Chasing Horse Ghosts-telling Greyhound's story pt.6-USTA Archives#2

The second installment of my USTA Archival Adventures!

It is not easy to capture in writing thing such as personality and emotion when the animals/humans are long ago deceased. I relied heavily on photographs--moments captured in time--and my own knowledge of the nature of horses, in addition to written records, to puzzle together what kind of horse Greyhound was and what type of handler Sep Palin was. What do you see in this picture? Did you notice Greyhound has the whip handle in his mouth? Look at Palin's face, his body language, the softness of his hands...all tell a story I in turn have tried to tell you in the pages of my book.

June 28, 2023 (cont.)
I’ve made it through the bulk of the Greyhound-specific articles. Hundreds of pages scanned, copied, or photographed (yay smart phones!). I’m trying to imagine what it would be like to have to do all of this with a ditto machine (kids, ask your parents – the ink was PURPLE). I’ve pulled index cards for Col. Baker and Sep Palin. Gena pulled cards for articles that discuss the color grey. Remarkably there are four of them with dates in the 1950s to 1987. The 1987 article is about the grey pacer, Laag. I used to have a Breyer model of him. No mention of Greyhound in this article but a really nice spread on Laag (did you know his name is pronounced more like “Log?” That’s what the article said anyway). Awesome news though, the article about grey horses from the 1950s included a picture of Greyhound’s dam, Elizabeth! I’ve only found one other image of her and it wasn’t very good. What a great find!
         I'm still lamenting the missing 1933 Hoof Beats volume--surely there is an important tidbit of information in there! It's so hard for me to let a mystery alone. I went back upstairs (did I mention the stairs are this crazy narrow spiral staircase that is really awkward to carry stuff up and down) to return some loose magazines to their storage area. On the way back I happened to glance into a dark cubicle I’ve walked past at least half a dozen times at this point. It is not in use so the lights are out in this section of the building, however, I noticed stacked on the desk what looked like the bound volumes of Hoof Beats I’d been looking through downstairs. I took a peek and sure enough, stacks and stacks of bound volumes of Hoof Beats, just like what is in the archive downstairs. I popped into Gena’s office to ask if I could look through them on the off chance the 1933 volume was there.
       Gena said the volumes had been pulled pre-COVID to be scanned a digitized. She’d forgotten they were there. As we all know, everything changed after COVID and the scanning project was lost in the shuffle and there isn’t enough staff to tackle the project right now. Gena granted permission to look but said I shouldn’t get too hopeful. I eagerly dug through the first stack: 1938, 1937, 1936, 1935, 1934 …. Eek! … I lift up the 1934 volume and find … 1946 … noooo! But I wasn’t going to give up. I started moving the stacks, reading the spines, and I. FOUND. IT! Woo-hoo!

December 1933 issue of "Hoof Beats" reported on the top results of the Indianapolis Speed Sale.

       Well, finding the 1933 volume of Hoof Beats didn't quite live up to my expectations. The article on gray horses was interesting, but didn't yield the information I'd hoped to find that would definitively explain why gray harness horses were so undesirable among the harness racing set back in Greyhound's day. It was an interesting look though at how back in the era of Lady Suffolk (the so-called "Old Gray Mare" of the song of the same name), gray was a more common and accepted color. It also noted that even in the current era (1933) that fans (the laymen anyway) of the sport liked gray horses, even though the professionals did not. But what I wanted to know was why. Why did the horsemen dislike grays to the point they would geld a gray colt before he even went to the yearling sale? I'd spend many hours over the course of my years of research on this question and never find the definitive answer I was looking for. 
       One thing I did find in the 1933 volume was results from the Indianapolis Speed Sale! I also discovered an article about the general concern over the decline of interest in the sport of harness racing--a theme that would enhance the lore of Greyhound's amazing story. Also of value were articles on the naturally gaited horse and an insightful article on Henry Knight's Almahurst Farm. This last article would prove significant in unraveling a part of Greyhound's story that has been chronically misreported for some 90 years. 

One fun thing I learned about is how photos were "photoshoped" for print back in the day. This is a great example of how a photo was sharpened to outline Greyhound's head and neck and separate it from the background. You can also see how the lead shank was "removed." When this image was placed in the magazine layout and re-photographed with all of the hand placed typesetting, the white and gray marks would blend into the background and the image would look pretty natural. Though if you know what to look for, you can still see these edits on photos. Look for them in old newspapers and magazines. This plus outlining unclear parts in dark gray were very common and effective.

       Baker didn't exploit Greyhound with endless sponsorships and promotions using his image like some other horse owners had done with their famous horses. Instead, Baker freely shared his horse with the people, what few items were made with Greyhound's image were given to Baker's friends and family. One exception I found were  a handful of ads in the harness racing publications. Mostly these were for Greyhound making an appearance at a particular fair or track which Baker would do throughout much of Greyhound's life in the interest of sharing his champion with the fans and preserving and promoting the sport of harness racing. The other ads I saw were for Houghton Sulkies. I found nothing in my research about this relationship, and only found one reference in an article about what brand of Sulky Greyhound pulled (A Faber-brand sulky). In fact, the Faber reference is close to the era that I found the Houghton ads which makes me wonder if perhaps Baker didn't give permission and switched brands as a "punishment" for Houghton taking liberties with Greyhound's name and image. Of course that is purely speculation on my part, I have no evidence either way. But my brain loves to ponder. I suspect this is a mystery I may never solve. Enjoy a few of the ads I found below:

One thing that took a lot of time was leafing page-by-page through the periodicals, scanning for little tidbits like this. It may not seem like much, but this kind of thing helped me to add a little depth and texture to Greyhound's story, painting a picture of what was happening in and around Greyhound's world. This was time-consuming but so very valuable.

