150th Anniversary of Birth of Pittsburgh Phil

George Ellsworth Smith was born in Sewickley, PA one hundred and fifty years ago today.  Nicknamed Pittsburgh Phil during his time in Chicago wagering on horses, he was the most famous and successful horseplayer of his era.   He lived for only 42 years - until February 1, 1905.  He would see only the beginning of the automobile era but likely had the prescience to see how the "horseless carriage" would eventually replace the horse in the day to day activity of most people.  He would not live to see the closing of the great metropolitan tracks of New York in 1910 due to anti-gambling legislation and would also not see the rebirth of horse racing with the advent of parimutuel wagering in the 1920s and 1930s. 

It's tempting to imagine Pittsburgh Phil living to the old age of 86 as his fellow Pennsylvanian gambler and horse owner Colonel Edward R. Bradley did.  Perhaps settling down in the Bluegrass after the New York tracks shuttered and living the life of a horse breeder and helping to finance his brother and nephew in baseball team ownership.  Continuing to enjoy traveling to his beloved Hot Springs and seeing the birth and growth of Oaklawn Jockey Club. 

The opening paragraph of his biography in the book American Turf in 1898 still rings true today - 150 years on:

"His experiences have to a remarkable degree, constituted one of the most romantic sides to racing affairs in this generation.  Could his biography be recounted in full, it would be most interesting reading, and full of suggestiveness as illustrating the opportunities that the turf affords to a young man of capacity and dash."

July 5, 1969 - Hope Goddard Iselin and Sir Henry Cecil

Forty three years ago today, Henry Cecil won his first major race - the 82nd running of the Eclipse at Sandown Park.  The winner was a 5 year old named Wolver Hollow - the horse was named after the Upper Brookville, Long Island estate of her 101 year owner - Hope Goddard Iselin whose husband was the famed yachtsman of his day - C. Oliver Iselin.  It was the final start of Mrs. Iselin's long career on the turf in both American and in England and likely her richest winner.  She had grown disenchanted with the commercialization of American racing in the early 1960s but maintained her stable in England where she was quoted as saying "There I am treated like a lady, instead of a business corporation" (NY Times, April 6, 1970).  She would disperse her stable (8 horses including Wolver Hollow who was given to her longtime trainer Sir Cecil Boyd Rochfort who had retired the previous season) in the following week. When Mrs. Iselin died the next April at the age of 102, she would leave Hopelands Gardens to the City of Aiken where she maintained a residence for many years and helped to develop the area as a winter training area for racing.  Today this is the location of the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame & Museum - a beautiful spot of racing history in South Carolina. 

Sir Henry Cecil will turn 70 in January and is believed to still be in the business of training top-class thoroughbreds.