The best there ever was : Dan Patch and the dawn of the American century

His winning percentage was well above Jordan's shooting average or Woods's domination of golf tournaments. And he sold products and drew spectators like no one had ever done. He was hands-down the most famous athlete in America's most popular spectator sport, and exactly one hundred years ago you would have been hard pressed to find anybody in the country who didn't know his name. He was Dan Patch, and he was a racehorse. At the turn of the last century, harness racing drew larger crowds and offered bigger paychecks than any other sport. Its stars were household names, and Dan Patch was both the most celebrated and the richest. As successful as he was on the track, Dan Patch was also America's first "marketing machine": the horse who could sell cigars, washing machines, stoves, automobiles, and animal feed, just by the presence of his name and photograph. The Best There Ever Was examines the evolution of sports marketing through the lives of Dan Patch and the three men who owned him: an Indiana breeder, Dan Messner; M. E. Sturgis, who sold the horse for $20,000 (a fortune in those days) and spent the rest of his life trying to buy him back; and Marion W. Savage of Minneapolis, whose entrepreneurial skills presaged today's sports marketing geniuses. Any athlete who can draw a 90,000-person crowd, offer up world records, and then sell a coal stove with his name on it may well be the best by anybody's standards. A fun and fascinating read for sports lovers. “All the elements of a good yarn . . . Dan Patch’s story is as much about humans and their ambitions as it is the tale of a horse.” —The Wall Street Journal His winning percentage was well above Michael Jordan’s shooting average or Tiger Woods’s domination of golf tournaments. And he sold products and drew crowds like no one had ever done. He was hands-down the most famous athlete in America’s most popular spectator sport, and in the early twentieth century you would have been hard pressed to find an American who didn’t know his name. He was Dan Patch, and he was a racehorse. At that time, harness racing drew larger crowds and offered bigger paychecks than any other sport. Its stars were household names, and Dan Patch was both the most celebrated and the richest. As successful as he was on the track, Dan Patch was also America’s first “marketing machine”: the horse who could sell cigars, coal stoves, automobiles, and animal feed, just by the presence of his name and photograph. The Best There Ever Was delves into why and how Dan Patch captured the nation’s heart, taking us into the world of a majestic animal and the humans who surrounded him, and into a time when the horseless carriage would soon overtake the horse, but one four-legged athlete could draw a crowd of ninety thousand excited spectators as he toured the country in his custom railroad car. Includes photographs and illustrations A century before Secretariat, Michael Jordan, and Tiger Woods, Dan Patch captured virtually every harness racing record and the hearts (and wallets) of the American public. This title shows that even people who weren't racing fans were caught up in the horse's achievements, on which his owner capitalized with Dan Patch endorsing products. Looks at Dan Patch, the famous harness racehorse that wowed crowds at the turn of the last century and went on to become a profitable marketing tool for his owners