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Doctor Cooper Has Gone Long Way in Years Time Won as Outsider Last Summer And Now Regarded as Top Pacer It was just about one year ago that Doctor Cooper, an eight-year-old pacer won a race at Sportsmans Park, and returned a 41.40 mutuel. Obviously at the time he was not considered very highly in the opinion of the harness fans. However, when he goes to the post now. he is invariably the favorite on the "tote" board. j Owned by Raleigh and Tom Pollard of Carmi, HI., Doctor Cooper has developed into a stake race horse overnight. In fact, his development was a surprise to the Pollards as well, who were thinking of selling their horse. Tom, who is studying medicine at the University of Illinois, and his dad who is getting along in years, figured it was too much trouble keeping one horse and travel- I ing to the pari-mutuel race tracks. Another point was that Doctor Cooper was a bad actor at the starting gate and it looked for a time that he would be placed on the Stewards list and barred from racing. It almost happened, but Pollard, Sr., told the stewards "if anyone should be barred it should be me." claiming it was his fault that Doctor Cooper was unfit and improperly trained for the races. So, the for sale sign went up. But no one else thought any more about Doctor Cooper. Then on the night of July 2. 1951, it happened. Here he comes in winning the race in 2:10 for the mile, and defeating a good field of pacers. His margin over the second horse on that occasion was 10 wide lengths. A few races later Doctor Cooper after losing two starts came back to win another race. His owners and handlers kept moving Doctor Cooper up in class and tougher company, and even so the eight-year gelding kept holding his own against topnotch company at both Sportsmans Park and Maywood Park. Being in the money most of the time. Doctor Cooper won 10 races and had an earning account of almost 5,000, in 1951. This spring the Pollards have staked their star performer in most of the more lucrative stake race in the mid-west. Doctor Cooper is expected to be one of the early favorites to win the 5,000 Pacing Derby on Friday night, August 9. Recently, Doctor Cooper tied the May-wood Park track record at 2:03%, a record that stood since 1948, when the immortal Jimmy Creed set it. More surprising it knocked off five seconds of Doctor Coopers own record for the distance. He has been beaten in 2:06 by a scant nose margin, but never had won a race before in better than 2:08. In setting the Maywood Park record this year, he defeated H. D. Hanover, rated as one of the best three -year-olds last year. The Sportsmans Park meeting will be a 42-night affair and opens next Monday night, June 23. There will be nine races nightly, with at least two stake races on each program.
