The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1901-01-14
SPORTING NEWS.
Charlie Herr One or the LATEST
Of the Trotters.
Takes Vast Amount Of Punish
ment to Get His Speed.
WONDER WHEN AWAKE
Uncle Davy CahiII Has Refused
$4,000 For His Colt.
Thinks He Can Yet Beat Cres-
ceus in a Game Race.

Chicago. Jan. 1.-THE Times-Herald
says.
The central figure of the harness horse
world just now is the Kentucky breeder,
Uncle Davy Cahill. who recently refused
am offer Of $50 900 for his wonderful tfoL-
ting stallion. Charley Herr. Uncle Dave
IS not a. rich man, either He IS SIMPLY
a Well-tO-do breeder, who could use
$4,000 very well. but ne developed
Charley Herr himself and has seen MIN
improve from week to week during the
three years that he has been on the
turf. until he actually believes that the
horse is the greatest trotter ever foaled-
It is a certainty that Cahill would not
trade Charley for The Abbot OF Cresceus
OF any other horse on earth, ana ne -
not only convinced that he can beat al
trotters, but he is willing to enter IN
races to which they are all eligible any
time. Ever since Charley started as
S-yaar-old he has been pitted against
horses with faster records than his own.
and he has struggled through lots of
races that would have broken any or
binary trotter's heart.
When he first started on his career as
a race horse Charley was undoubtedly
the LATEST colt that ever looked through
IL bride He would not race a rod I'M
less he was forced to and he never
wasted q particle OF strength They say
down around Lexington that Uncle
Dave worked at him most a year before
he would trot at all His fastest gait
seemed to be a sort OF a S1ngleIOot, ana
any other trainer would nave given
him up in disgust, but Uncle Dave never
lost faith in him.
AS soon as Charley commenced to get
an idea Of the racing game and under
stood what was wanted OF him he re-
fused to exert himself to his limit ez-
cept when in a regular race. None OF
the rail birds who watched him take
his preparatory work thought he was
any account, as no amount of whipping
would induce him to step a mile better
than 2:25- This was in the spring, when
ne was a 3-year-Old, yet when he was
sent out after the money he learned to
trot in 2.15 that season Mr.. Cahill
drove him in many races himself, and
he had a hard time teaching Charley
what was wanted He cared so little
for the whip that his owner devised a
way to punish him with spur fastened
to his girth. The spur itself was q sheet
Of lead full of brads- It was fastened
to the under side of his girth and was
manipulated with a cord that ran back
to the sullxy seat That IS the only sort
of persuasion that would induce Charley
to go TO the front
Since he learned how to race, however,
his disposition has improved greatly,
and while John Kelly, who drove him
last season, always carried a whip and
used it more or less the horse took his
record at Lexington without 1ee1ng the
weight of the cracker Kelly held the
whip high over his back in a threaten
Ing manner and that was sufficient to
make Charley step to his limit.
It. win be remembered that 1t was
Charley Herr that won two heats from
Cresceus. and was only beaten an inch
# he was beaten at all, in the so, 0OO
stallion race at Readville last fall, and
It was that race that made the critics
take their hats of to him. Even as con-
Eervatfve a horseman as Ed Geers pro-
nounced him the greatest race horse
for what he could do that ever lived
There are some few good horsemen who
believe with Charley's owner that he
IS fast enough to give Champion Cresceus
q close race any time they meet but
while most people win be willing to
grant that he is a great race horse. they
viii hardly concede that he viii ever be
q champion.