. B. DADE. -, - A. R. DADE, the snbject of this sketch, is re-garded by many kimkI judges as Americas premier ra-ing starter and is ainoug the best known of Aincriean racing officials. He is a Keutuck-ian. his home In-ing at Henderson, the county seat of the county of the same name, contiguous to Indiana in the vicinity of Fvausville. Mr. Hade is spending the present winter at home for the first time in many years. It is his first respite from practically continuous service in a long time. The coming spring will find him in the harness again, with a string of engagements to till, beginning with the Jamestown meeting and i-oiitinuing at IMinlico and on the Canadian Baring Associations tracks, that will keep him busy until next winter. Mr. Dade obtained his first experience in the starting of rates on minor tracks in the south. His initial engagement on an important course was at St. Louis, in the days when racing nourished at the Fair Granada and Driaaar. He made gixMl from the lieginning and engagements at other important raring ceBtera followed, with the result that his services have since ticen in emit inuoiis demand on practically all the tracks of the south. Canada. Maryland and Virginia. During the past three or four years Mr. Hades work with the barrier has been well-nigh |K r-feet. In IMS he discarded the absolutely flat-footed Style of starting that he had previously employed and has since been obtaining wonderfully good results, with practically no delay in getting his fields away. It seldom happens that lie keeps the horses at the | ost for a longer period than two minutes and in most instances they ale sent away almost iininediatelv on reaching the barrier. His work has been warmly coni-mended on several occasions by turfmen from foreign lands, who unhesitatingly pronounced it as the best they had been privileged to witness anywhere, in the light of the general excol-lt nee of his starting, it is no wander that he has gained the good will and favor of the racing public wherever he has keen entrusted with the imnortiMit task of reading the horses away. As was recently pointed by a m W*|*lptl writer who paid a well-deserved tribute to starter Dade and his methods, the absence of horses "left at the post" is one thing that lias greatly endeared him lo the devotees of racing. No matter what Cm- weather, he never hurries his work. It may well he remarked that to be successful as a starter, a man must have a wonderful stock of patience, in addition to a quick eye and the ability to grasp a situation instantly. Few men combine these qualifications. Mr. Dades patience is little short of marvelous and he controls the Jockey* without inflicting the severe penalties which some oilier starters rind absolutely necessary in order to maintain discipline. No borae is too bad an actor for him to handle with good results ami his tactics in getting down from hi* stand and personally taking charge of a fractious animal have frequently coped success-fullv wilh a situation that appeared well-nigh hopeless.. He makes it a practice to study the jiecul-iarities of every borae with which he has to deal and this doubtless has much to do with the success that In- aaa achieved. Personally. Mr. Bade is affable in disposition, a gentleman in all that the word implies and is universally esteemed by his a-sociatcs and the racing folk with whom he conies into contact. .j, r
