view raw text
THE STORY OF THE SPRINTER XIX. j j By SALVATOB. , : i ; : . : ; i i In the last chapter of this story now drawing toward the close the milestones were set forth and enumerated which mark the course of the introduction of sprint racing on the modern American turf by the word "modern" being implied the turf as it was reorganized after the Civil War, the old ante-bellum methods discarded and new ones, pointing the way toward the conditions of today, adopted in their place. The last of these mileposts to which attention was called, was the first dash race ever given for horses of all ages at a distance of less than one mile, over a track in the metropolitan terrain of New York. This was one at six furlongs, given at Jerome Park, October 11, 1870. Up to that date, however, while short dashes had been gradually featured at tracks in various, parts of the country, they were almost without exception minor affairs for small purses what one might term "fillers" or "chasers," given in a tentative way for experimental purposes. There had been one attempt made to give a stake race for sprinters as early as 1866 at a New Jersey track, but it was a failure. Only one horse came out for it and walked over and no effort was made to renew the event by the association. So far as research in the old racing calendars enables the historian to discover, it remained for California to give what may be called the first really worthwhile event for sprinters in a monetary sense. On August 7, 1872, at a one-day meeting of the Sacramento Jockey Club, at the Union Park course, a purse of ,000, divided 50, 25, 15 and 10 per cent to the first four horses, was given for all ages; distance, half-mile heats. There were eight starters and the winner was John Tyrees Stonewall Jackson, the time :48, :49. This was an American record for half-mile heats at that date. The breeding of the winner is not given, but he was probably the Arkansas-bred son of Memnon and a mare, by Wagner, to be found in the American Stud Book, Vol. II., his full pedigree being unknown. It took the new leaven a long time to work, so far as "going all the way" was concerned among the leaders of the turf in the East, and the seasons passed with sprinting events gradually increasing upon their racing programs, but no stake event of the kind, until at last the ice was broken at Saratoga in the year 1879. It will be recalled that this story has previously shown that Saratoga gave her first purse event for horses of all ages at a sprinting distance six furlongs as far back as 1866. But the resistance of the "old guard" and the prestige of the stayer remained so great that it was not until thirteen years had passed that Saratoga felt the time was ripe to set another precedent to wit: give the first stake race for sprinters ever established at a New York meeting. This historic event was the Congress Hall Stakes, the feature of the fifth regular day of the second summer meeting Aug. 14, 1879. As its name implies, it also was not a race given unconditionally by the club, like the Saratoga Cup, Travers Stakes, etc., but was sponsored by the famous hostelry the Congress Hall Hotel. The foundation of the fame of Saratoga Springs was laid by Gideon Putnam, a canny real estate speculator and promoter who located at the Spa in 1789. He grasped the value of the springs, whose virtues had first been made known to the white man by the Indians, but never up to that time fully appreciated. Putnam set about systematic booming of them and of the place as a summer and health resort, and in 1802 built the original Grand Union Hotel on the site where the present celebrated house of that name stands. As is well known, the present Grand Union Hotel Stakes, founded in 1901 and one of the most important two-year-old events on the Saratoga program, carries its title. In 1811, as things were coming his way in grand style, Putnam, who claimed to be a relative of the renowned Revolutionary hero, Gen. Israel Putnam, began the construction of a second immense, rambling frame caravanserai, which he called Congress Hall, in honor of Congress Spring, which was the leading one of the place. The next year, 1812, while Congress Hall was in process of erection, he fell from a scaffolding on the building and died from the effects of the fall. The hotel was not completed until 1815, and was for many years the show place of Saratoga, being repeatedly remodeled and enlarged. In 1866 it took fire and burned to the ground, but was rebuilt on a grander scale than ever in 1868, throwing its rivals, the Grand Union and the Clarendon, into the shade by the luxury of its appointments, which today would seem primitive, but back in the 1860s were the last word in gorgeousness. In 1879, when the Saratoga Association decided that sprinting had at last arrived at that stage of dignity where it justified a stake event, they were still unwilling to take the full responsibility for the departure it involved. At that time the head of the organization was J. M. Marvin, and Charles Wheatly was the secretary. The Board of Stewards, however, will