The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1900-06-15
MIX-UP AT THE TRACK.
Messrs. Cook, Page and Mahon Get Thrown
in the First Race.


in the First Race.
For the brief space of five minutes
last Saturday it looked as if an am
bulance might be necessary at the
race track. And it looked that way
because three men lay motionless in
the dust at the eighth pole, while
their horses raced away on mad
run, attached to the debris of three
sulkies.
1t was all pure accident, OF course,
and yet it never would have hap
pened had it not have been for the
dilatory tactics which caused the races
to be started an hour later than sche
duled The first event was supposed
to occur at 2. 80 O'Clock, bat at that
time only three of the five horses
entered were on the track.
At O'Clock Mr.. Page drove on the
grounds. He had his sorrel gelding,
Stanley, entered for the first event.
but the horse had not yet been warm
ed up. In consequence it was 335
before the horses began scoring for
the first heat. The drivers and horses
in this event were as follows: B. N.
Tunis, b. g., Brady, pole; Albion
Page, s. g., Stanley, second; W. r.
Cook. g. g., Bell Thomas, third; A.
v. Mahon, b. g., Gus G., fourth F.
1T
After three or four attempts they
got away in fairly good shape. The
first half was made at 40 clip, and
just after they passed under the wire
Page began pulling in his horse. At
the eighth he started to turn around
and then followed the mixup. Mahon
with Gus G.. was close behind. He
wheeled sharply to the right, trying
to avoid a rear end collision, but was
too late and jammed into the right
wheel of Pages sulky. The two
wheels were smashed and Page and
Mahon flung to the ground Cook was
behind with Bell Thomas. He could
not get by in either direction. Bell
Thomas jumped high in the air over
the PROSTATE forms of the first two
drivers. Cooks sulky passed over
Mahon' S chest, was overturned and
Cook was thrown violently against
the fence.
The horses with the broken sulkies
raced away like mad. Women in the
grand stand screamed. Some men
from the judges stand ran over to
the PROSTATE forms while physician
was sent for. In the meantime the
horses continued in mad run on the
track. Tunis and McEwen managed
to keep out of the way of the fright.
ened animals and thus avoided fur.
ther accident.
Bell Thomas and Stanley were
caught before they had completed
another half mile but it was impos.
sible to head Gus G. although many
efforts to do so were made. Before
Gus G. had reached the eighth again
Mahon and Page had recovered sutfi-
ciently to get out of the way The
others had pulled Cook to one side
and so the horse had free field. Gus
made the circuit of the track twice
more before caught and then only
succumbed from exhaustion.
] What at first looked to be very
serious accident turned out to be only
scare. The drivers who were
thrown walked to the hotel, rested
few minutes and then went to look
after their horses. Cook had sprain-
ed wrist which had rather bad ap-
pearance at first, but it came around
all right after a bit 1t was found
that the horses had suffered no dam
age, and so all of them were driven
again by their respective owners in
the subsequent heats of the race.
But the cause of the smashup was
a misunderstanding on the part of Mr.,
Page, who thought the race was to
be haif-mile heats. That was the
reason he tried to turn around after
the first half Had he been at the
track in time to warm his horse and
start as per schedule the accident
never would have happened