continued out use 0

iack Stretch

that day he stepped a mile In Mr. Sanders after this ex- hibition of speed asked me how I liked the colt and I told him I believed he would trot in 2.10 when balanced. He said the price. 31.50). uas too much so I said they are going home tomorrow and if you dmn buy him. I will before they leave. That settled it. He sent over a check to Mr. Parker and brought the colt right over to me. I jog- ged him for a few days. shod him and believe me. 1 was careful not to let him make a break.

"After about three weeks I gave him miles from 3.00 to 2.40. five heats twice a week. One day Mr. sanders phoned that there would be one more matinee and he would like me to start the coil. It was to be held the last of September and that gave me three more perks to get ready. I began to uni-k him along a bit stouter. the (asIf'SI mile in 2.19. Then one day viht-n there was nobody around I 51.-pped him a mile in 2.14 with the last quarter in 30 seconds. When race day came the horse that was to start against Uhlan was lame and the event cancelled. so 1 suggested that Mr. Sanders ask the starters to let him start in the taxi class with horses that could not in 2.12 to 2.15. He thoughtl has crazy. but he finally went to the judges and they were willing. lli won this heat in 2.16"'4 easily i...i II1t' othcr drivers said they would be-'-ll him the next. Thcy .('llI away fast down to the half in 105. Uhlan off by himself. and he (ion the heat by 3 hundred 1'rll'(IS in 2.1331. After the race I lnItI Mr. Sanders he had not seen tlilaii trot, that if he would let me hook him in sulky I would show him It mil? in 2.08.”

Hr. Proctor continued with Ull- Inn astounding everyone by the ,,...- with which he would trot a last mile over any kind of a ixiii-e around. Finally at Colum- Illix (lhio, he was offered a purse to heal 2.011 1'2 and he went in iliv half in 1.02 U4 and trot- tori the last half in a minute. He ruiild have beaten 2.00 easily that dax He was booked to do that ni Lexington that fall but Mr. i K. G. Billings bought him and he was placed in the hands of (tharles "Doc" Tanner. where his successes were so great that hr became the most noted horse in harness horse history up to thin time and his record - 1.58 - siniid for nine years.

iitiicr horses owned by Mr. Bil Imus that here trained by Doc T;iiiiier included the very flighty allli erratic trotter Lou Dillon. ihm was bred in California and look a record of 1.58 12. Major llcliiiar 1.59 3l4. William 1.58 U2. The Harvester. for whom he paid s.'il.ll00. The Monk 2.05 8i4, Charlie Mitchell 2.04 124 and many others. it was Uhlan that IEPIBCECI Lou ltiilnn as the trotting champion Willi his mile in 1.58 at Lexington in the fall of 1912. He was a magni- Ili't'lllt horse in action and not onlv held records to sulky but also in iiagon. His mile in 2.00 to that llpv of vehicle, driven by Mr. Billings at North Randall. Ohio. sllll stands as a record. In addi- lion in racing in the United States, just for the fun of it Mr. Billings innk his stable of irotters to Rus- sia and raced over the great speed- iiar in Si. Petersburg. where the uiir .-mil the nobility. who were I'PI'V tniiri of trotlers and had large breeding stables. admired Mr Billings' horses very much and presented numerous beauti- iul EIIIS for their exhibits of speed against the best Orlonf troiters Ihrn racing.

.1 P. Keough of Cape Traverse was it visitor to our office a few davs ago and received a warm gm-ting. He is a friend of long standing and one of the best iniihiirities on race horses in l'rint-e County. Mr. Keough has iieon all the top trotter: and pac- ers of the long ago and was a giviit friend of the late Jack Irv- mg. whose exploits as trainer and roiiisman will be long remember- ed (lite of Mr. Keough's particular isiini-ates was the pacer Colonel AllI)rP)' 2.10 U4. that but for an iirrident would have taken a retard close to 2.00. When Colonel Ailllrvy was about twenty years old he passed into Mr. Keoughls hands and we enjoyed hearing Illm tell about some brushes that he gave him which electrified 0' "lmnany he had in im sleigh. The day that Colonel Aubrey took his rocrird was a very cold one in Oi-inlipr with a 25-mile an hour Kali-. hlowing and his last half Wis stopped In 1.03 with the last quarter better than 31 seconds. We made the mistake of our lives when we didriit take him to the Ire rows that year as we are uuitp iuiro that he would have set "it it new worlds ice record. The

Meadows. Calif. tune on as mus- tioned before. Feb. 12 to March 15; March 12 to April 7, Santa Anita, Arcadia. CaIif.; March 17 to April

2.04. Egan Grattan owned and driven by D. C Ailsa Craig. Ont. Figuring out the dif; ferencc between the fifth ofa sec-

LII

23, M u. p in N 01 , and in Egan Grattan's time and LE; fffij 1 golxuu.:Ni3' the half a second in Walter Dale's velt Raceway. Westbury, N. Y.; mmv I" I135 "I" I” I9” ""3”'

April 15 to June 4. Maywood Park.i

Msywood, 111. Then racing dates continue right up to the October 12 when Hollywood Park. Ingle- wood. Calif. takes over with rac- ing to November 19. Then. of course. there are tic smaller track meetings not under the lights and races at ..ate fairs. All in all harness racing seems to be growing-iucreasing' pop- ular both in Canada and the Unit- ed States and a great effort wil be made to have a night rac- ing plant established in Ontario.

