Montana Horse Racing: A History

By Brenda Wahler

For centuries, on prairie grasslands, dusty streets and racing ovals, everyday Montanans participated in the sport of kings. More than a century after horses arrived in the region, Lewis and Clark's Nez Perce guides staged horse races at Traveler's Rest in 1806. In response to hazardous street races, the Montana legislature granted communities authority to ban "immoderate riding or driving." Helena led the way to respectable racing, with Madam Coady's fashion course hosting the first territorial fair in 1868. Soon, leading citizens like Marcus Daly built oval tracks and glitzy grandstands. By 1890, a horse named Bob Wade set a world record for a quarter mile in Butte, a mark that stood until 1958. Horsewoman and historian Brenda Wahler highlights the Big Sky's patrons of the turf and courageous equine champions, including Kentucky Derby winner Spokane.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Sep 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781439668733

Brenda Wahler

A fourth-generation Montanan with a lifelong interest in horses and history, Brenda Wahler showed horses in the 1970s and 1980s, when the racing community was a major presence at fairgrounds across the country. Through college and beyond, she taught riding and judged horse shows. Today, she is an attorney and owns Wahler Equine, an education and consulting business. She and her husband live near Helena, Montana, with assorted horses and house pets. Visit her blog at https://wahlerequine.wordpress.com.

Book preview

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright © 2019 by Brenda Wahler

All rights reserved

E-Book year 2019

First published 2019

ISBN 978.1.43966.873.3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019936990

Print edition 978.1.46714.032.4

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

In memory of Gordon Schlack (1923–2015)

Thanks, Dad, for passing on your love of horses and photography.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

Notes to the Reader

Introduction: Montana’s Horse Racing History

1. In the Beginning

2. Fort Union to Fort Benton

3. Virginia City: Fast Horses and Vigilantes

4. Deer Lodge: From Racetrack to Ranching

5. Montana’s Derby Horse: Spokane

6. Historic Helena: When the Queen City Reigned

7. Butte and Anaconda: The Highest Highs and the Lowest Lows

8. Daly’s Domain: Hamilton and the Bitter Root Stock Farm

9. Galloping in the Gallatin: Bozeman and the Beaumont

10. The Phoenix: Determined Missoula

11. Billings: Running under the Rims

12. The Bushy-Bush: Rural Montana Racing

13. Montana’s Lady Jocks

14. Miles City: Wild Horses Dragged Them In

15. Great Falls: Racing in the Electric City

16. Native Future

Afterword: The Horse and Its Future

Glossary

Notes

Selected Bibliography

About the Author

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It is an understatement to say that this book was possible thanks to the help of many people. I cannot list everyone here, but please know that all who contributed have my deepest thanks.

First, my thanks to those whose invaluable help kept this project going and saved me from assorted disasters:

Eric Wahler

Larisa Wahler

Ellen Baumler

Jane Berger

Kim Briggeman

Toni Hinton

Dawn Lynn

Lyndel Meikle

Ken Robison

Don Richard

Victoria Short

Tom Tucker

Bill Whitfield, Ravalli County Museum

My further thanks to:

Montana Board of Horse Racing

Great Falls Turf Club

Western Montana Turf Club

Billings Gazette: Darrell Ehrlick, Chris Jorgensen, Larry Mayer

Joe Bird Rattler and family

Holly Burrows

Tom Chapman

Marylynn Donnelly

Roda Ferraro, Keeneland Library

Holly Gervais

Rita Gibson, Montana State Law Library

Darlene Gould and everyone at the Marcus Daly Mansion

Jeff Malcolmson, MHS photo archives

Kelly Manzer

Bunny Miller, Range Riders Museum

Kendra Newhall and everyone at the Montana Historical Society

Shawn Real Bird

Melanie Sanchez, Powell County Museum

Candice Score

Suzy Wilson

Special thanks:

Patty Briggs, for encouragement.

Everyone at The History Press for their patience and support.

Ray Paulick and Alicia Wincze-Hughes for directing me to valuable national research sources.

