Hambletonian

Most sports have one or more Grand Old Men. Harness racing has dozens who jounce their old bones in old bright -varnished sulkies on Grand Circuit trotting tracks every summer. Grandest old man of trotting, until he died eight years ago, was Edward Franklin ("Pop'') Geers of Lebanon, Tenn., who won nearly $2,000,000 in prizes. Two more grand old men of trotting distinguished themselves last week, one in Ohio and one in New York, at Goshen where the Grand Circuit reached its peak in the Hambletonian Stakes, one-mile race named for the greatest U. S. trotting sire.

Favorites in last week's Hambletonian were Mrs. Ralph Keeler's three-year-old filly Marchioness and John L. Dodge's colt Hollyrood Dennis. Will Caton driving Marchioness won the first heat. Hollyrood Dennis won the second. Two out of three heats usually decide the Hambletonian but in the third heat last week Hollyrood Dennis broke (started to gallop) 200 yds. from the wire and interfered with Marchioness, pocketed behind him while Invader, a field horse, won. Marchioness, Hollyrood Dennis and Invader lined up for the fourth heat. After two false starts, they were fairly away. Caton in third place began moving up at the three-quarter pole. He passed Hollyrood Dennis, then Invader and was still ahead at the wire with Hollyrood Dennis coming up fast for second place.

A light, bald, spry gentleman of 56, Will Caton got down from his sulky and said he had just had ''the biggest thrill of a lifetime." Most of the record crowd of 25,000 knew enough about Will Caton's history to doubt him. Last week's was the first Hambletonian he had ever won but he had won every other important trotting race in the world, most of them several times. He was born near Cleveland, where his father owned part of the Forest City Stock Farm. Three races he won at the Chicago World's Fair, when he was 16, caused the Grand Duke Nicholas to invite him to Russia. For eleven years Will Caton drove Tsar Nicholas' trotters, won the Moscow Derby eight times and the Grand Prix at Paris in 1902. He set a record by driving one of the Tsar's horses, Trostee, over a mile of ice in 2:08 at Moscow. In 1912 he signed a contract with Vladmir Lezhneff, a Russian sportsman who paid him 10,000 roubles a year and 15% of his winnings, which sometimes brought Will Caton's yearly earnings to $50,000. In 1917 Will Caton tried to escape the revolution via Japan. He was captured at Omsk, put in charge of three Government stock farms. He returned to the U. S. in 1922, began driving for Ralph R. Keeler in 1927. When Ralph Keeler died last year, he willed all his horses except Marchioness to Will Caton.

Will Caton last week was perhaps midway in his career as a driver of trotting horses. Not so Stephen (''Uncle Steve") Phillips, of Lebanon. Ohio. Last week, at 90, on the Washington Courthouse (Ohio) track where he started his career 75 years ago. Uncle Steve Phillips won a mile race with his trotter Frederick McKinney. After the race, he drove back to the judges stand, said "I'm pretty tuckered," sat down in the middle of the track on an easy chair presented to him by his admirers.

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