The evening world. Newspaper, August 30, 1922, Page 16

16 47 Years a Driver, Famous For His Many Victories, At 71 Adds Another Track Record to His Long List And Wins Another Race-- Chief Ambition Now to Round Out 50 Years of Service in the Sulky! him to see in raw colts qualities tor By J. P. Glass. future kingship of the turf, the pre t, 1922 (New York Evening World) cision of judgment which ‘developed Sporrieht, 3 ‘ss Publishing Company their natural abilities to the nth de 1877 a practically Bree of effectiveness, the perfect , Understanding which got from them the last shred of speed on the track from Tennessee 48- has been accompanied by real busi. tonished Northern ness sense and shrewdness. From a harness recing fans Material viewpoint, “Pop” jy more ae harter Oak Park, tan well fixed Hartford, by the skill unknown — horsem. “No,” said a man who knows with which ne drove an equally UN- Geers ‘well, the other day, “It tent known entry to victory in two heats money that keeps Ed in the game. ef an important stake event The entry, a handsome little brown Mare named Alice West, has been ead and forgotten these many years. In 1922—after @ lapse of forty-five years—the driver still is amazing the sporting world by his uncanny ability to win horse races Less than a week ago, surmounting @ sulky in all the dignity of seventy- one years, he broke a world's record and won a hotly contested race in @ gingle afternoon. Celebrating a day set aside at the Central States Fair at Aurora, Ill., in his honor, he drove Banardo, 1.59%, top new mile pacing record of 2.02% for a gelding on a hali-mile track. And, im the final jevent of the day, the 2.16 trot, he pi- Moted Anna Phelps to the wire ahead of a classy field. Hats off, folks, to the most unique figure, the best loved individual in the annals of American sport! Salute E. H. Geers, better known to an admiring and affectionate pub- lic as “Ed"’ or "Pop" Geers. As far bavk ag 1905 they were fig- uring that "Pop'’ Geers was through with the Grand Circuit. Even then the ‘Silent Man From Tennessee” was logked upon as an old man. He had had his full quote of accidents on the track too, Pretty badly battered he was, and when he went to Nashville in January of that year the report spread that he was through with the turf. “Mr. Geers is still in a crippled condition following the smash-up in which he figured at Billings Park last summer," read a despatch from the Southern city. ‘*While he came here for pleasure, it nevertheless is a fact that he Intends to purchase a farm nearby and retire from the track. He is anxious to give up the sulky for a quiet life and devote his remaining That was scventeen years ago. Bince then ‘Pop'’ has taken part in the most hotly contested campaigns of his career, has broken more records than there is room to give here, and hes added more than $750,000 in purses to his already plethori¢ bank ‘account. He became a millionaire a good many years ago. The astounding quality of perception which enabled wire ahead of a classy field at Aurora, Ill. THE EVENING WORLD, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1922. “Pop” Geers piloting Anna Phélps to the . ; > It's simply has had a new ambition, H began four years old, two years before hig ™more real first Northern appearance at Hart- acing ford. He's been forty-seven years, And the reason he still enters the lists against younger and more esilient men, braving t ger of uceidents that might end his life, is follower running hors: portion of race can't feel d hard for the old boy to realize his ambition, once-a-year rac wt Wows “Pop” Geers as harness rac- ing fans remember him 20 years love of a sport that has Grand Circuit meetings, except in one taste itself upon every fibre of or two instances, that tough old body of his.’ week's duration us man says that lately ‘Pop’? year. he has no opportunity to experi ence the thrills of the track iriving in races when he was twenty- Secondly, there are proportionately se lovers among harn enthusiasts who get thelr joy they have a bet wace the wagerers of money are in the minority. race devotee odds a horse Hoe wants to round ont a half cen- 5 ; tury rvice in th Iky! Your harness Only three more years to go! much interested in th Millions of harness fans will root #8 catrying as in the IMs frame—those physical effects of successive breeding which explain his strength, speed and endurance. and keenly weigt The harness racing ent wt—and = At a Grand Cir by this we mean the man who you I find the 1 to see the races—is in a class by him- horse as @ horse self the factors that In the first place, he's mostly a his development Ho sees the point the man behind the equine be- “Pop Geers>Grand Old Man of the Turf Ci Wei Ze, FROM THE BALLADS OF A HARNESS HOSS RAILBIRD talk about yer runnin’ race, | Jist fetch a bright September day, Yer highiulutin steeplechase, My elbows on the rail, let's sty. An’ all sich stuff an’ rot, | Me lookin’ down the stretehs | But when a real hoss hits the track | I hear them black hoofs thud and He has his driver sittin’ back— | pound, He's there to pace or trot! [see them shinin’ wheels go round— I s'pose a saddle has its need, Ane T the lucky wretott An’ course a runnin’ hoss shows | Just one small thing is needed yet, that thing’s gonna eome, I bet— | speed, jA But, gosh, folks, let me state Git ready with them cheers! I likes a nag that’s got control, Who's that was first to cross the Which knows if he’s to reaeh his wire? goal Say, knock me dead if I’m a liar— He's got to hold his gait. Y it was Ole Pop Geers! ee | five years, or since Geers became the $1,500,000 piloting Grand Circuit win recognized peer of reinsmen, the ners, crowd in the grand stand sits up and He always has been abstemious takes additional notice when “Pop'’ Cigars and ice cream are his only dis- swings away from the stables and sipations. He is apt to have a cigar onto the track, It isn’t just a case in his mouth,'even when driving a big ot The Abbott, or Dan Patch, or some stake event. other wonder, winning a race or set- A Grand Ciroult ¢river does any- ting a record; the question on every where from thirty-five to seventy tongue is, ‘Will ‘Pop’ go over again?’