The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1907-04-03

omdtneTS FORMER employee SWore
That He Asked Him to Arrange
With Trainer Of Lou Dillon to Have
the Mare Beaten--How Lou Dillon
Went to Pieces.
New York, April 2. = To recover
from Elmer z. Smathers the famous
gold cup won by his horse Major Del
mar in race with the trotting mare
Lou Dillon at Memphis on Oct. 18,
1904, the Memphis Trotting associa-
tion as plaintiff began to lay before
(. Justice Greenbaum and jury in the
supreme court evidence relative to the
alleged drugging of the mare and the
alleged conspiracy planned by Mr..
Smathers.
The board of review of the National
Trotting association took the matter
up last year and in December award
ed the cup to Mr.. Smathers. The
Memphis association now contends
that the board of review acted irreg.
ularly and the entire matter is to be
threshed out in court.
No event of the turf in recent years
has caused the sensation which the
charges brought by c. X. G. Billings,
the owner of Lou Dillon, against Mr..
Smathers, stirred up Involving as 1t
does two of the most renowned trot-
ters on American tracks and the most
prominent owners of racing stables,
the case has been followed with the
keenest interest. But now for the
first time 1t has reached the stage of
public hearing.
George w. Spear, employed by Mr..
Smathers for more than five years as
trainer, took the stand at the open;
ing of the trial and testified that at
Lexington, just prior to the Memphis
meeting, Mr.. Smathers asked him to
arrange with the trainer of Lou Dill
Ion. to have the mare beaten. He de-
clared that he received word from the
$4,000. He reported this fact to Mr..
Smathers, who declared the price was
preposterous and that he would give
but $4,000. That was as far as Spear
went with the negotiations.
The attorneys representing the
Memphis association next called to
the stand Millard Sanders, the trainer
of Lou Dillon. Sanders went into in
innate history of the wonderful race
mare, detailing her performances one
by one, outlined the daily routine of
the life of this aristocrat OF the turf,
even to the quantity and character Of
her food, and gave the record of all
her trials from the time he took her as
a 4-year-old in 1902 and began to de-
velop what he termed a wonderful
racing machine.
Sanders had carried his narrative
Of the life of Lou Dillon down to few
days before the famous race of 1904,
which it is alleged she lost because
drugs were given her, when adjourn
ment was taken.
The gold cup was offered by the
Memphis association to be contested
for by amateur drivers In wagons.
The cup was to become the property
of the owner or club which won it
two years in succession. Mr.. Smath-
ers, representing the New York Driv-
ing club, won the race In 1902 with
Lord Derby. In 1903 Major Delmar
driven by Mr.. Smathers, and Lou Dill
Ion, driven by Mr.. Billings, the latter
representing the Memphis Driving
club, met for the first time. Lou Dill
Ion won In two straight heats, never
being fully extended, her trainer de-
clared, reeling of both mile heats in,
the same time, 2:04%.
The same horses were to meet
again in 1904. Lou Dillon, it was tes-
tilted, was never better in her life
than just previous to the race of Oct.
IS. She had worked out nicely before
the first heat and when the two horses
were sent away together they went to
the half-mile post in almost record
time. Then Lou Dillon suddenly
stopped almost to a walk, allowing
Major Delmar to go on and win in
2:07, while she finished the mile in no
better than 2:1S. The mare was found
to be unfit to continue the race and
was reported by veterinarian to
have been drugged. Mr. Billings
drove another horse in the second
heat to allow Mr. Smathers to take
the race with Major Delmar