Dan Patch (April 29, 1896 – July 11, 1916) was a noted American Standardbred pacer. At a time when harness racing was one of the largest sports in the nation, Dan Patch was a major celebrity. He was undefeated in open competition, and was so dominant on the racetrack that other owners eventually refused to enter their horses against him. Instead, he ended his racing career performing time trials, and traveled extensively on exhibition, earning millions of dollars in purses, attendance gate receipts, and product endorsements. Dan Patch broke world speed records at least 14 times in the early 1900s. In 1905, he set a world's record for the fastest mile by a harness horse (1 minute 55.25 seconds) that stood unmatched for over 30 years. Unofficially, Dan Patch broke this record in 1906 with a clocking of 1:55. He died on July 11, 1916. His owner, Marion Willis Savage, died just one day later. and was later estimated to be worth under $100 at the time. In 1895, Messner paid a $150 stud fee to breed her to Joe Patchen, a top-quality racehorse, but untried as a sire. The resulting colt was foaled on April 29, 1896, at the livery stable in Oxford. His legs were so crooked that he could not at first stand on his own, leading many of the locals to call him "Messner's Folly". Some even suggested he be put down. Instead, Messner and his friends held the colt so he could ingest the colostrum (first milk) from Zelica. The foal's legs gradually grew straighter, although he still had crooked hocks, especially on his left hind leg. The colt developed an alert, cheerful personality and was noted for his intelligence.

In 1897, Messner applied to the American Trotting Association for the name Dan Patchen, based on his own first name and the last name of the colt's sire, with Dan P. as an alternative. Both names were taken, so the Trotting Association assigned a similar name, Dan Patch.

In turn, Sturges sold Dan Patch in December 1902 to Marion Willis Savage, a resident of Hamilton (later Savage) Minnesota, for the then unheard of price of $60,000 (). Savage was the owner of the International Stock Food Company, which specialized in feed supplements for animals, and used the horse to advertise the business. Savage took great pride in his champion and was reported as saying he loved Dan Patch like a son. When not on exhibition, Dan Patch lived in Minnesota, either in the stable of Savage's Minneapolis mansion or at Savage's sprawling farm in Hamilton in an extravagant stable known as the "Taj Mahal".

1900: Indiana county fairs

Wattles began training Dan Patch in earnest at a half-mile track (0.8 km) in Templeton in 1899. Before his first start in August 1900, Dan Patch impressed Messner and Wattles with a timed mile of 2:14, a promising performance for an unprompted horse who did not seem to be working hard. On August 30, they entered him at the Boswell county fair with a purse of $250 against 2:35 horses, meaning their fastest official time was no better than the next level of 2:20. Attendance at the fair that day exceeded 8,000, boosted by a large contingent from Oxford, who wanted to see the local favorite. Dan Patch did not disappoint, winning in three straight heats in times of 2:24, 2:24 and 2:24. Wattles had not pushed the colt, wanting to be able to stay at the 2:35 level and perhaps to improve his odds in potential side bets in his upcoming races.

With only five days of rest, Dan Patch made his next start at the Lafayette Fair for a purse of $300. Although the race was still at the 2:35 level, the competition was much stiffer. With a field of nine horses, five or six horses started in the first tier, while Dan Patch started in the second tier. Dan Patch was jostled and trapped at the back of the field until Wattles finally found racing room as they entered the homestretch. Dan Patch closed rapidly but just missed in a heat timed at 2:18. Although some blamed Wattles for the loss (either due to inexperience or in an effort to drive up the odds), Wattles himself blamed it on a new harness. Regardless, Dan Patch proved his superiority by winning the next three heats, the fastest of which was completed in 2:16.

McHenry worked with Dan Patch for two months before the start of the Grand Circuit season. Although he had been trained well by Wattles, he still had some gaiting issues associated with his conformation. McHenry had the toe of Dan Patch's feet trimmed short while using a shoe that was raised in the back, a combination that some observers said made the horse look like he was wearing high heels. Despite the odd appearance, the shoeing improved on the earlier changes made by Wattles to keep Dan Patch's hind legs from interfering with his front legs while reducing the wide action that led to him sometimes striking the wheels of the sulky.

He made his first start with McHenry at the racetrack in Windsor, Ontario, on July 10 in a race for 2:15 level pacers. With a purse of $600, the race was meant to serve as a modest test for a horse whose official best time was 2:16. Dan Patch won in three straight heats, the fastest of which was completed in 2:07.

In the second heat, Dan Patch won in a time of 2:04, a new personal best. Because of the delay in the start of the first heat and another delay due to protests over its result, the third heat was not run until the next day. Dan Patch again won easily, this time in 2:07 before winning the fourth and final heat in 2:05.

In a surprising development, Dan Patch was sold to Manley Sturges in February, and was relocated to New York with McHenry remaining as his driver. His first start of the year was in Windsor, Ontario, in a match race against Canadian pacer Harold H., followed by races in Grosse Pointe and Cleveland on the Grand Circuit. Savage scheduled other special appearances for Dan Patch throughout the spring before finally handing him over to McHenry for serious training in June. Dan Patch made his first major appearance of 1903 in a time trial at Columbus on July 17. Despite being short of conditioning and pacing into a headwind, Dan Patch tied Prince Alert's world record for the half mile of 57 seconds. Although far less famous, Prince Alert was the only other active horse to have broken the two minute barrier for the mile and might have given Dan Patch a serious battle had the two ever met head to head. Instead, the two tried to outdo each other racing against the clock.