* miles on the narrow, high-set seat of or “Will ‘Pop’ run up a new record a sulky prectieally every day of the to-day,?"" racing season, ‘This requires en- a, durance, genuine stamina. Let Geers drive his entry to victory and the cheer that thunders out 18 One stunt pulled by Geers still is more for the man than his horse. fresh in the minds of many persons Let him fail, and there 48 a disap- 1 1905 he drove Belle Hamlin, Jus- pointed settling-back of relaxing tina and Globe three abreast in an bodies, followed iminediately by the old fashioned high-wheeled skeleton hopetul comment Oh, well, wait wagon and covered a mile in 2.14, till the next race—he'll win it, sur This was at the Glenville track and — thirty thousand people witnessed the Vor that is the way with “Pop."! feat. The bookmakers hud wagered It has been a rare day when he hasn't ‘goinst a mors better than 2.18, and won at least one event. Often he Were hit hard, aptures two races, sometimes three, _ AS an example of driving skill this and more than once he has been fea! never bas been equalled. Geers ywn to drive four winners in a sin- Showed superb horsemanship and brought the three horses all the way around without the slightest sign of a break. gle afternoon, “The Grand Old Man of the Turf’ s doubly popular because of his un- _ blemished record, He resorts to no Ninety-seven years elapsed betweon tricks, does no ‘dirty’ driving, enters the three-minute and the two-minute into no combinations with other horse, In this century there have drivers en a number of speeders that could H so unassiming his very mod- ) better than two minutes. Prob esty makes him stand out from other ably more of them have been driven men. No one ever saw him with his by Geers than by any other man arms spread out above his head, or e of the regords set with his body rocking forward and up by speeders: back, in the florid t of driving The Abbot, mile trotting, at Terre affected by on. He is one Haute, -Ind., Sept. 25, 1900; time, ye reinst eve each ut the county 8 of paramount Importance, par- of those men born with the rare gift 2:03/4, uir to which he is a regular visitor arly if, a8 in the case of “Pop'' of getting out of dumb animals a Dan Patch, mile pacing, at Mem- Or, if he happens t je in or near Geers, he 18 trainer as well as driver, maximum amount of effort with a phis, Tenn., Oct. 22, 1903; time, p ; © bigger Tac ntres where the After all, the racing thoroughbred {s minimum of urging 1:5614. “Pop” Geers and Sanardo, the gelding which he drove to the new mile pacing record of (i! Circuit event held, he an- merely the bone and sinew tat gives He sits back of his horse as still as Dan Patch, mile pacing to high n ; : nually enjoys “big time” api But expression to his master’s dea of and a statue and seldom uses a whip. wheel sulky, at Macon, Ga., Nov. 30, 2.02% on a half-mile track at the Central States Fair. there is seldor in three days desiwe for speed 1903 434. ef racing at the county fairs, and That is why, for the last twenty- Geers has made from $1,250,00@to Dan Patch, half-mile pacing, at ‘ ' j | ; , — “Pop” Geers of to-day, aged’ 71. Photo taken after he drove Sanardo the other day to a new mile pacin; record, ° Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 27, 1903; timet 56. Dan Patch, to wagon, mile pacing, at Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 27, 19035 time, 1:57!4. Dan Patch, mile pacing with wind=¥* shield, at Memphis, Tenn., Oct. 26, 1904; time, 1:56, ‘ Dan Patch. mile pacing (paced by runner), at Lexington, Ky., Oct. 7, 1905; time, 1:55!4. Dan Patch, mile pacing with wind: shield and paced by runner, at St Paul, Minn., Sept. 8, 1906; time; 1:55. The Harvester, mile trotting by stallion, at Columbus, O., Sept. 22, 1910; time, 2:01, The Harvester, two miles trotting™7a by stallion, at Lexington, Ky., Oct, ~~ 4} 13, 1910; time, 4:1514. hn Sanardo, mile pacing by gelding on 2 half-mile track, at Aurora, II!., Aug. 22, 1922; time, 2:0234. 2 Probably the two mo: turf battles in Pop!’ Ge t exciting career were fought with horses which he drove for New York men On Thursday, Aug. 16, 1901, he handled The Abbot, owned by former Fire Commissioner Scannell, against> gp Cresceus, owned and driven by Gec Ketcham of ‘Toledo, in a matehze. event at Brighton Reach Park. More: than 20,000 persons, including ail th fashionables of that day, witnessed the race, which held the attention of the entire country Cresceus won, but next year, sit+ ting behind BE. E. Smathers's. Lord Derby Pop" beat Thomas Lawson's ® Zoralma at the Charter Oak Hartford, Gonn., in a turt attracted even more inte The biggest purse ever put up ii American track history was won by Lord Derby, It an ed to $50,000, The old man has a beautiful home at Memphis, Tenn., in one of thé city’s most exclusive districts. He has all the money he needs. Bat he® can't stay away from the track, He'sef rather drive a horse to o fast mile than have all the treasures in the world, They probably won't ever be able to make him forsake the reina-— at least not until he hus established that fifty-year record of service.