FAME CAPITALISED

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 132, 1 December 1936, Page 13

FAME CAPITALISED

DAN PATCH'S EXHIBITIONS

Harold Logan's shoes have not been offered for sale, and are not likely to be, but it is safe to say that sentiment would play a big part if the old cham-, pion's plates were put on the market. It is related that the connections of the world champion pacer Dan Patch sold many thousands of shoes to his admirers as "a special favour." It is scarcely necessary to add that Dan Patch had not worn a' fraction of the number of plates capitalised as his very own. No horse in the world has been commercialised as Dan Patch was. A speed king in every sense of the word, he took records of lmin 551 sec for a mile and 4min 17sec for two' miles away back in 1906. His owner, Mr. R. W. Savage, paid 60,000 dollars for Dan Patch, and used him principally as an advertising medium with the greatest success. Dan Patch gave exhibitions of his speed on every important track in the United States, and gathered in the neighbourhood . at 300,000 dollars for his owner. When making a contract for Dan Patch to appear at any track, Mr. Savage never did so for any fixed sum, but mostly for a percentage of the gate. When the contract was signed and sealed Mr. Savage then started a widespread advertising campaign and invariably got a good rakeoff from the gate receipts. On one occasion he agreed to exhibit Dan Patch for any excess over the same day's receipts of the previous year. An extra intensive advertising campaign brought people from a widespread area, with the result that the club had' most reluctantly to pay Mr. Savage 21,500 dollars. At the Minnesota State Fair in 1906 Dan Patch drew a crowd of 90,000 people, and at four other shows a total gate of nearly 250,000. Dan Patch went to his records of lmin 55Jsec on a mile circuit and 2mm lsec for a half-mile track without hopples. He was got by Joe Patchen, 2min ljsec (a grandson of George Wilkes) from Zelica, by Wilksherry, whose fame rests solely on the /fact that he sired the dam of Dan Patch. A son of Dan Patch in Russell Patch was imported to New Zealand by Mr. C. D. Hudson, but the Dan Patch line has become extinct in tail male. He was practically a "dud" as a sire.