The Biggest Daddy Of Them All

To some harness horsemen, Adios is merely the greatest of standardbred sires. To his extreme admirers, however, this 22-year-old patriarch is the mightiest father of all the mammals, past or present. Really far-out Adios buffs such as James C. Harrison of Pennsylvania's giant standardbred nursery. The Hanover Shoe Farms, throw in the fish and the birds.

"I know of no male of any species," says Harrison, "who has dominated his field the way Adios has harness racing. He gets champions out of any mares, by any stallions, out of any bloodlines."

Since Hanover Shoe happens to own a one-third share of Adios, Harrison is perhaps a touch biased. But he, and anyone else who goes to the record, can justify all extravagant superlatives.

Take Adios' achievements in the Messenger Stake, the richest harness race of, all. His offspring have won four of the six Messengers so far, twice finishing one, two, three. Next Friday's $169,000 Messenger at Roosevelt Raceway will make special news for horsemen only if the sons of Adios get whipped. There are three Adios 3-year-olds in the race, including the redoubtable Lehigh Hanover. "When you get the Adioses to the head of the stretch," says Stanley Dancer,-the New Jersey reinsman who drives Lehigh, "they dig in and go."

Because they do so in large numbers and with fantastic consistency, new glory accrues to Adios every year. As things stand now, this bold-eyed, smallish, symmetrically formed stallion has:

?Led the sire list in earnings by his sons and daughters for seven consecutive years, topping the No. 1 Thoroughbred sire the last four years as well (although flat-racing purses add up to three times the amount raced for by standardbreds).

?Accumulated 10-year earnings of $10,099,726 by his get—a figure more than twice that of his leading contenders, Rodney and Hoot Mon.

?Sired the absolute speed record holder for harness racing's standard one-mile distance, Adios Butler, whose mark is 1:54 3/5 and who has just entered the stud at a fancy $3,000 service fee.

?Sired the world record holder at ages 2 and 3, Bullet Hanover, whose clockings are 1:57 and 1:55 3/5, respectively.

?Sired 52 performers who have been timed in two minutes or less. (Timed speed is far more important in harness racing than in flat racing, and two minutes for the mile is par; two-minute horses automatically join the sport's elite. Nearest to Adios in two-minute production is the late, much esteemed Volomite, with 33 performers).