The First Pride of Hanover
by Lisa Harkema
He was the world’s first 1:56 trotter and a prized possession of Lawrence Sheppard’s fledging Hanover Shoe Farms. Peter Manning was a natural talent who improved quickly with little work. In fact, the legendary gelding was so good it required a horse of Greyhound’s caliber to beat his world record.
William Monroe Wright, chairman of Chicago’s Calumet Baking Powder, initially raised trotters more as a diversion, occasionally racing one or two. From his friends FE Marsh, owner of the Grattan Farm near Chicago, he purchased a young mare called Glendora in 1908. She was a very fast mare, able to trot in 2:15 (1.23,9) but had soundness issues and ended up taking a record of 2:25 3/4 (1.30,6). Wright then bred her to juvenile champion Azoff 2,2:14 1/4 (1.23,4), owned by another Chicago friend. The first Azoff-Glendora mating was a filly, supposedly of wonderful speed but injured early. Repeating the breeding, the second product was a colt named Peter Manning born 1916. Wright then put Glendora up for sale at an auction in Chicago.
In 1918, Peter Manning had been advertised for sale for $100, but nobody fancied the two-year-old enough to buy him. According to an article in the Pittsburgh Daily Post on Oct 5, 1919, Peter Manning was broken to harness in April that year by his trainer Harry Putnam and trotted his first 2:30 (1.33,2) mile in training in July. Making his first start in Libertyville in August as a 3-year-old, he won in 2:17 1/4 (1.25,3). At the Wisconsin State Fair at Milwaukee a month later he ran a time trial in 2:10 (1.20,8). He was initially entered into the Kentucky Futurity, but Putnam and Wright felt the horse was insufficiently prepared to handle three demanding heats so early in his career. Instead Peter Manning ran against the clock on Oct 4 where he equaled the world record for 3-year-old geldings when he trotted 2:06 1/2 (1:18.6), that record having been set by Easton a year earlier. What was particularly impressive was that Peter had ran the last half in 1:00 1/2 and the last quarter in 29 1/4.