Evening journal., 1913-07-09
BEFORE THEY
WERE TRACK STARS
Several Famous Harness
Horses Used for Business
Purposes

In spite OF all the consistent ef-
forts OF the BREEDERS to secure fash
ionably bred trotters and PAGERS TO
carry of the colors OF their stables,
year after year. there comes into the
limelight more than one horse Of
consequence that apparently had
been doomed to a life of drudgery
and sordidness.
Nowadays, plow horses, truck
horses, mail wagon horses and even
horses that have hauled garbage wa
gons are common on the Grand Cir
cult. and it is interesting to note
some of the more famous ones OF
the past few years.
Perhaps r. c. r., 2.O6 "a, In ~on-
my Murphys stable, is the best
known. Before he swept through
the Grand Circuit and became the
most-talked-of horse OF the year, X.
4. c. was an ordinary farm horse in
Wilmington and earned his feed by
the sweat Of his brow, SO to speak,
drawing a plow. II was but natural
that some turf newspaper writer
should christen him The Plow
Horse, and such has he remained
to this day.
Thistle Doune. 2.09 IA, once labor
ed for Uncle sam by pulling a rural
! free delivery wagon over the con-
fines II Cuyahoga county. Thistle
! Doune earned a right respectable rep
utauor as q race horse and bids fair
t. outshine that record as a sire
Jim b, PIP IA, whom Murphy will
i'm an probability start in The Ed
wards Stake, not so long ago hauled
garbage wagon through the back
alleys of Albany which training
seems to have done him no ahrm, as
ho won nine OF his ten races last
year and was second in the only race
he lost
Tom King. 213 Ia, the South Da-
kota PAGER, jumped from a herd of
broncho ponies. into the limelight as
a wiggler of some class and took his
record the first year out His paren-
7 tage, of course, is unknown, but that
does not seem to have deferred Tom
i'm his ability To pace and pace fast.
Pickles BOB IA, the sensational pac-
ing mare that Vance Nuckols, the Cleve.
land trainer. will race this year ON the
Grand Circuit. once upon a time fur.
nished the "one- horse power" at a. sog-
hum mill away down South in Dixie
where she was bred. II is said that her
ailhty to make the circle so well at the
mill accounts for her consistency on the
race truck
Peggy from Paris. PIP. owned by Cap.
tain David Shaw of Cleveland. ana
trimmed by the we'll known Mike McDev.
go WIS bred at Grand Rapids. Mich, and
Peggy first years were spent on a Kent
county farm. whore She labored day In
and day out helping tail the soil. II Is
needles To add that she rs another "plov
horse
out on the Pacific coast Is a trotter o
moro than ordinary merit which they
oall the COW horse This Is none othcl
than Prince of lelcg. PIG ., and II
seemed that hc earned his sohliquei
from the fact that before he became fa-
nous on tho race course he was what
Western foil, call Cow pony"
The history of the trottiug turf is full
OF Just such instances as have been men
tiuucd and harness horseman look for a
: "phcnOm' To- spring from almost any
where. These sensational trotters and
+ PAGERS coming as they do from the most
unexpected sources but add TO the inter
est oi the sport and there is no doubt
B hut that when the turf history of 1913 is
written it will he found that the cham
pion trottcr of the year pulled beer
wagon in hcokuk. Ia, some time in his
life.