Harness racing
b. 1851, near Lebanon, TN
d. Sept. 3, 1924
Harness racing was centered almost entirely on trotting horses until Geers came north with some Tennessee pacers in the late 1870s. He soon demonstrated that pacers are naturally faster than trotters, and the number of pacing races increased rapidly during the 1880s.
Geers was also instrumental in the acceptance of the bicycle sulky. He tested one against the high-wheeled sulky in 1892 and discovered that one of his horses ran a full two seconds faster pulling the bike sulky. When Geers entered a race at Detroit with Honest George pulling one of the new sulkies, the crowd laughed at the sight. But Honest George won three of four heats and placed second in the other. The old high-wheeler was almost instantly obsolete.
Among the horses Geers trained was The Harvester, who was undefeated in 1908, and Single G, who won 262 of 434 heats from 1912 through 1926. His last champion was Peter Manning, who broke the half-mile track record with a time of 2:02 1/2 at South Bend, IN, on August 21, 1924.
Less than two weeks later, on September 3, Geers was killed when he was thrown from his sulky in a race at Wheeling, WV. He landed on his head and died without regaining consciousness.
Hall of Fame of the Trotter
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