Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-04-06

! pened. A crowd had gathered on the
race track, hiding the mishap, what
ever it was. The rear rows in the
grand stand surged toward the front.
The sinister word travelled swiftly.
| Five minutes before the band had
been playing and women's silks were
rustling in the breeze. Sun and earth
had been doing their utmost to make
perfect racing weather Now tragedy
was in the air.
The knot of men OH the white track
opened to admit a veterinary. Then
the grand stand saw what the noise
was about.
| A horse lay across the course
quite still. You have seen horses ly-
ing that way, perhaps, in the streets
of New York before the s. P. C. A.
wagon clatters up. But this was not a
work horse. Geentle of breeding and
years of care and training made his
limbs both delicate and strong. There
was race in his back. Ribbons were
| tied behind his head and his coat
showed the attention of an expert
groom.
But he was undoubtedly dead.
Murder"
The cry fioated up again from those
who had witnessed the episode. The
crowd, knowing that the ugly word is
usually reserved for violence done TO
human beings, gave it back Justify. For
the horse had been recognized. 1t was
Go Between, the favorite of fair week,
the horse with a glorious past.
Not Co. Between in his prime-say
in 1906, when he won the Suburban
Handicap at Sheepshead Bay, and
made $4,000 for Alex. Shields in eX-
actly two minutes, five and one fifth
seconds. But the Go-Between of
seven years later. winning second rate
victories on second rate tracks, work.
ing hard to make interest for his own
er on a computed value of less than
$1,000, being shown at county fairs in
rural Pennsylvania to people who
barely remembered that he had once
been one of the finest race horses in
America.
1t was a dramatic DAY at the Berks
County Fair. Reading, Penn, that 10th
of September, 1913. Twice in the pre-
ceding week o-Between had finished
ahead of all rivals. 1t was a good
record, during these recent years, for
the famous old racer. On the last day
he was ingloriously beaten by his
nearest rival, Golden Vale. But
somehow the judges bungled the an
nouncement of the victory, for the
owner of Golden Vale misunderstood
it. He thought that Go-Between was
the winner again.
The act that followed is not incon-
ceivable when you consider the ex-
element under which men labor at the
end of week of races. Yet it tore
open the passions of the crowd as the
Staying of man might have done 1t
was all over in moment; an enraged
horseman darting from the crowd,
muttered curse and savage pull at
Co Between's bride. Golden Wales
owner was reyenged for supposed
defeat. Exhausted from a week of
hard racing. the horse that had once
swept everything before him stag
gered at jerk on his rein and ca
reened over the ground. He died al
most instantly of a broken neck.
The mans name is S. n. Stackhouse.
In the confusion that followed the
murder" of Go-Between, he disap-
peared from the track and, according
to the latest advices from Reading, he
was held in bail there for trial at
court in December. The sheriff's
warrant issued for his arrest charged
him with malicious mischief and
cruelty" The people who saw the
deed gave it an uglier name.
Seven years had gone by since Go.
Between was the swiftest horse on
our soil. On this date he was per.
haps the most loved. For the plucky
little stallion had one virtue that last
ed long after his speed failed and his
reputation was buried under the fame
of newcomers. He possessed cour-
age, Go-Between had that quality;
only a few men have 1t.
At the mention Of his name pictures
will rise up in the minds of horse low
ers of the Saratoga racing meet in
1904 when an unknown, understood
tyro trotted out of obscurity into fame
as far, in fact, as within half head
of the great racer Divination, at the
tape. Then there was the wrangle
over the possession Of the prodigy
when he was put up for sale i'm
mediately after the meet: his sensa-
tional purchase for $4,000: the eventfuf
two years on the turf that followed;
his purchase by Alex. Shields in 1906;
the great climax of his career when ne
ran the Suburban Handicap at
Sheepshead Bay in 2.05 LIS, winning
SIT, 900 purse for his owner and an ad-
ditional $4,000 in wagers.
Only a minority of the public that
adored him up to that point remem-
Der what happened later. His career
slopes downward from then on, like a
forgotten matinee IDOLS. He was dis
qualified the next year through a mis-
take his owner made in naming his
class. Then came the wave of anti
racing legislation. Turf sport be-
came semioutlawed pastime. Alex
Shields died and Go-Between was al
lowed to leave his string for a paltry
sum.
Racers fresher than Go-Between
were growing fat and oil for want of
crowds to watch them make records.
PlungerS Younger than Aiey ShiaIda