Our good friend .7. R. MacKin- non of this city, writes us: "You will recall our meeting saute days ago when Lou Najac's name was brought up and you wished to know if Lou was still numbered among those present. I wrote to friends in Providence. R. 1. and received the ' ” clippings. which show that Lou is still do- ing busines at the old stand. He is on the news staff of the Journ- al Publishing Company. Provid- ence. R. 1.. of which James Darke is circulation manager. He is a son of the late Joseph Darke of Charlottetown. who held the rank of Major in the artillery, and was employed at Rogers Hardware Co. for several years.” Many will re- member the very popular Major Joe Darke. who commanded the 8th Battery at Charlottetown when it was tops in Canada and during the war was stationed at Sydney with an artillery unit. Joe was a great football player and quite active as an athlete. taking part in inter-Maritime meets at Char- lottetnwn and Moncton. His spec- ialty wns shotputting. The clip- pings were entitled. Harness Horse Gossip. by Lou Najac. and spoke of the doings of the top drivers such as Billy Haughton. who won more than 31,100,000 in the last three years, the Gray brothers of East Providence. owners of Philip Scott. one of the best free-for-allers in the United States last season. and other drivers.-As usual these notes are most interesting and no doubt looked forward to by all the horse- men in Lou's vicinity.

We had a visit from Jolhn Murray of Summerslde a few days ago and he very kindly brought in a copy of the Saint John Telegraph Journal dated Thursday. September 16. 1937. and a score card containing an ac- count of the races at Fredericton the previous day. They were sent to him by Mrs. John Keenan of Edmunston. N. B. It was an afternoon's racing that went down in history because of the fact that Walter Dale. bay ”” by Abbedale 2.00. owned by Sul- Ilvnn & Mawhinney. Machias. Maine. paced to a new Canadian record for half-mile tracks when he hreezed down the double oval of the Fredericton trotting park in 2.02 U2. smashing the 11-year- old Dominion record of 2.04 U4 made by Guess Work at Frederic- ton In 1926. Harry Clukey. who drove Walter Dale to the track and Dominion record. captured the 8200 Fredericton Exhibition prize offered to the driver that would break the track record.

Prior to the record made. by Guess Work it was Single 0... driv- en by Ed Allen that set the Pre- dericton mark in 1923 - 2.04 324. Bessie Mc1(lyo equalled that mark in 1925 and in 1927 Ruby P. paced the mile in the same time and Janette Royal also step- ped in 2.04 U2 in 1927 and Billy Strathmore equalled it in 1933. Guess Work's record of 2.04 U4 was made against time and she was paced by a car. In addition to Walter Dale two other Maine owned horses were winners that afternoon in 1937. Faro (Donallyi copped the 2.17 pace with 1-l-3. Volrida (CIukey) 2-3-1. The 2.18 trot was won by Calumet Coburn. driven by Roy Barnett. in straight heats. best time 2.11 U2. The summary of the Junior Free for al was -- Walter Dale (Clukeyl 1-1-1. Signal Senator itsweeneyi 2-3-2. Marjorie M. (Jabalee) 3-2-3. Peter Magnus (Wright) 4-4-4. Time 2.07 U2. 1.02 '1x'2. 2.06 U4.

Walter Dale's tints remained as Canadian pacing record on half- mlle tracks until August 7. 1954. when in the 36.000 Free For All Pace raced at Woodbine. Toronto. a new mark was set up. Here is the summary of the top two horses - Egan Grattan 2-1. Ar- gyel Grattan 1-5. Time, 2.02 US.

urements Egan would be leading by 13 feet. Egan Grattan has been a sensational horse the past two seasons. with total winnings of 544,311.25. 324.392 of that was won as a 3-year-old. '

Referring again to that s.piem- ber. 1037, race meeting in Fre- derlctom on September 17 Walter Dale won the Free For All Pace in straight heats, Tracey Hanover 2-2-2. .Marjorie M. 4-3-4. Peter Onward 3-4-5. Bud Wenger 5-5-3. Time. 2.05 U4, 2.06. 2.07. Another winner there the same day was Millie Kslmuck with 1-1-1, Star Dillon. the Montague owned trot- ter, 3-2-2. Time. 2.12 U2. 2.12 3l4, 2.13 U2. -Winning driver and own- er was Willard Kelly. Southport. P. E. I.