My friends on Wikipedia who helped with this project.

NOTES TO THE READER

The following may help readers who are unfamiliar with the topics discussed in this book.

ABOUT HORSES

1. Many horse and horse racing terms are defined in the glossary beginning on page 221.

2. Racing statistics are formatted as in this example: (20:11-6-1). The first number is the total races the horse has run, numbers after the colon are the races where the horse finished first, second, or third.

3. Horse parentage is shown as (Sire name x Dam name). Horses are by their sire and out of their dam.

4. Horse names can be confusing, particularly as it was once popular to name racehorses after actual people. One example was Sam Lucas, Marcus Daly’s farm trainer. Daly honored him by naming a horse Sam Lucas. Further confusion occurs because multiple horses sometimes had the same name (such as Strideaway)—or one horse might be given different names over his or her lifetime (such as Mambrino Diamond, also called Black Diamond).

NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURE

America’s First People have many distinct cultures, languages and historic experiences. I acknowledge my understanding is incomplete and apologize in advance for my errors. Speaking generally, Native (deliberately capitalized) and American Indian are used colloquially, and use herein is intended with respect. Academics prefer Native American, and Indian has a specific meaning in U.S. law.

When possible, I describe people by tribal affiliation. Sometimes historic records or unclear sources limit my options, and words used sometimes vary with context. For example, Crow Indian Reservation is a legal entity; the people living there ask to be called Apsáalooke. For the Blackfoot Confederacy (Niitsitapi), Blackfoot describes the Canadian Kainai (Bloods) and Siksika; while Blackfeet is used in the United States for the Piikani/Amskapi Pikuni (previously Piegan).

Monetary conversions to current value are from MeasuringWorth.com. The most conservative estimates are given in most cases.

PHOTOS

Some photo credits are abbreviated as follows. My thanks to all who provided images:

Allen: Gene and Bev Allen, Helena

Barrett: Bob and Lisa Barrett, Helena

Daly: Daly Mansion, Hamilton

Elison: Elison family, Missoula

GF: The History Museum, Great Falls

GHM: Gallatin History Museum, Bozeman

Hinton: Toni Hinton and Jim Johnson, Missoula

LOC: Library of Congress

MOR: Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman

Overholser: Overholser Historical Research Center, Fort Benton

PCM: Powell County Museum and Arts Foundation, Deer Lodge

Peters: Photography by Mary Peters

RCM: Ravalli County Museum, Hamilton

RR: Range Riders’ Museum, Miles City.

TBHAM: Twin Bridges Historical Association Museum

Tomaskie: John and Beverly Tomaskie, Helena

Wahler: Photography by Brenda Wahler

Wilson: Suzy Wilson, Fort Worth, Texas

WMTC: Western Montana Turf Club, Missoula

YCM: Yellowstone County Museum, Billings

Introduction

MONTANA’S HORSE RACING HISTORY

To my idea Montana is the greatest country on earth in which to race or hold races because the people there look upon racing as a sport worthy of patronage and they have the money to gratify their notions. Wages are good and the men who toil are amongst the best patrons of both the gate and the pool box. The women bet almost as much as the men.

—Ed Tipton, 1896

¹

The horse is born to run; speed is a survival tool. To hone this skill, the urge to compete comes naturally. Young horses race to play; stallions retired to stud challenge one other by running along adjoining fence lines. Open a corral gate, and the herd gallops to pasture. Brief fights may settle disputes within a herd, but most conflicts end before injuries occur. Horses only battle predators when desperate—flight allows the horse to live another day.

Humans also have a competitive streak and use play to hone survival skills. Games of speed, skill, and chance have existed since prehistory. When horses and humans became a team, someone inevitably boasted, I bet my horse is the fastest, and others begged to differ. Our two species’ instincts dovetailed in horse racing.

Today, racing as a sport provides humans a link to the natural world and our ancient roots. For domesticated horses, it is one of the few remaining outlets for instincts once crucial for survival. In modern Montana, horse racing faces many challenges. But just as in the early West, a good horse is often synonymous with a fast horse.