Dan Patch next tackled the record for one mile on a half-mile track. Because the horse must negotiate more and tighter turns on a smaller track, the half-mile track record is slower than the time on a one-mile track. Even today, separate records are kept in harness racing depending on the track dimensions. On September 7 at the half-mile track in Lima, Ohio, Dan Patch paced a world record of 2:04, only to have the record broken by Prince Alert a few weeks later. Prince Alert then lowered the world record on a one-mile track to an astonishing 1:57, thanks in part to perfect weather conditions but also aided by a large canvas sail carried between the galloping horses who set the pace. Critics pointed out that the sail, later referred to as a wind shield, lessened the wind resistance that a horse faced (similar to drafting in cycling or motor racing). Although the usage of wind shields was eventually disallowed by the American Trotting Register, in the short term it meant that Dan Patch was no longer the fastest harness horse in the world.

On October 27 while still in Memphis, he set two world records within 45 minutes of each other. In the first trial, he lowered the record for the half mile from 57 seconds to 56 seconds flat. In the second, he lowered his own record for a mile pacing to wagon from 1:59 to 1:57.

Dan Patch made two further appearances in 1903. At Birmingham, Alabama on November 10, he lowered the record for a mile on a half mile track to 2:03, even though his pacemaker had moved too far ahead to act as a proper windshield. The conditions in Macon, Georgia on November 30 were cold and windy but Dan Patch still set two world records within an hour of each other. In the first, he was attached to an old-fashioned high-wheeled sulky and lowered the existing record by seconds. In the second, he paced two miles in 4:17, lowering the existing record by two seconds.

Dan Patch did not make his seasonal debut for 1904 until August 11 in Indianapolis and his first performances were considered disappointing, well off his personal best. Despite this, the crowds though continued to grow, reaching 40,000 in Des Moines and 50,000 in Milwaukee. He was then scheduled to make an appearance in Topeka on the September 14 and arrived in town a few days early. After a workout on the 12th, he cooled out normally but later started to show signs of distress. The condition quickly deteriorated and a respected veterinarian diagnosed a strangulated hernia, which had a very high fatality rate at the time since abdominal surgery on horses was not then an option. Hersey sent two telegraphs on hearing the news: one to Savage and the other to the Minneapolis Journal. While Savage rushed to Dan Patch's side, news went out across America that the horse was dying.

thumb|1904 [[Kansas State Fair advertisement]]

On his arrival in Kansas on the 13th, Savage called in other veterinarians, one of whom felt that the condition was actually an impacted bowel – still serious but much more survivable. For the next few days, newspapers updated on Dan Patch's slowly improving condition until the horse was finally pronounced out of danger on September 29. Savage had administered triple doses of "International Colic Cure", one of his company's feed supplements, and later said this helped Dan Patch's recovery, though he did not claim that it actually cured the colic. Some skeptics wondered if Savage had manufactured the crisis for the resulting publicity, though this seems unlikely since he was not present when the horse first became ill. Dan Patch made a brief appearance before the crowd in Topeka before being shipped home to Minnesota. He was given a brief time off before attending a previously scheduled event on October 7 at the Illinois State Fair, where 50,000 people turned out to see the "national pet".

Dan Patch finished the year with appearances in St. Louis, Oklahoma City and Dallas. At Oklahoma City, he broke his own record for one mile on a half-mile track with a time of 2:03, despite "dreadful" track conditions that caused Dan Patch to nearly fall. Hersey said, "It was the most wonderful mile ever paced by a horse." The crowd concurred – according to a reporter, "Canes, hats, and coats filled the air." so Savage wished to establish that Dan Patch could break Star Pointer's old record without assistance. After several attempts that were close to or matched that time, Dan Patch finally shattered the "in the open" record with a time of 1:58 at Memphis on November 11. The 1:55 mark was equaled in following years but was not broken until 1960, 54 years after Dan Patch's run, when Adios Butler paced the first sub-1:55 mile in 1:54:3.

Although Dan Patch continued to make public appearances and posted some excellent times, he was never able to achieve that level again. The closest he came was on October 11, 1908, at Lexington, when he paced the first three-quarters of a mile in an exceptional 1:25 before his prompter started bleeding and slowed down. Dan Patch was forced to check but still finished the mile in 1:56. Savage advertised that Dan Patch would otherwise have finished in 1:54, which "the Horse Papers and all Horsemen admit was the Fastest and Greatest Performance in the life of the World Famous Harness Horse King."

Dan Patch's achievements made him a sports celebrity, possibly the most famous athlete in America until Babe Ruth. His name and likeness were used to sell a vast array of merchandise including whiskey bottles, shot glasses, cigars, coffee, billiard cues, sheet music, chewing tobacco, toothpicks, playing cards, liniments, stable disinfectants, knives, washing machines, sewing machines, and manure spreaders. At the height of his fame, he earned more than $1 million a year for his owner and was billed as "kindhearted, generous, and a staunch Methodist who never performed on a Sunday."