We are grateful for the kind remembrance shown by Mrs. Marjorie Spruhen. (nee Marjorie Cameron) of Natick. Mass.. for a clipping from the New York Tim- es similar to the one we publish- ed last week entitled. Nobody Asks Whether Horses Want To Go South. Marjorie was a great lover of horses and never missed a race it she could poasibl be pres- ent. She inherited that love from her father. who owned horses that led the street racing horses and were victors on the ice in the years gone by.

And now we hear ironi James L. Read, one of the best posted horsemen in the Maritimes, whose excellen y can recall rac- ing evehts at Charlottetown. Am- herst, Halifax.and other Mari- time tracks over sixty years ago. Our friend J. I.. is enjoying a well earned retirement and is looking hopefully forward to the 370.000 1955 race program which Carl Mac1(enzie. Manager of Truro Raceway published in his paper last Saturday.

Last week we had a letter from one of our oldest friends. Charlie Sweet. Glace Bay. N. S.. and he informed us that he had met with a very bad accident to his back on the Sydney track a year ago last June and was not over it yet. Charlie says. ”We have quite a few new horses here In Sydney now and we ought to have extra good racing this year." He ends with. "1 hope to see you next year at Old Home Week in Char- lottetown." We have the same hope. Charlie. and will be delight- ed to find that you have fully recovered from that nasty acci- dent. Years ago Charlie was con- sidered one of the best trainers and drivers in the Maritimes. hung up track records and had wins with pacers and trotters a- like. Here is just a sample taken from a clipping in the late Charlie I.arge's book. Sydney, N. S.. June, 1922 . . . The new sea- son's first racing st the Sydney track was a complete .. a large crowd being present and the racing exceptionally good. Pacing the first half of the first heat in 1.05 and the first half of the second heat in 1.05 U2. White Sox 2.03 U2. driven by Charlie Sweet. defeated the Cape Breton champion The Ghost 2.08 V4 in straight heats. The Ghost was 2-3. Dick C.. 4-2. Tommy D. 34. Time. 2.15 U4. 2.14 all mighty fast time for this season of the year. At Glace Bay. N. S. May 24. a crowd of nearly 3.000 eager racing fans enjoyed three good races at the Black Diamond track. Free For All Mixed. White Sox (Sweet) 1-1-4-4-1. Tommy D. 2-2-1- 3-3. four other starters. best time 1.06 U2. The 2.27 class mixed was won by College Hal (Sweet) with 1-1-1, best time 1.13 U2. These are typical of Charlie's racing days and will be remem- bercd by many readers of this column.

Mr. and Mrs. Sam Kennedy of Charlottetown. returned this week from a very pleasant trip to Toronto. While there they visit- ed Dufferin race track nd saw several Marltimers inclu lng Ran- nie MacDonald and Warren Lewis of Cape Breton. Ronnie has fif- teen horses under his care and he has Pat McKenna with him and Pat has Prince Msplecraft and June Bee as two of his spec- ial charges. Sam purchased the good pacer Jean 13. Lee 7. 2.09 US, a nine-yearcld bay mare by Corporal Lee that last year won 32.04750 and is eligible to the 2.16 class.

- sricv PLANT Wild ginger plants. I spring per- ennial. grow tn damp wooded areas

from New Brunswick to Manitoba.

continued rroml page 0

Hunter's Corner

it in the back of the Police car. By the time we got to Hillsboro Street the windows were rolled down. WHEW. At this moment the Constable at Headquarters spoke over the 'lntcrcom Systeml "Did you get the skunk? "Sure" answered Johnny "can't you smell lt" ”No" was the reply and we wondered why. At this stage the boys were worried. ”I wonder if we stepped in it" said one. "What have you fellows got to worry about" was my comment "I'm supposed to crawl back into bed again with my wife" They told me in the morning that the smell evaporated after I took the trap from the car.

u .

I did some hcaxy tiiiiiking in the backyard after I got the trap cashed away. I tried to sniff my- self all over but got nowhere. Skunk scent. if its heavy enough. acts. as a sort of anesthetic after you inhale it for a time. You get to imagine you smell as sweet as a rose. I wasn't disilusioned. I knew from previous experiences with skunks and I remembered what Matt Hagan told me. Years ago he and another young blood were driving a spirited trotter in a rubber tired waggon on their way to call on a couple of girl friends and ran over a skunk on the road.