Young horses use play to hone survival skills. Mike Briggs, 2013.

Solid scholarship indicates the Shoshone people brought horses to what is today Montana by 1680. Horse racing probably began as soon as horses arrived. As the 1800s brought fur traders, gold miners, ranchers, and other pioneers to Montana, horses ran in match races outside of trading forts and down the streets of mining towns. Before long, local officials outlawed street races as a public hazard and oval tracks were built. Helena led the way to respectable racing with Madam Coady’s one-mile circular race course hosting Montana’s first territorial fair in 1868. Fairs and horse races ran hand in hand for over a century. Racing often survived even when fairs did not.

Marcus Daly. Courtesy Daly.

In 1889, the Kentucky Derby win of Noah Armstrong’s Spokane challenged statehood itself as Montana’s top news story of the year and marked the start of Montana’s first golden age of racing. In the 1890s, Marcus Daly, founder of the Anaconda Copper Company, became king of the Montana turf. His 22,000-acre Bitter Root Stock Farm near Hamilton was home to 1,200 horses. With wealth flowing from mining and related industries, his tracks at Butte and Anaconda drew hundreds of racehorses.

Progressive Era reforms limited races and wagering, and gambling on horse races was banned altogether in 1915. Drought and economic downturns hit Montana after World War I, and for racing, the 1920s were the slough of despond. When parimutuel betting was authorized by the 1929 legislature, Montana racing revived over the next decade—in spite of that year’s stock market crash. Great Falls, planning carefully, built a new fairgrounds and resurrected racing at the 1931 North Montana Fair. Horses still run there today.

In the 1950s, as Native Dancer became TV’s first Thoroughbred star, Gallatin County entrepreneur Lloyd Shelhamer brought Kentucky Derby– style racing to his showplace Beaumont Club near Belgrade. He also founded United Tote in 1957, starting with a mobile tote board he hauled to county fair meets across the state, and retiring as a multimillionaire.

In the 1960s, the need to protect horses and improve the integrity of racing led to greater oversight and regulation throughout the United States. The second golden age of Montana racing began when the legislature created the Montana Horse Racing Commission in 1965. State authority opened up conflicts between factions of strong-minded horsemen. Larry Elison, racehorse trainer and University of Montana law professor, joined the fledgling commission in 1969. He and his fellow commissioners established the state’s authority to enforce professional standards at the tracks.

Montana’s new 1972 Constitution allowed gambling by acts of the legislature or by the people through initiative or referendum.² Racing days exploded, peaking in the mid-1980s when fourteen Montana tracks held over 140 days of racing—pushing the climate edges of Montana’s short summers—pulling in an annual handle of almost $12 million. Unfortunately, the gambling provisions that initially helped racing became a threat: In the late 1980s, legalized video gaming machines drew bettors’ money from tracks to taverns. Political missteps cost the racing industry revenue from gaming taxes that could have offset losses. Rising costs put unprecedented financial pressure on the Montana turf.

By 2000, except for Shelby’s boisterous Marias Fair, most small-town county fairs had given up on racing. Montana’s five largest tracks hung on by a thread. Depression-era infrastructure was aging, and undeveloped acres inside racetrack ovals drew the eye of county governments looking for profitable land uses. Helena succumbed first when its grandstands were demolished in 2000. Montana’s nadir hit in 2012, when only one parimutuel track ran in the state: Miles City, which had long and successfully melded racing with its annual Bucking Horse Sale.

Horses have competitive spirits. Riderless horse finishes third. Missoula, 1972. Vertical file clipping, Missoula Public Library.

Indian Relay, Crow Fair 2015. Larry Mayer.

In 2013, Montana racing proved ever-resilient when Miles City was rejoined by Great Falls. With cooperation between horsemen, public officials, volunteers, and the local community, the Electric City developed a model for twenty-first-century Montana racing.

