Imagine if one of harness racing's best broodmares went missing, possibly sold without identification? On this day in 1911, newspaper headlines bemoaned the whereabouts of a top mare known as Amy Smith
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Amy Smith was sold in 1907 at the Old Glory auction by Frank G. Jones for $80 to a peddler by the name of Stein. Four years later, her son Anvil won the $10,000 Merchants & Manufacturers trotting prize near Detroit with the legendary E.F. "Pop" Geers driving. (To read about the race as it appeared in the Montreal Gazette in 1911, click here.)
The loss of Amy Smith was also noteworthy at the time as she was in foal at the time of sale, so a valuable brother or sister to Anvil was likely somewhere in New York's east side.
"Now that its brother has taken a big stake, trained men are scouring the dark lanes of that section, looking at everything on four legs hitched to wagons stabled there," stated the Youngstown Vindicator.
Of note, Anvil (or The Anvil) was just four generations removed from Hambletonian.