The driving clubs of greater The driving clubs of greater Boston . drivingclubsofgr00linn Year: 1914 134 The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston about the year 1857. Among the trainers lo- cated there was the famous Dan Mace and Hiram Woodruff. Most of the races at the track were matches, frequently made over the bar at Porter's Hotel, which at that time was a famous road house. Soon after the close of the Civil War the Cambridge track was cut up into building lots. The South End Driving Park was, so far as known, the first of the tracks to be built in the vicinity of Boston. It was a half-mile c
The driving clubs of greater The driving clubs of greater Boston . drivingclubsofgr00linn Year: 1914 134 The Driving Clubs of Greater Boston about the year 1857. Among the trainers lo- cated there was the famous Dan Mace and Hiram Woodruff. Most of the races at the track were matches, frequently made over the bar at Porter's Hotel, which at that time was a famous road house. Soon after the close of the Civil War the Cambridge track was cut up into building lots. The South End Driving Park was, so far as known, the first of the tracks to be built in the vicinity of Boston. It was a half-mile course. It was opened to the public in 1852, and was located on the land now occupied by the Boston City Hospital. In 1855 'Uncle Jock' Bowen made his in- itial visit to Boston, bringing with him from Royalton, Vt., the trotter Tom Hyer, which he had named in a match race at the South End track, but the horse was taken sick ant! did not start, and a few days later 'Uncle Jock' sold the gelding. The principal event at this course appears to have been the race Dan Mace won with Ethan Allen, on October 15, 1858, when, for a purse of $1,000, he defeated 'Ard' Car- penter's Columbus Junior and John Pfifer's Hiram Drew. The time of the heats was 2:37, 2:35, 2133, the last one being consid- ered phenomenally fast. A gala crowd was present. Hiram Drew was a Maine bred and owned horse, Ethan Allen came from Ver- mont, and Columbus, Jr., from near Lake Champlain. Ethan Allen, at that time, was owned by Ned Maynard, a prominent Boston horseman, and had been trained for the race over the Cambridge track. The judges wore stove-pipe hats and 'choker' collars, and from the ac- counts of the race there was repeated scoring, the crafty Mace playing his cards carefully to get the edge and vantage over his com- petitors. Sam Langmaid, a Cambridge dealer in horses, whenever he got hold of an animal which showed an inclination of possessing speed, would have him slipped over to the South End track a
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