St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-03-26
VANDERBILT'S HORSES.
Some of the Fast ROadsters Over
Which the Wealthy New Yorker
Holds the Ribbons.
Maud s Made to Earn Her Purchase Money
Work of Aldine and Early
Rose.
Famous Fast Ones Owned by Him Sold to
Strangers After Faithful
Service

Famous Fast Ones Owned by Him Sold to
Strangers After Faithful
Service.
One of the earliest, best known and most
skillful drivers in New York City was Com
modore Vanderbilt. His eldest son, William
II. Vanderbilt, who received the bulk of his
fathers fortune, Inherited from him love
for the trotting horse, and the willingness to
pay the necessary price for the fast ones. A
sketch Of some Of the horses belonging to
the Vanderblts is given in the Chicago Tri-
bune, from which the following extracts are
taken:
TURF OUTLAW.
That rivalry existed between Commodore
Vanderbilt and Mr.. Robert Bonner in the
matter Of which should own the best horses,
and especially the best team, swell known.
Mr.. Bonner had driven Flatbush Maid and
Lady Palmer two miles in about five minutes
and had also done single mile with a pair
from his stable in 1926, and these perform
ances were so far ahead of any that Commo-
dore Vanderbilt could hope to accomplish
with his trotters that he was perforce COM
PEELED to take back seat in sphere of
amusement where he would have liked moth
ing better than to have been constantly at
the 'front.' When he died there was among
his horses brown gelding called Small
Hopes that had become notorious a year or
two previous by reason of ringing" tour
in which he was engaged. 1t was in the fall of
1875 that Charley Perkins, well-kuown sport
ing man of Rochester, N. Y; Bill McGui-
gan, driver of some reputation, and a
Michigan horse dealer named Deyo, conceived
and carried out plan which made the name
of Small Hopes known all over this country.
The horse was an excellently bred and very
fast ANIMAL but mad been expelled or sus-
pended from tracks belonging to the Ma
tional Trotting association by reasonlof some
irregularities in his previous performances,
and it did not look as though he would be
reinstated. His record at that time was
2:2615, and the parties above named,
having discovered by private trials that he
possessed an extraordinary turn of speed
and was capable of trotting a mile much be-
low 2:20, resolved to make use of this fact
in manner which, although illegitimate
and reprehensible, was almost certain to
make them O large amount of money.
They started out in the fall of 1875, and en-
tered Small Hopes in the three-minute, 40,
and other classes at nearly every meeting
in the West, the entry of the horse being
made under the name of Lothair. They would
trot in one town to-day, winning the race in
which the horse was engaged, ship to town
200 or 300 miles away, gather in what there
was in sight there in the way of purses, and
be off in another direction before means to
ascertain the identity of the horse OF men
could be taken. When Lothair had become
rather notorious a horse called Lapland be-
gan winning, and so phenomenal was the
speed shown by both Lothian and Laplani
that they soon become terror to horsemeu,
being regarded in much the same esteem rs
that in which the Flying Dutchman is held by
sailors. No matter what horses the brown
gelding started against he was certain to
beat them easily, and at one town where
the association had offered little extra
money in case the entire field was dis
tanced Lapand performed the supposedly
impossible feat in the first heat. AT Kansas
City he won freefor-all race. and the three
men that managed him took away with them
thousands of dollars which the cattle dealers
and miners who had come in from the sur
rounding country by the hundreds had put
up on favorite horse of theirs. Descrp-
tons of Lapland and the man who accompa-
MED him were telegraphed all over the coun-
try, but no clew as to who they were could
be obtained. Seeing that this part of the
country was getting rather warm for them
the con spirators Travelled with their horse to
Boston, entering him in a three-minute race
there under the name of Westbrooker. AS
no one knew the horse it was suspected that
he was a ringer, and, on his being taken in
charge nv the officials of the track, it was
discovered that his white leg and a star in
bis forehead had been dyed brown, and be-
fore long the whole story came out.
THE HORSE THAT MADE VANDERBILT
It was with this horse, which had been sold
to his father after the collapse of the ringing
scheme, that William II. Vanderbilt made his
reputation as driver. He had pu released a
mare called Lady Mac that had q record of
1923. and in the fall Of 1877 drove Lady Mac
aud Small Hopes a mile over the Fleetwood
Park track in 1928 1t was something that
had never been done by double team, and
placed Mr.. Vanderbilt at the front OF all
double-team drivers, professional or amateur
Small Hopes in this trial proved himself by
far the better horse Of the two, and Mr. Van
derbilt admitted that during the last quarter
Of the mile the brown gelding pulled all the
weight 1t was Small Hopes that brought
Mr. Vanderbilt into prominence as a driver
and that gave his stable the honor
of the fastest double team rec
ord and yet few years later Mr..
Vanderbilt suffered this horse, then worn out
and useless, to be sold at auction for mere
pittance, and In the same sale was included
Lysander Boy, another horse that had done
him good service. These two had drawn
Mr.. Vanderbilt kindly aud without accident
for number Of years, and yet when they
were crippled and useless he permitted them
to pass into dhe hands of strangers rather
than spend few hundred dollars of his two
hundred millions in securing to them com
fort and immunity from abuse during the
latter days of their life.
TIRE QUEENS HISTORY.
After Small Hopes and Lady Mac had done
so well for him Mr.. Vanderbilt began buyin q
other trotters, one Of his first purchases
being that OF Maud 9, mare that now
has the fastest trottng record, 2:09Z, and
that was sold last summer 10 Mr. Robert
Bonner for $40, 900. Maud had
been purchased when yearling
by a gentleman in Cincinnati, who died not
long after the FLY became his property, aud
she was purchased from the administrator OF
his estate by Capt George n. Stone for $3.50
As three-year-old she showed remarkable
turn Of speed, and the following season,
being then years of age, she trOtted mile
over the Lexington track in 2:17H, which
time has never been equaled by any other
horse of heraqe, the next best performance
By four-year-old being the 2:17A Of the
California FLY Sallie Benton. Soon after
guing this fast mile Maud was sold to Mr..
Vanderbilt for SCI 900, it being his first pur-
chase Of a really high-priced animal. He al
WAYS rrofessed a great admiration for Maud
S. but 1t Is noteworthy fact that during
all the time she was his property be
trotted her for money wherever and
whenever there was a chance TO make
a dollar with her, and when she had
L..-..-. ~ al hox.us