Native American communities have produced successful owners, trainers, jockeys, and horses. Examples include the Bird Rattler and Real Bird families, who for generations have won major stakes races in Montana and other states. Today, Montana’s sovereign Blackfeet and Crow Reservations hold horse race meets. The growing popularity of Indian Relay has also revived several tracks off Montana’s reservations.

Today, the Big Sky is still horse country. Montana races draw large and enthusiastic crowds that belie the claim that racing is a dying sport. On the national scene, from 1889’s Spokane to twenty-first-century Medaglia d’Oro, champions of the turf developed strong lungs and solid bodies under the Big Sky.

TIMELINE OF MONTANA HORSE RACING

1

IN THE BEGINNING

And the Grass Remembered

³

Horses evolved in North America and in the northern Rockies. Fossils of the horse’s earliest ancestor, the fifty-million-year-old dog-sized Eohippus, were found in Wyoming’s Wind River basin. Fossils of Epihippus and Mesohippus were unearthed in Montana’s Beaverhead, Madison, and Broadwater Counties.

Earl Douglass, who discovered the fossil beds of Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, once taught at a one-room schoolhouse in Madison County. He hunted fossils in his spare time. In 1902, returning to Winston, Montana, as a full-fledged paleontologist, he found fragments of three-toed Merychippus, a horse ancestor that lived ten to fifteen million years ago.

As primordial forests gave way to open grassland, single-toed hooves gave early equidae the speed to escape predators. The 3.5-million-year-old Equus simplicidens, the Hagerman Horse, was the first member of genus Equus—the horse and donkey family. It is now Idaho’s state fossil.

During the most recent ice age, the horse evolved into its modern form. As dropping oceans exposed Beringia, the Bering land bridge, horses migrated into Eurasia. Before long, the horse was distributed across the globe. About ten thousand years ago, after humans reached North America, rising seas closed Beringia. Horse migration between the continents ended. After that, whether because of changing climate, disease, or overhunting by newly arrived humans—a continuing debate among scientists—the horse became extinct in the Americas.

Horses evolved in North America. Wikimedia Commons.

RACING’S ANCIENT ROOTS

Horses survived in the Eastern Hemisphere and were first tamed about 5,500 to 5,700 years ago. The speed of the horse served ancient humans well—warfare and horsemanship became inextricably intertwined. Racing honed critical skills.

The earliest treatise on conditioning horses was written about 1345 BCE by Kikkuli. He developed speed and endurance in Hittite chariot horses with techniques now called interval training. In the eighth century BCE, Homer described chariot races in The Iliad. Horse races in the Olympics of Ancient Greece started in 680 BCE. Two thousand years ago, rules for horse racing were carved on a monument to a jockey at a Roman hippodrome in Turkey.

Wagering has equally ancient roots. We cannot know the first time someone said, Wanna bet? We do know bookmakers collected wagers on races in ancient Rome.

From antiquity forward, the horse played a critical role in history—and speed was prized. Horse racing for sport permeated European cultures by the time they began to explore the Americas.

RETURN TO AMERICA

In 1519, after an absence of ten thousand years, horses returned to the American mainland. Hernán Cortés landed on the Mexican coast with a Spanish force that included sixteen horses. The Spanish imported more horses as they conquered the Aztec Empire and moved northward.

Horses thrived. Domesticated herds grew rapidly, and some escaped to the wild. These feral Spanish horses, called mesteño, became the Mustangs of the American West. A few researchers even argue that horses reoccupied the ecological niche of their extinct ancestors: the Smithsonian’s 1991–92 exhibition Seeds of Change introduced the return of the horse with the phrase And the Grass Remembered.⁴

Meeting of Cortez and Montezuma. Wikimedia Commons.

Horses arrived in Montana prior to 1700. Author diagram, from Cowdrey.

Horses officially reached what is today New Mexico with conquistador Juan de Oñate in 1598. The Spanish tried to keep indigenous people from possessing horses but also trained men and boys, especially among the Pueblo, to help manage their herds. Local people quickly recognized the value of a speedy and agile companion for hunting and war.