HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Four-Cornered Track makes Terre Haute harness racing hub
Rob Robbins
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: Four-Cornered Track makes Terre Haute harness racing hub
By Mike McCormickSpecial to the Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE — Terre Haute’s
emergence as the hub of American harness racing occurred gradually between 1886
and 1892.
Vigo County’s famous “Four-Cornered Track,” designed by
surveyor George Grimes and superintendent Uriah Jeffers, was finished Aug. 12,
1886, in time to host a four-day race card in October. Yet the first world
record at the track was not set until 1889.
Long before Axtell’s
miraculous accomplishment on Oct. 11, 1889, national periodicals lauded the
quality of standardbred horses raised in the Wabash Valley.
A story in
the May 1886 issue of “Western Sportsmen,” an eight-page weekly published in
Indianapolis, praised several Terre Haute horses and their owners.
During
a visit to Terre Haute during the Spring of 1886, Western Sportsman editor N.A.
Randall identified a number of men devoted to stock breeding who had the
financial wherewithal to compete on a national level: William Riley McKeen,
William P. Ijams, Samuel McKeen, Demas Deming, George W. Carico, William T.
Beauchamp, Merrill N. “Med” Smith and George F. King.
He was particularly
fascinated by horses stabled at Edgewood Farm, owned by William Riley McKeen,
president of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad (known as the “Vandalia
system”) and the McKeen National Bank.
Randall wrote:
“Upon
feasting our eyes on the finest five-year old stallion on the continent that was
never foaled, Jersey Wilkes, and Mr. McKeen’s 9-month old filly by Wedgewood,
dam by Daniel Lambert, an animal too pretty to occupy a normal stable, we
crossed the [National] Road to the Vigo Fair Grounds to Mr. McKeen’s commodious
stables, where our old friend John M. Edwards, superintendent and trainer for
Mr. McKeen, had the stock led out for our inspection.”
Randall mentioned
other horses owned by McKeen: Daisy Wilkes, Conquest, Nelsie, Lottie, Lady
Marjoe, Duda, Pattie, Ruth Park, Winsoe, Zaratia and Seraph.
He also
visited the stables of Col Carico on North Third Street and was impressed by
Stride Wilkes, Nellie and Red Wilkes.
“In this stable,” Randall added,
“our amiable friend M. N. Smith [Vigo County Clerk] keeps his superb roadster
Macey, a dark bay or brown gelding by George Wilkes. This is the fastest,
handiest road horse we know of in this state.
“Mr. Smith also has some
high bred youngsters at Warren Park, which he purchased in Kentucky … Among the
number is a three year old grey gelding by Banker that Sam Fleming says is
certain to turn out to be a race horse, and judging from the action at a halter
we are inclined to agree with him.”
Fleming, a seasoned horseman, moved
to Terre Haute in 1885 to manage Ijams’ stable at Warren Park. He stayed,
eventually developing his own horse farm.
In the first race at the
Four-Cornered Track on Oct. 12, 1886, Jennie Lind, owned by E.E. Hamilton of
Springfield, Ill., paced the mile at Terre Haute in 2:181⁄4, a new record for
any Terre Haute track. The previous mark of 2:183⁄4 was established by Little Em
in the Spring of 1886, before the new track was completed.
Yet the top
attraction during the October meeting probably was the presence of Lady
DeJarnette, ”the nation’s most famous show horse.”
By agreement, downtown
stores closed on Friday afternoon, Oct. 15, perpetuating a tradition launched in
the spring. The feature race of the four-day meet was a free-for-all trot that
afternoon with a $600 purse.
Jerome Turner of Louisville was the
favorite, having trotted the mile in 2:151⁄2 at Lexington earlier in the year.
Phyllis, owned by Charles Wagner of Dickinson’s Landing, Ontario, had the best
mark at 2:133⁄4, set in 1885, but had not yet reached that time in 1886. The
world record (2:13 1/4) was maintained by the stallion Maxy Cobb.
To
boost attendance, the Terre Haute Trotting Association offered $500 in challenge
money if Jerome Turner or Phyllis could better Maxy Cobb’s mark. A crowd of
5,000 was disappointed. Phyllis defeated Jerome Turner in three of the four
heats. Jerome Turner’s best was 2:19, the top mark of the day but far short of a
world record.
Ijams — elected Terre Haute Trotting Association president
in November 1886 — was chosen to serve on the initial board of the American
Trotting Association, a new alliance formed March 2, 1887, in Detroit as the
result of multiple defections from the National Trotting Association.
On
June 10, 1887, a nice crowd watched the California trotter Arab defeat a notable
field, including Jerome Turner, in 2:18, the fastest mile ever trotted in
Indiana.
The 1888 racing season was relatively quiet but Axtell’s record
performance on Oct. 11, 1889, was so significant that it earned editorial
comment in the New York Times the following day:
“The performance of
Axtell yesterday at Terre Haute is, perhaps, the most remarkable in the annals
of the trotting turf. It is commonly by fractions of a second the “record” is
lowered, yet Axtell has in the same heat lowered the record for three-year-olds
by a second and three-quarters and the record for stallions of any age by more
than a second. It is to be borne in mind that the trotter is an animal of
comparatively slow development and that he both matures later in respect of
speed and lasts longer than the thoroughbred. Axtell’s mile in 2:12 is,
therefore, much less significant as a performance than as a promise, and
indicates that the horse, if everything goes well with him, will hereafter
perform far more wonderful feats.”
Sadly, Axtell was injured in the early
Spring of 1890 and never raced again. Instead, he was retired to stud at Warren
Park, making its owners quite wealthy.
Yet crowds continued to flock to
the Terre Haute track, which produced fast times and a few world records even
before the sulky conversion from high wheels to bicycles in 1892. That was the
year Nancy Hanks and Mascot set back-to-back world records in September to
cement Terre Haute’s fame.