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REFLECTIONS By Nelson Dunstan Cartoonist Tells Dan Patch Fairy Tale Pacer Earned More Money Than Stymie Sure in Exhibitions and Selling Feed Phil Stongs Summary of Dan Patch, Pacer NEW YORK, N. Y., June 29. Over the week-end, our attention was directed to Ken Klings cartoon strip, "Jos and Asbestos," in the New York Mirror, and there ws found our name staring at us. A few days earlier, we . had taken exception to Kens statement that the pacer, Dan Patch, had earned more money than Stymie. In rebuttal, Ken had this to say, "Turf writer Nelson Dunstan scoffs at our craok here last week that a pacer, Dan Patch, earned more than Stymie. For more proof, we refer him to the March, 1947, edition of Readers Digest condensed from Esquire, which says, In the early 1900s, a crooked-legged harness horse grossed an estimated ,000,000 for his owners in seven years of exhibition race3, plus another ,000,000 or so in indirect returns. Ken adds a noia in which he says, "Owner was paid a percentage of the gate receipts, instead of a flat purse, like boxers do today," then can I see him grinning from ear to ear he says, "Wo accept the apology, Mr, D." Keeping it all friendly, Kling makes two glaring mistakes. First, he offers as proof something that someone said In the Readers Digest. To us, that is more bunk w than proof; secondly, Kling says, "He Dan Patch grossed an estimated ,000,080 In seven years of exhibition races." Certainly, Ken knows that there is no such thin? as an "exhibition race." There are only two kinds of races for horses one is when two or more meet in x. speed contest, or when one horse takes the track and endeavors to beat a time record. Dan Patchs efforts were purely exhibiticns in which he ran around the track so the people could get a glimpse of him, just as they got a-glimpse of Greyhound as he trotted up and down the track at Goshen on Hambletonian Day last year. If Klines arguments could be used, a man could step in the ring and shadow box. for 10 rounds and then claim to be the worlds champion. The truth of the matter is, no one knows with accuracy how much Dan Patch earned as a pacer, how much he earned in exhibitions, or how much his owner earned by selling feed on the days when he was giving the exhibition. If Kling, or the person who wrote the article in Readers Digest, can show where Dan Patch came within a shadow of Stymie in contests of speed, we will be glad to give to each of them a box of fine cigars or take a box from them. But none of that "exhibition" sJuff. We really wonder if Kling knows the true story of Dan Patch. If he did, Ls would know that the ,000,000 he was supposed to have earned, as he says by "indirect returns" was actually earned by his owner, M. W. Savage, the proprietor of a stock food company. There was a great trotter called Goldsmith Maid, and she cleaned up 25,000 in dimes and quarters. While we agree that Dan Patch was undoubtedly the greatest pacer ever developed in lhi3 country, we do not think he earned as much a3 Goldsmith Maid did in her career. We have no idea who the authority was that wrote in Readers Digest, but we can "quote a half dozen whose names are known to everyone in the racing world. We will take just a few excerpts from Phil Stongs "Horse3 and Americans." Stong says, "Dan Patch was a curious horse in many ways. He was a Bob Fitzsimmons of horses, for hi3 legs were too long and his knees were knobby and not beautiful. Dan Patch was merely a nervous system on four legs. JEa wa3 a lolling, genial creature about the house, but when he was brought up to the starting line, his big ears stuck up and forward, and his eyes became thoughtful." Still quoting Stong, "In 1903, Mr. M. W. Savage, th proprietor of a stock feed company, bought Dan Patch from M. E. Sturgis of New York for 0,000. For the next six years, Dan Patch made history, records and sales for tho feed company. His three records which still stand are all freaks paced against time, with windbreak or run to obsolete vehicles. Dan Patch engaged in a few contests. If hs ever had a notable rival, the name is lost. The astute Sir. Savage did not run him often in races, but chiefly in exhibition trials get that, Ken in exhibition trials and not, as you call them, exhibition races . If Dan Patch lost, he lost to himself since he had made most of the pacing records since 1903. By every means that advertising can employ, the horse was set up as the greatest of ail time, and the theory was accepted by the public. Mr. Savaga ran him for no fee only the excess admissions of a fair over what that fair had grossed on the corresponding day of a previous year without Dan Patch. Thia free exhibition brought Mr. Savage 1,500 in one day at the fair held in Minneapolis. No one knows what it sold in" stock food. The people paid for the sight of a horss." There you are, Ken, my bully boy. For anyone to say that jhorsa earned more than Stymie could be true in one sense, but it takes a peculiar type of mind to compare seriously the eaminga of a horse hi exhibitions and the" selling of stock feed against a thoroughbred who has gone on, race after race, giving weight to Ms opponents and then coming through to earn 83,383. What we really got a laugh from, Ken, was your saying that you accept-our apology, thus giving the impression that you had spanked us down on cockeyed "proof" you happened to read in the magazine. It might be the nice thing next Sunday if you apologised to your readers and also to Stymie, and, we might add, Mr. and Mrs. Hirsch Jacobs. But, if youre still of the same mind. Ken, just get ready with that box of cigars and Ill come up with some letters from people who know far more about trotters and pacers than I do.