The odor pretty iit-ar liited them off the seat but alter thcy drove a mile it seemed to d1si':lI1P95”'- They both got out of the waggon and took turns sniffing each other and each gave the other a clean bill of health. Just to be on the safe side they decidcd to Call on Matt's Sister who lived nearby and spend a few moments chat- ting. If she made no comment they figured it would be safe to meet their dates and go into a thud- dlc'. They tied the mare in the yard and the lady of the house met them in the front hall. They inquired: "Where's X?” ”Just as the waggiin drove iiitn the yard he smelled skunk awful strong and went out to have a look." Thais as far as she got . .p . Just threw her arms in the air and screamed: "Orion 1 think he's in the house now". They found out all they wanted to know. Their dates would have to wait another night. I was taking no chances and doused myself liberally with Bay Rum before edging under the covers as quiet as a burglar. There was no comment for which I was truly thankful. I had had enough for one night.

. . ..

The next morning I thought I might as well face the music and called on the lady who had the skunk under her kitchen and ex- plained what I thought had hap- pened. She was very gracious about it and I told her I'd try a different approach to the skunk problem. She told me she was upstairs getting ready to retire when she heard the clatter of the trap. She rushed to the kitchen and looked out the window to quote her own woi'ds: ”The skunk was turning cart-wheels in the yard and smcllin' something aw- ful." The kids in the neighbor- hood were really inicrested in me. A gang followed me into the yard, at a respectful distance of course. Ellis the Hangman couldn't have created more curiousity.

I didnt want the skunk. with the white epaulettes on his should- ers. to have the last laugh so rigged up a rather ciimbcrsome wooded trap knoivii as a Figure 4. The next morning I had him and was hr in a fighting mood! The man of the house told me to got in about 6:30 am. and when

Millvale Races

The Millvale Driving Club held the second race of the season. with a large crowd of spectators watch- ing some very good racing on the! Millvale Speed Way. The results were as follows:

For-For-All 1 Chappells Pride (R. Fol-

la d

n 1 . .. 1 Coles' Pal (F. Foilandl ..2 Class (Ail Wizz Over (A. Weeks) ....1 1 Tommy Shanter (A. Par- sons) . .. . . . . . . . .. 2 Diane Clegg (S. Corbet) .3

Class (3)

who

u-nu

i Petersl Pet (P. Buchanan) I I Siskoos Girl. owned by K.

Duggan. driven by (E.

Parsons! . . . . . 0fflcinls:- 1 Starter: K. Duggan.

Judges: 5. Stewart. J. MacLcod.l and J. Smith. I Announce : John Keir. p

Leaves For Mexican Games

AUGUSTA. Ga. (AP! -Louise Suggs shaved a stroke off par Thursday with a 71 in a glitter- ing opening bid to defend heri

women's itleholders golf cham- . pionship. I The Sea Island. Ga..

profes- I sional. who won last year's tour-. nament with a record-breakingl 293. grabbed the first round leadl by one stroke from fellow-Georg-I iaii Mary Lena Fauik of Thom- asville. Miss Faulk. former na-, Lional amateur champion who turned pro six weeks ago. match-I ed par and fired a rare eagle, two on the 16th hole.

Jackie Pung. liusky Hawaiian housewife who won the Jackson- ville Open last Monday. finish- ed third with a 73, one strokel ahead of pretty Marilyn Smithi of Wichita, Kan.

Boxer Named In p Damage Suit I

PHILADELPHIA (AP) e Mid-I dleweight boxer Joey Gimieiiox i

and two of his friends were named defendants Thursday in s 525.000 damage suit.

Howard Short. gas station at- tendant, seeks damages for injur- ies alleged to have been suffered in a brawl in which Giardello and the other two. Victor Mariani and Joseph Bonadies, participated last Oct. 29.

The three are slated to go (in trial on assault charges Monday.

he went to have a look he was bouncing the top half six inches off the trap platform. 11 he had not placed a tire on top the skunk would probably have tipped it back on the hinges and escap- ed

1 have handled a lot of skunks in my time and never knew one to spray in a box trap. I wasnt too sure of this one before I got the box slowed in the trunk com- partment of the car. He treated me to a fairly heavy gas attack but so long as he didn't give me the real 'McCoy' I didn't mind. On a quiet road. with no houses nearby. I stood upwind of the trap and flipped back the top sec- tion. A white striped nose peek- ed around one corner and a pair of beady, piggish eyes gave me the once over. I really believe he had a notion of giving me a touch but discretion proved the better part of valour and he took to the ditch. When he was a safe distance the Winchester spoke her little piece and his family problems were over. I dug a hole in a snow bank as his resting for the time being. He”ll get a decent burial later for I imagine he was quite

a Character in the skunk world.

Out Our Way

THAT5 NOT DANCER5 on TV vowze wATcHw' THATI5 TH'

BLOMIINI THI

A 6AlN5'I' THE WNDOWJ

rniniiol was bred and owned by James O'Brien. Elmsdale. who has "91"" ceased since in bringinr "Vi" Star pacers such as Lee" I-ighlma.e 2.10 U5. Jerry's night "W0 209 and many others.