June 29, 2023 Part 1
Today I had the ridiculous idea that I could come to the USTA offices at 8:00 am and finish up by 11:00 so that I could get back to the hotel, check out on time, and make it back to Kentucky yet tonight. Ha!
       I started in on the collection of The Horseman and Fair World a turf paper not unlike the Daily Racing Form is to the world of gallopers. This publication, as one might suspect from the title, is geared toward horsemen vs. the racing public at large. Therefore, I thought this would be a good place to find further details about how the races were run, a play-by-play so to speak, and also commentary on things like the training and conditioning of the horses, etc.
     The bound volumes of The Horseman are huge. The publication is about 12x16 and made of newsprint so is extremely fragile. Unlike Hoof Beats, this publication has not been indexed. I didn’t want to go in blind, I really didn’t have the time and let me tell you, research fatigue is a real thing. Yesterday I printed a copy of Greyhound’s race record which showed the dates, name and location of the race, and placings in each heat for the top four horses. I took this document and dug into the 1934 volume of The Horseman, finding the commentary on each race in the issue printed closest to the race date.
       As I leafed through the brittle pages of The Horseman, searching for information on each of Greyhound’s races, I was first surprised at the utter absence of photographs of the famous horse. As the years wore on and the horse’s fame grew, the lines of print specifically dedicated to Greyhound seemed to shrink. I found myself wondering if perhaps the publisher of The Horseman didn’t want to get caught up in the popularity of the horse and instead wanted to give equal amounts of information about all horses. As I studied the pages surrounding the tiny paragraph or few lines about Greyhound’s achievements, I found lengthy articles about obscure horses that had performed much lesser feats. I saw many articles about the same few trainers but only found Baker mentioned once or twice and never saw Palin mentioned. What is going on?
       I made note of the cover image on each issue and was shocked to see that Greyhound never made the cover—not even when he set the world trotting record that would stand for over 30 years. In the issue itself, I found a couple sentences written about it, as if world records are smashed by almost two seconds every day. Whether it will play a role in the book, I can’t say at this point, but I’ve certainly uncovered another mystery to solve. Did the editor and/or publisher of The Horsemen have a personal gripe with Baker or Palin or both? 
       I wouldn't find out on this research trip, or any of my subsequent stops at the USTA archives (I made four total). But with a little help from a new friend, I'd learn more about this more than a year later from a harness racing history buff who played a significant role in bringing Greyhound's biography to the finish line. But that is a story for another day ...

The Harness Horse proved to be a wonderful resource. Packed with pictures and in-depth articles, I gained a lot from this (then) new magazine. The start of the Harness Horse magazine coincided with Greyhound's rise to fame. Sadly, the magazine folded in 1991.

June 29, 2023 part 2
My search into The Horseman went slowly with the fragility of the pages and the teeny-tiny print, I just couldn’t move quickly enough. With 11:00 fast approaching I realized I’d have to stay another night so I called the hotel and extended my stay.
        After the shockingly sparse coverage of the greatest trotter of all time’s record smashing mile in 1938, I gave up on The Horsemen. The USTA archives included another magazine called The Harness Horse so I grabbed the first volume (1935, the year the magazine started) and opened it up. Where the publishers of The Horseman apparently hated Greyhound, the publishers of The Harness Horse clearly loved him. This magazine provided the in-depth information I had hoped to find in The Horseman. I found Greyhound gracing several covers through the years, and articles studying and comparing his physique and stride with past champions and even comparisons with his Thoroughbred contemporary, Equipoise. 
      I was thrilled but also disheartened. I’d spent a lot of time with The Horseman that clearly would have been better spent with The Harness Horse. I was running out of time and had so many issues to go through. I used my racing record and went through the Harness Horse race by race as I had with The Horseman. I also checked the cover of each issue where the “What’s Inside” highlights were printed. Four thirty p. m. came and went (the official closing time of the USTA office) but Gena let me stay and I kept plugging away, snapping pictures of page after page of the magazine, hoping I could organize it all later.
      I’d skipped lunch because I didn’t want to waste any time and by 5:30 I was starving and feeling pretty crappy. I made it through the end of Greyhound’s racing record, then pulled the 1941, 1952, 1959, and 1965 volumes—the end of Greyhound’s career, Sep Palin’s death, Col. Baker’s death, and Greyhound’s death, respectively. I found these later issues to have decent coverage but be less thorough than earlier issues and, sure enough, the staffing had changed by the 50s. Presumably Greyhound’s big fan had retired—I’m sure grateful for all the work he did while he was with The Harness Horse though, it is absolutely invaluable to bringing this great horse to life for new generations some eighty-five years since he last burned up a racetrack.
      I finally drug myself back to the hotel by 6:30 … a long day of research for sure. Boedy was thrilled to see me (the feeling was mutual) and I took him for a nice walk although not as long as I would have liked as the air was still thick with smoke from the Canadian wildfires. The next morning I was heading back to Kentucky. My bag and phone bulging with an overwhelming amount of new information to work through. In total, I spent about 24 hours in the USTA archives. I could have spent twice that easily and will likely have to go back. But for now I need to sort through what I have, and figure out what is missing before I head back up to Ohio again.
       A month at home in Kentucky and then I’m packing up again and heading for New York and the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame where I expect to find mounds more of information. I knew this project would be big, but the sheer volume of what I’ve collected feels like it could smother me if I’m not too careful. I figure when all is said and done, I’ll have the largest single collection of Greyhound articles and pictures in the world—but I still won’t have all of it.
       I’m excited to do this project and I hope I serve the horse, his people, and his fans well with my work. If you’re reading this, it means I’m getting close enough to publishing that I can see the homestretch, if not yet the finish line.

Next stop, Goshen, New York! 

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