The sure-fire horse
by Lisa Harkema
The royally-bred colt was not a traditional early talent like many top US trotters. Only at 4 was Peter the Brewer ready to compete at a high level, but then he became an elite trotter in no time and was seen as a likely candidate to be one of the first 2:00 trotters.
Sold as a yearling for $1,350 to JL Sadler of Cleveland at the 25th annual Old Glory Horse Sale in Madison Square Garden in November 1919, Peter the Brewer was then entrusted to trainer William Rosemire. As the colt was “a large, loose, rather ungainly two-year-old”, Rosemire didn’t force him along at all. According to Rosemire, “if Mr. Stadler will not hurry me with this colt he will develop into a great trotter, but he is not the type to do full justice to himself as a two- or three-year-old.” The following year the blue-blooded trotters made the railbirds take notice with some impressive workouts at North Randall, but Peter the Brewer was fortunately allowed to develop at his own rate.
On July 6, 1921, Stadler’s small stable was disposed of in a public auction at North Randall. The three-year-old Peter the Brewer was bought by Edward Stout of Pontiac, MI for $6,000. That Stout shelled out quite a bit for Peter the Brewer was no surprise. A wealthy contractor, he “has picked up one now and then and turned them over to Billy Snow. That driver had a star pacer in gray Zombrewer and Stout admired her so much that when a son of hers was put up he grabbed it.” It wasn’t Snow who got to train Zombrewer’s son, though, as his new owner immediately moved the colt to another trainer at the track, the legendary Nat Ray.