When the harness horse was king of the track

Monday, August 12, 2013

In the first third of the 20th Century, harness racing was the leading spectator sport in the nation. In 1910, when Ty Cobb, the biggest star in baseball, was earning $5,000 a year, and playing before crowds of 3-5,000 spectators, Dan Patch was earning more than $1M for his owner and performing before crowds of 93,000. (Note: No need to feel sorry for Ty Cobb -- though he eventually earned some $50,000 per year in salary, Ty Cobb's salary was only spending money for that star. Early on, he became a large shareholder, and owner of several bottling plants, in the fledgling Coca Cola Co., and an early, large investor in General Motors. While he was never popular with his teammates, or even fans of his team, the Detroit Tigers, during his career, he would amass an estate in multi-millions of dollars, and leave a lasting legacies with the hospitals and health care facilities that he had established.)

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