Racing Media

[Calzone Lord]

Getting off the Ness subject...

here is a cut from an old DRF column that shows the amusing gossip and entertaining stories they would routinely write.

This is from a piece about horses who were expensive purchases and flopped. $20,000 in the 1890's is close to about $500,000 today adjusted for inflation. James R. Keene was one of the most powerful men on Wall Street, he owned several Hall of Fame horses, owned the winner of six different Belmont Stakes, and died worth a staggering $15 million in 1913.

Here is an amusing story about how an illiterate, black, 2nd string trainer of his got him to pay $20,000 for a horse he owned after he scared him into thinking he would beat "The Black Whirlwind" Domino. Domino was a Hall of Famer who racked up $193,550 in earnings in the 1890's.