give a better idea of the tone of the meetings in that era. It consisted of John Hunter of New York, one of the pillars of the metropolitan turf; E. A. Clabaugh of Maryland, who with Gov. Oden Bowie stood at the head of the turf in his state; T. W. Doswell of Virginia, whose position in the Old Dominion was similar; James A. Grinstead of Lexington, whose Walnut Hill Stud was then one of the largest in Kentucky, and A. Cammack of New York, a member of the noted Long Island family of that name. These eminent gentlemen were willing to stage a stake for the sprinters at The Spa, the call for one having become quite urgent; but they preferred to let somebody else get behind it and relieve them of the onus, should there be any. The proprietors of Congress Hall proved to be the parties, as they agreed considering it no doubt an ex-- cellent advertisement of their business to endow the event with 00 added money, in return for which it was to bear the name of the hotel. But in still another way, the management hung back from an entire surrender; and the new departure was made a heat, and not a dash, race, at the distance of six furlongs. Here are the conditions laid down for it: CONGRESS HALL STAKES, for all ages; at 5 each, play or pay, with 00 added by the proprietors of Congress Hall; the second to receive 50 and the third 0 out of the stakes; horses not having won in 1879 a race of the value of ,000 allowed 5 lbs.; those not having won any race in 1879 allowed 10 lbs.; heats of three-quarters of a mile; time between heats, 20 minutes. And here is the official result of the event, as recorded in "Kriks Guide to the Turf," the first pocket-form publication for racegoers ever published in this country, then the authority in its field: Dwyer Bros. b. c, Bramble, 4, by imp. Bonnie Scotland, 118 lbs., J. McLaughlin 1 1 O. Bowies ch. g, Skylark, 3, 100 lbs., Evans 3 2 Nelson and Co.s b. f, Lady Middleton, 4, 108 lbs., Feakes 2 3 Time 1:19, 1:18. First heat Pools: Bramble 00, Lady Middleton 75, Skylark 0. Won by six lengths. Second heat Pools: Bramble 00, field 50. Won by six lengths. Each start bad for Lady Middleton. From the above summary it will be seen that the race was just a romp for Bramble. He was the first great stake winner ever raced by the Dwyer Brothers, and that season won no less than fifteen out of twenty races, being second in two of the other five, the great feature of his campaign the most remarkable ever made up to that time by an American stake horse being his victories in no less than five of the principal cup races, then the leading all-aged events of our racing calendar. These were the Baltimore, Westchester, Monmouth, Saratoga and Brighton Cups, each and every one of which was at two miles and a quarter! The feat was never duplicated by another American thoroughbred. Yet this extraordinary "cup horse" and by "cup horse" turfmen have for over a century past meant a real stayer won the first real stake race for sprinters ever given in this country! There had been a very satisfactory entry for the Congress Hall Stakes, thirty-two being received. Only three went to the post, but there were reasons for this. One of the candidates for it was Lady Middleton, which filly but a short time before having startled the turf world by first running a dead heat with the great gelding Checkmate at Saratoga, oyer six furlongs, in 1:17, and then beating him in the run-off in 1:15 1-4,! which was a new American record for the distance, if we except the 1:15 flat that had been made three seasons before by First Chance over a trotting track at Philadelphia. In this and other races Lady Middleton, an Ohio-bred filly by imp. Hurrah, had shown so much "foot" that, as she was especially prepared for the Congress Hall Stakes, she scared out many of the other aspirants. But Bramble was just as much feared. While he had already won three of his five cup races that season, he had also shown himself a colt with a terrific turn of speed, having repeatedly won as a two- and three-year-old at short distances. When it came to the race, Lady Middleton behaved very badly at the post and ran far below the form expected, while Bramble in each heat romped lengths ahead. It has already been seen that the introductory sprint races in the 60s were largely monopolized by the get of imp. Eclipse, and that from Eclipse came our Domino line of today the most remarkable family of short-distance, pure speed sprinters ever seen in America. It is, therefore, not less than remarkable to find that this historic first stake for sprinters ever given in the United States which produced a real race, was won by the horse that later on became the progenitor of our other great present-day native dynasty that of Ben Brush, son of Bramble. The members of this line have been, as a rule, able to go a bit farther than those of Domino, and their pure speed has never been quite so great; but it has been second only to the Domino strain as a sprinting line, and the two, between them, have been largely responsible for the present prevalence of sprinting on American courses.
