The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-05-29
Sborse Department.
Pilot.

The following is a second letter re-
ceived from Mr.. Kennedy on Pilot:
MONTGOMERY, Ala, May Is, 1885.
JOSEPH BArTELL, ESQ.
Dear Sir:-Yours of the 25th ult.
came in due course of mail and should
have been answered sooner. am glad
to give you all the Information | can
about Old Pilot. lie was wonderful
horse. lie could pace two minute
gait feel sure, though | never saw
him timed a quarter. Some remarks
by j. W. Wood OF indianapolis in the
! I'Ul1, FIeld G Fdrm of last week called
for another letter from me, which you
will probably find in next weeks INLt,
which will answer all your questions
as we'll as could here. | will give
you something about the old horse
which has never been published. Pilot
stood in LOU svile at 50 the season for
several years until his colts began to
show. Then most every one bred for
PAGERS not thinking of his getting trot-
tiers. When his colts came on, the most
of them were trOtters not pacing step.
| The PAGERS, however, were fast and stay
ing one OF them bay, called Pilot,
| held the lead on the Shell Road at New
! Orleans for number of years. An
other, "Mouse," was small, but good
one, that won all his races. | remem-
Der once an Indiana man came to Louis
vile and wished to bred half a dozen
mares-but wished to see Pilot more.
Mr.. lIeinsohn sent for me q was then
clerk in store) to get me to ride
/ 4 IN, oh han
the IlCosier proposed to run a mare his
son was on alongside of Pilot. After a
good deal Of trouble we got off-PilOt
would not let horse come up to him
for start. The only way they could
be got together was to take him back
ana come up and let the other horse
Join him, and then get the best of any
one | ever tried him with. Well, the
Hoosier and got of at last and by ply
ing the whip on his mare, he beat me
some fifty feet to the stand. After it
was over the old man said, "Well,
mister, let me tell you something. That
there mare is one of the best quarter
nags in Indiana, and it must be a terri
BILE pacing horse that she can't beat
more than fifty feet in quarter He
thought so we'll of the little black PAGER
that he bred nine mares to him al ten
dollars. | rode Old Pilot against Sara
toga Maid, when she was training to
go against Confidence, and beat her
down the stretch as far as the quarter
mare did me. Mr.. Woods says Pilot
was a lugger. lie is mistaken. He
was easily handled after he got off, but
a steam engine couldn't pull him be-
hind i'll the start
Very truly yours,
q. w. KENNEDY.
Mr.. John NJ. Wood of Indianapolis.
having recently stated in the Western
Sportsman of that city that he knew
Pilot to have been brought to New Or
leans together with five pacing mares,
about the year 1882, was addressed on
the subject and responds with the fol-
lowing letter, under date of
INDIANAPOLIS, May, IL, 1885.
"Chas. Barker was of the firm o
Barker & Heinsohn, Louisville, KY,
dealers in fine horses. Barker was a
sporting man and every winter brought
fancy horses to New Orleans, remain
ing in that city till spring. Pilot and
the mares were his individual horses, las
1einsohn said Canucks were not his
kind and he would have nothing to do
with them. lie brought Pilot as far
north as Cincinnati in the spring,
where he matched him against the
Purdy Merritt mare. Pilots rider was
bribed to throw the race, which he did
by pulling his horse square across the
track, and had he not made his escape
by jumping the fence and crossing the
Ohio river in skitf provided for this
emergency, he would have been lynch
ed by Pilots hackers. This race was
on the old Queen City course near tne
banks of the Ohio. never asked Bar
ker in what portion of Canada he pro.
cured the mares and Pilot. but he told
me lie went there himself and brought
them. Barker is dead, and | dom
think he was ever married. lie kept
Pilot six or seven years. do moi
know whom he sold him to-think il
was DR.. Herr of Lexington, Ky.
Yours truly,
JOHN NJ. WOOD"
DR.. l.. Herr, above referred to, state;
, in letter to us that he never knew OF
saw Old Pilot. DIR, Herr was at one
time the owner of Pilot, jr.