Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-14
SOME HORSES THAT
WERE CALLED "PLATERS'

and how she would go after getting to the
front!
Then There Was Hermis.
When the smart Zachs around the New
York tracks heard for the first time OF the
things that the Hermence colt, Hermis, was
doing on the western tracks, and 1t was
announced that Ziegler. Hermis' owner, In
tended to fetch the colt east, they begged
their informants not to make them laugh
because their hands were chapped. Her
mis-, hey! Won some stakes out on those
bush tracks in the west, had he? Fine!
That would get him a lot on the New York
tracks, wouldn't it? And SO on.
: The whole racing world knows what Her
mis- did to the New York cracks from the
very outset of his racing career in the east
He BOWED them over with the most con-
summate ease, one after another, until three
months after his first appearance on the
Atlantic seaboard the people who had been
clubbing him a platter were hailing him as q
champion of champions, fit to take rank
with Salvador and Hanover and Hamburg
and Domino and the rest of the list of the
"mightiest." In the greatest Suburban
handicap ever run Hermis made such gal
liant ones as Irish Lad and The Picket Look
like outclassed horses, winning on the bit
from fagfall to finish in record time and
never letting the others get near enough to
him to keep him from feeling lonesome and
solitary all the way. Hermis retired with
he could go the middle distances, and he
could pull down cup at the full journey
that only the greatest horses are asked to
go. The tremendously knowing ones who
had guyed Ziegler for considering Hermls
anything but platter and who had ridiculed
the man who paid 10000 for the horse and
told him that he had been staked to a
lemon with long stem to 1t. preserved a
strange silence for long time after Hermis
began annexing the big things in row.
They didn't have one word to say.
There were all kinds Of furtive grins, too,
when the Shields family brought Advance
Guard their big Great Tom colt, down from
Canada and announced that they had a
clinker over a distance Of ground. The
platter boot went up good and strong about
that one, and yet there have been few, II
any, better longdistance horses in this
country than that same old Advance Guard.
He was an Incompatible stretch fnisher,
could pick up "a ton of COAL as the say
ing runs, in the way of weight, and the
records tell how fast and far he could go.
Remember how the New York bright ones
guyed the very mention Of McChesney
name when that huge horse was doing all
kinds of wonderful things in the west and
south? Platter, they called him, too Plug.
Skate Poodle Goat Camel. And yet,
although McChesney was never really right
after he was brought on to New York, he
showed the wise ones there. They fell into
the way of sort of scratching their heads
when his name was mentioned.
How ZorcaSter Fooled EN-.
remember very well the day that Major
Dangerfield won the Autumn Cup at
Sheepshead Bay from Zoroaster by a face
on the wire.
How the people who gave Zoroaster a
chance in that two mics and quarter AFT
fair were strung! Zoroaster! A big, clomp-
ing platter from the coast, Ell! Beat Phil
Dryers crack Handspring horse? And
Not noy Go1I in fhn md fnn
when Major Dangerffeld liked mud somuch
that they had to mix certain quantity OF
1T in with his bran-mash every day to keep
him happy and contented? Behaved!
The books all but held Major Dangerf1eld
out, but you could just about get anything
within reason that you asked the layer for
against Zoroaster's chance.
Zoroaster took Major Dangerffefild by the
head and ran him into the slush from the
very fall of the flag Unfortunately, at the
last turn, Zoroaster ran out, going away to
the outside fence, but even then he caught
up with the Major again after losing many
lengths Midway down the stretch Zorro
aster stepped into hole, almost going to
his knees, and was thrown completely of
his stride, and yet 1t took the Dwyer
cracks life to beat the despised platter
from the Pacific slope mere face on the
wire. With any kind Of racing luck at all
Zoroaster would have made Major Danger
field look like a dog-eared two-spot in a
chain-gang deck.
And There Was David Garrick.
Then there was David Garrick. That one
suffered at the outset by being the victim
Of great predictions. He was bought as a
yearling for a crack. When they got him
races after the termination of the same
He was always coming heap at the
finish, but that was not obtaining anything
began to fit toward David Garrick's peo-
one of the largest and most perfect speci-
mems of citrous fruit in the annals OF
American racing, SO they had. The owners
took it all as 1t came and exuded that
when David's a three-year-ol
David started out his three-year-old career
like man-o-war's man hitting the beach
for the first time after three-year cruise
got skinned good and plenty. And every
time he was stacked up against the good
ones he lost another piece of his pelt
Then the howl of derision from the wise
David Garrick was phony. Bogus. Four
flush. Counterfeit Near-horse. Also
mutt. Kidder. Morning glory.
The owners themselves began to be
shaken in their belief about the horse
But one day, as sort of last chance thing
David Garrick went up against swell field
in one of the long races-I have forgotten
exactly which one Of them it was, but
believe it was the Lawrence Realiza ton
Belmont's Ethelbert, the swell horse of the
year, was in that race, and everybody gave
it to Ethelbert right out of hand. He
couldn't lose. Just a traipse for him. Ought
to be out in the betting, and all that sort
Of thing. AS 1t was, Eethelbert was held
at practically a prohibitive price. while
you could have got all Of the so to ]
against David Garrick that you had time
to take while the books were open.
David Garrick permitted the mighty
Ethelbert to toss his name out in front for
most of the distance. Then he began to act
real bull-doggy. The boy on David Gar
rick thought that his horse was leg-weary