Salt Lake Tribune | 1905-01-01 | Page 57 | Special Edition, Strange Career of "Blind Tom"

Strange Career of "Blind Tom" WASHINGTON C. H. O., Dec. 31 So far as known, no horse that ever held the. world's record as a pacer had a moro remarkable career than that which distinguishes "Blind Tom." who. for more than two years, was the fastest fast-est pacer In the world, his record being 2 L'i, which was made while he was the property of Steve Phillips of Washington Wash-ington C. H . the veteran turfman. Phillips came Into possession of the famous horso In the following peculiar manner. One day, In 1ST0, Morgan Fudge of Bellbrook, Greene county, son of the later Judge Fudge, In company with Gideon Mills, drove into the village vil-lage of Spring Valley. In the same county, driving a poor, dilapidated old horse. The horse was little else than a bundle bun-dle of bones and rough hair, and the lury with which tho men were forcing the old horse along through the streets of the village aroused the Indignation of tho paople, who are always looking after the interests o? the dumb brute, and the result was that Pudge and Mills were arrested for cruelty to animals an-imals and fast driving. They were arraigned before Justice Joseph G. Gest. the village squire, who Is now postmaster at Washington C H., and the two men v. ere fined $5 each for violating the law. They had no money but did the next best thing. They offered the old horse which they had driven Into town as security se-curity for costs. The animal was so near the end of Ufa when he landed In Spring Valley that Justice C-st did not consider him worth ?10 The men finally secured their release by putting up the cash, and the old horse, whose life was almost al-most despaired of. was turned out on the roadside, where he nipped the grass In the fence, corners for several days. Finally, Steve Phillips, who was at thai tlnie In business at Xenla, heard of the condition of things and Fudge offered to sell him the old horse for lfl Steve was a horseman himself, i'n.d h. knew snin- lhing of the breeding of the animal. It la true that he was bony and covered cov-ered with scars, but as long as there Is llfo there In hope, and Stevo thought that he might be able to develop something some-thing of speed In him. He was blind In both oyea, but his limbs were sou.id and his wind was perfect. Gavo Him a Name, Immediately after purchasing- the horse Iho now owner cave him the name' of "Sleepy Tom." hut somehow the people preferred to call him hsnna lom ' and throughout hla eventful career ca-reer on the American turf he went by the latter name f Steve at once entered upon trie UUIK of getting his Old bunch of bones In condition for the race track. The people peo-ple laughed at the idea of that old "crowboJt" ever making a race hor-se. but aa It is not tho clothes that make the man, neither Is It the lo.iks that make the horse As soon as "Blind Tom" became Strong enough he was placed In training, train-ing, and it did not take many trips around the track to convlnco the experienced ex-perienced eye of his new owner that he had a diamond In the rough. Soon he had him ready to enter In the races near home, and, tho first race In which the horse was entered was at Jamestown, which at that lime, had one of the big agricultural fairs of the Stat This was the first time that the old horle ever had an opportunity to show his speed alongside of olther fast movers mov-ers on a regular race track, but he made good, and there wasn't a competitor com-petitor In the race who didn't look like "thirty cents" when Tom led thern all a block. He was blind and bony, but as some one said of him, "he was a bundle of speed." Showed Chicago Folks. The next race in which the old fellow fel-low was entered was at Greenfield, Highland county. Here he made a record rec-ord of 1 21, and he hod no dilllculty In shutting out ihe whole field. It was In July 171. at Chicago, after Tom hail been entered In all the races of the grand circuit for that year, that the great horse showed what kind of stuff he was really made of. it was at that time that he beat tho world s record, pacing a mile In tho marvelous time of 2:12Vi, and It was two years before anoth'-r horse was discovered which was able to take the honors from Tom. Tom won world-wide fame. He was entered In twenty races In the grand circuit, and won all but four of them, sixteen of the number being placed to his credit. Two years later the world's record was lost by Tom. and held by Little Brown Jug, for some tlmo thereafter. there-after. Within lss than two years after Steve Phillips had paid Morgan Fudge J18 for Tom, the former was offered $8000 for him. This figure he declined, but in Phillips sold the horse to J. U. Dell of Fox River, Wis . for $t000. An Idea of the wonderful work done by Tom that year may be formed from the fact that he paced two races at Hartford, Conn., finishing the last race tho second day. and at 5 o'clock that evening he was placed aboard an express ex-press car nnd shipped to Albany. N. Y., whore he raced the next afternoon. That same night he was started by express for Minneapolis, a fierce trip. He arrived here at 10 a, m , and that afternoon he was started in a race and won it. Such performances as this were common In the turf life of Tom Phillips was asked the other day for his opinion as to how fast he thought Tom could go In thoso days of fast trades 'nd bikes, and he answered. "Were Tom nt his best today he would step off a mile In two minutes or less. He had the power to go, and he knew how to use that power. "Ho was one of tho most wonderful horses that the world has ever known, considering what he passed through. After 1 sold him I mado the rounds of the big rare courses with him for his new owner, who was always given a guarantee of from $500 to S1000 Just to nter him in a race or place blrn on exhibition. He paced a Quarter for me once in 20 seconds. j