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STARTER DADE BACK TO OLD SCENES Will Send Horsos Away at St. Louis Whore He Got His First Chance as Starter. Alexander Barrett Dade, considered one of the greatest starters that ever shot a barrier up in front of a row of prancing, eager thoroughbreds, has been secured to send off the contestants in the various races at the Maxwelton race meeting, August 29 to September 8. Although a native of old "Virginia and at present a resident of Henderson, Ky., Dade is in reality a St. Louis product, as it was at the old Sportsmans Park track that he got his first chance as a race horse starter. Dade came to St. Louis in the spring of 1S92 with a small stable of horses that he raced with more or less success at the Sportsmens Park track, which was conducted by the late Chris Von der Abe. When one or two of his horses died from accidents, Dade decided to abandon his stable. At that time the Sportsmens Park track needed a starter, and Dade was given a chance to fill the job. He was a success, but did riot continue" with the track long. Later he did some .starting at the old East Side track, which was south of East St. Louis. Later, Dade accepted a position with a leading wholesale dry goods firm, and. apparently abandoned the race horse sport for good, when in 1897, Joseph Murphy, who at that time was steward at the Fair Grounds track, offered Dade the position of patrol judge. Dade accepted. Took Brucns Place in 1902. In the spring of 1902, when Cella, Adler and Tilles took over the Fair Grounds, J. Bruen, the official starter, resigned, and Dade was called upon to fill his shoes. Ever since Dade has been sending the bobtails around the track from one end of the country to the other. That Dado has been successful as a starter is apparent from his long record, and the fact he has officiated at all of the leading tracks of the United States and Canada. He is as familiar to the horse lover of Toronto and Montreal as he is at Slieepshead Bay and other metropolitan tracks in New York; in Kentucky, his home, or in St. Louis. Wherever race norses are ruu there A. B. Dade is known. As to his ability and fairness everyone agrees. The jockeys, who are the best judges of the ability of a starter, will tell you that Dade .is as strict as blue blazes, but that he is without an equal. Somehow he always seems to be able to get the boys away on an equal basis, and that is the thing most desired by the spectators, the riders and the owners. St. Louis Star.