Records set

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Date

! Location

! Distance

! Format

! Time

! Reference

|-

| Sep 29, 1902

| Readville

| 1 mile

| Time trial (unprompted)

| 1:59<br><span style="font-size:70%">tied Star Pointer's world record</span>

|

|-

| Nov 30, 1903

| Macon

| 2 miles

| Time trial

| 4:19

| Savage was notified and indicated that he wished to have Dan Patch stuffed and mounted. near the intersection of State Highway 13 and Vernon Avenue. The land is posted "no trespassing" and no historical marker documents that anything of significance ever stood there.

In 1953, Dan Patch was inducted in the new Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame.

The City of Savage, Minnesota, was renamed for Dan Patch's owner, Marion Willis Savage, in 1904. Dan Patch Avenue on the Minnesota State Fair grounds is named for the horse. Dan Patch Drive and Dan Patch Lane in Savage, Minnesota, are also named after Dan Patch.

In 1992, the Dan Patch Historical Society was formed to "collect, preserve and disseminate information about the horse". In 1997, it helped set up a Heritage Room in the Savage Public Library, which contains two display cases of Dan Patch memorabilia and extensive records.

In 2004, Prior Lake High School, located in Savage, named its new stadium after the horse.

In 2019, Dan Patch was named into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

In a display on the exterior of the Indiana State Museum, Benton County (where Dan Patch's hometown of Oxford is located) is represented by a wire sculpture of Dan Patch. The road into Oxford is named the Dan Patch highway and there are several tributes to the horse including an historical marker showing his birthplace.

thumb|220px|A Dan Patch Railway train, circa 1915.

The proposed Dan Patch Corridor commuter rail line in southern Minnesota runs along the tracks of the former Dan Patch line, created in 1907 by Marion W. Savage. Passenger service on the Dan Patch line began the summer of 1910, with travel from Bloomington, Minnesota to Minneapolis. Savage's plan of running rail through to Iowa never materialized as the citizens of Faribault, Minnesota would have nothing to do with it. The railroad was declared bankrupt in 1917 and purchased a year later. Savage's track however would spur growth along all the cities it lay and service industries like Ford, John Deere and Thermo King.

Pedigree

thumb|Hambletonian 10, a founding sire of the Standardbred

In 1879, the harness racing community established "The Standard", which stated that a Standardbred was a horse who either: (a) could trot a mile in 2:30, or (b) was the offspring of such a horse. Both Dan Patch's parents were Standardbreds but further back in his pedigree are a significant number of Morgan horses. Even further back can be found Thoroughbreds (most notably Messenger, the great-grandfather of Hambletonian) and a wide variety of harness horse breeds including the Narragansett Pacer, Canadian Pacer, Norfolk Trotter and Hackney.

Dan Patch was from the first crop of Joe Patchen, one of the fastest pacers of his time. Joe Patchen's main rival was Star Pointer, the first Standardbred to break the two minute barrier. His son George Wilkes raced for twelve years, winning 29 of 67 races. Known for his ill temper, he was initially greeted with indifference at stud but soon became one of the greatest sires of his age. One of George Wilkes's less distinguished sons was Patchen Wilkes, who barely met the standard with a best time of 2:29. Patchen Wilkes's only important offspring was a colt produced by the half Morgan,

|f = Joe Patchen <br /> 1889

|m = Zelica <br /> 1891

|ff = Patchen Wilkes <br /> 1882

|fm = Josephine Young <br /> 1885

|mf = <br /> Wilkesberry <br> 1888

|mm = Adballah Belle <br> 1873

|fff = George Wilkes*

|ffm = Kitty Patchen

|fmf = Joe Young

|fmm = Kate Moody‡

|mff = Young Jim

|mfm = Madam Adams

|mmf = Pacing Abdallah

|mmm = Fanny‡

|ffff = Hambletonian 10

|fffm = Dolly Spanker

|ffmf = Mambrino Patchen

|ffmm = Betty Brown

|fmff = Star of the West

|fmfm = Lady Gregory

|fmmf = Morgan Henry‡

|fmmm = Nell‡

|mfff = George Wilkes*

|mffm = Lear Mare

|mfmf = American Clay

|mfmm = Lady Adams‡

|mmff = Alexander's Abdallah

|mmfm = Lydia Talbot

|mmmf = Wells Yellow Jacket‡

|mmmm = not recorded

‡ Morgan horse

Dan Patch is inbred 3S × 4D to the stallion George Wilkes, meaning that he appears third generation on the sire side of his pedigree and fourth generation on the dam side of his pedigree.

See also

  • List of racehorses

References

  • History of Savage
  • Dan Patch Days
  • Dan Patch Toastmasters club website.
  • Dan Patch, MNopedia.
  • Dan Patch Race Poster, Minnesota Reflections.
  • Dan Patch biography, images and link to newsreel footage
  • Leerhsen, Charles, Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America, 2008, New York: Simon & Schuster.