Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

 

Hate to tell you, but your concept is not new at all.  It is, in fact,

the *original* form that "organized" endurance racing took in

the USA in the 1800's!

 

When I was researching the Frank Hopkins story, I was trying

to find mention in primary 19th century sources of his 1886

Galveston, TX, to Rutland, Vermont "endurance race."  Hopkins

claimed that the race had been sponsored by the National Police

Gazette.   The National Police Gazette was a very well-known

national weekly newspaper/magazine--as I was paraphrased in

Bobbie Lieberman's the LA Times Hopkins' article--a kind of cross

between the National Enquirer and Sports Illustrated.  Its editor, Richard

Kyle Fox, was a famous media mogul and sports promoter

(chiefly boxing)--a sort of Ted Turner of his day.  See:

http://www.bklyn-genealogy-info.com/Police/Sins/Pink.html

 

As we all know by now, Hopkins was a gifted charlatan.  There

was no mention at all of this race in the National Police Gazette

(nor the Galveston paper, nor the Rutland, Vermont paper--both

of which are still in existence and have complete archives).

 

However, I discovered that the National Police Gazette *was*

sponsoring endurance contests of a very different sort...a 1-mile speed

track, around-and-around kind of event similar to what you propose.

 

The Gazette, indeed the 19th century as a whole, loved to issue

what I would call "challenges."  The Challenge was sometimes made

by a reader, sometimes by the Gazette's editors.  It would go

something like this, "I am pleased to have the acquaintance

of Mr. So-and-So of Such Place, State.  I am of the opinion

that Mr. So-and-So is the Greatest Distance Equestrian in

The World.  I offer a prize of $10,000 (or any non-trivial

figure) to Anyone who can defeat Mr. So-and-So in a match

race at any track of their choice."  And the Challenge would

be on.

 

During the month that Hopkins claimed his what-we-would-think-of-

as-an endurance race was taking place, the National Police Gazette

actually did hold such a Challenge.  It was a 100-mile race between

a horseman and a bicycle rider!  They raced around a 1-mile

racetrack.

 

These Challenge races were usually man-to-man, or man against the

clock for a speed record.  Sometimes they used just one mount.

Often, they were more like a Pony Express relay, where each rider

had five mounts.  They rode each horse 10 miles, then moved on

to the next horse.  Each horse had to be ridden twice, so the

rider had to be sure not to exhaust the horse on the first go

around.  (Needless to say, there were no vet checks or fit to

continue criteria.)  They were usually held around race tracks.

But I seem to remember that one of these Challenges was held

at Madison Square Garden.

 

The Haggin Cup is named for 19th century California robber

baron James Ben Ali Haggin.  Haggin used to hold these kinds of

race track endurance contests all the time.  My guess is that this

is what inspired his descendants (very, like Haggin, into Thoroughbred

racing, as in Elmendorf Farm and William Haggin Perry) to sponsor

the Haggin Cup.  Incidentally, Haggin was a the grandson of a Turkish

immigrant who claimed to have been a Jannisary--a member of the

Ottoman Palace Guard!  See: http://haggin.org/JBAH_Biography.html

for a *very* white-washed biography!

 

The 1-mile flat track form of endurance race continued into the

early 20th century.  What Wendell Robie was doing was not

new, he was just continuing to do what had been done for

over 50 years.  His feat is more the last example of something

than a first--that last example being the one that has persisted

into present-day memory.

 

But of course, getting to know you from Ridecamp as I have,

I've already know that you are just joking.

 

Shame on you for trolling!

 

;-)

 

Linda Marins