p,1:59m $40,201
If someone gave you a 1:59 horse that would produce a 72-60-27 record in 217 starts, you would have to invent ways of spending your money. But take the same horse with the same record 40 years ago and you know why the 1930s were described as hungry. The horse was Dominion Grattan, the record was the same, but the lifetime earnings were $40,201. Dominion Grattan was bred in 1930 by Frank Boyd of Niagara Falls and purchased by Lloyd C. Hockenbury and William H. Herbert of that city. The son of Oro Grattan 2nd-Minnie Bingen 2nd by Fritz Bingen had a tough three-year-old season in Ontario, racing 57 times with a 14-14-8 record, good for all of $1,155. The next year, Dominion Grattan raced 48 times at 12 tracks in Canada and the United States, taking a 21-14-7 mark for a whopping $3,180. The horse was then sold to Paul Bowser of Boston, Herbert using his share of the money to buy a hotel. For the next two years, while handled by trainer-driver Tom Berry, the \\\'Jersey Skeeter,\\\' Dominion Grattan faced the best pacers on the continent, including Little Pat, Cardinal Prince, Lee Hanover and the great Billy Direct. Dominion Grattan first paced 2:00 on Sept. 25, 1935 at Lexington, and the following July took his speed mark of 1:59 at Old Orchard, Me., in a split-heat race. The next year he set a world record by pacing 2:00 in the fourth heat at Historic Track in Goshen, N.Y., Aug. 13. Before being retired to stud in 1938, Dominion Grattan had won 37 races for Bowser. As a sire, he was prolific, to say the least, fathering five trotters and 184 pacers, the fastest being Red Dominion, 1:59 2/5. A number of Dominion Grattan\\\'s daughters were producers of 2:00 horses, including Dominion\\\'s Dixie (Chipman\\\'s Heel, 1:59), English Lady (The Happy Wanderer, 1:59 4/5) and Dominion Watt (Lumber Dream, 1:58 2/5).