The foundation stallion

He is a Hall of Fame sire and one of the initial stallions at Hanover Shoe Farms, who owned 31 broodmares by him upon his death. Though largely forgotten now, Dillon Axworthy was one of the best young trotters of his day – even as a yearling he showed a lot of speed – even though his manners were far from perfect. At stud he was even better and became a massively important stallion.

Dillon Axworthy was bred by CM Buck of Fairbault, Minnesota, who in 1909 had sent his dam Adioo Dillon to Kentucky to bred her to Axworthy. Because Buck were in financial difficulties the foal passed into the hands of James Snell of Lexington, KY. On Oct 15, 1911, it was reported that AB Coxe of Nawbeek Farms had bought Dillon Axworthy for $3,000. It was well known that Coxe was partial to Axworthy blood. Coxe entrusted the yearling to trainer Joe Serrill. Just a week later, on Oct 22, in an article in the Detroit Free Press, stated that “Dillon Axworthy, the yearling colt that was sold by James Snell to AB Coxe for $3,000, stepped a quarter in 35 1/4 seconds handily.” Clearly Dillon had a lot of early speed!

Making his debut on on August 21, 1912, he finished second to Lord Allen in the $11,000 American Horse Breeder Futurity at Salem, NH. A week later he won the 2-year-old trot at Elgin, IL, though he needed three heats to beat the favorite Nowaday Girl, who just a little earlier had set a new world record for 2-year-olds on half-mile tracks. Dillon repeated the feat the following week at Hartford, CT only this time doing it in two straight heats.

In Detroit on Sept 16, the best 2-year-olds met for the $10,000 Horseman Futurity. Lord Allen, Dillon Axworthy and Sweet Alice won a heat each and because of darkness the race-off was postponed until the next day. In the three horse race-off, Dillon took the lead, Lord Allen then overtook him in the backstretch but only for Dillon to come at him late in the final stretch, holding off both Lord Allen on the inside and Sweet Alice who finished strongly on the outside. An article in the Cincinnati Enquirer on Sept 22 called it “in many ways the greatest race ever trotted by two-year-olds.” The Horse Review Futurity at Columbus, OH, 12 days later gave his challengers the opportunity for revenge but even though Lord Allen won the first heat, Dillon came back to win the next two heats. He won the fastest heat in 2:11 1/4 (1.21,6).

Dillon missed out on the Junior Kentucky Futurity and in a summary of the season in the Detroit Free Press it said “The 2 year olds raced faster than they did in 1911 but not so well as in 1910 when two of them beat 2:10 and two others beat 2:11 in their engagements. However, the sickness of Dillon Axworthy may have something to do with 2:10 (1.20,8) not being beaten, for that one appeared to be a grand colt.” The world record stood at the time stood at 2:09 1/2 (1.20,5), set by Justice Brooke two years earlier, and it is not inconceivable that Dillon would have beaten it had he stayed fresh in Kentucky.

With 4 wins in 5 starts, Dillon earned $5,970 as a 2 year old. He was the not winningest 2-year-old, that honor falling to Lord Allen, with seasonal earnings of $6,860, who had taken advantage of Dillon’s illness to win the Junior Kentucky Futurity. Lord Allen was also the fastest 2-year-old with 2:11 (1.21,4), slightly better than Dillon’s 2:11 1/4 (1.21,6). Observers agreed that Dillon was by far better than Lord Allen both in terms of speed and strength but Dillon lacked “perfect manners” and did for example not always leave well.

A class of his own

As Dillon Axworthy was preparing for his 3-year-old season, his dam Adioo Dillon was sold at the Old Glory auction in February 1913 for $4,500. She was bought by Charles A Tanner, the trainer of Uhlan, acting on behalf of CKG Billings, the owner of Uhlan. Billings wanted to buy a lot of promising broodmares to breed to his champion stallion The Harvester. The same spring Coxe bred Dillon Axworthy to several of his own mares. One of these matings produced Miss Bertha Dillon, who won the Matron at 3 and later set a new world record before going on to be one of the best and most influential broodmares in Hanover Shoe Farms’ history.

Making his 3-year-old debut as late as August 5, Dillon finished second to the near-blind Etawah in the $10,000 Horseman’s Futurity. His manners not being perfect, as critics had complained about previously, caused him to loose a lot of ground early in the first heat and he was timed separately at 2:06 (1.18,3) when Etawah won in 2:08 3/4 (1.20). When Dillon got off on even terms in the second heat one might expect him to finally beat Pop Geers’ blind colt but it was not to be and he again finished second. With Etawah not starting in the Matron a week later it was an easy win for Dillon in two straight heats, trotting in 2:10 1/2 and 2:10 1/4 (1.21,1 and 1.21), winning both heats by several lengths. The Detroit Free Press described it as “outclassing his field to such an extend that there was but little semblance of a contest in the homestretch, Dillon Axworthy trotted off with the big end of the $6,585 Matron stake at the opening of the blue ribbon meeting on the state fair track Monday afternoon.”

The story repeated itself at the Rockingham Park with Dillon winning both heats to take home the American Horse Breeder Futurity. Missing the Kentucky Futurity, won by Etawah in 2:05 3/4 (1.18,2) again due to illness, Dillon Axworthy finished the year with only 4 starts, producing a 3-1 record. He made $10,500 as a 3-year-old. His short career consisted of only 9 starts. Since he had sold the stallion Del Coronado, his owner AB Coxe wanted to retire his handsome young star permanently to stud duty at his Nawbeek Farm in Paoli, PA.

The deal that made Hanover

At stud Dillon Axworthy proved to be even better than on the track. In addition to Miss Bertha Dillon he produced stars such as Margaret Dillon p1:58 1/4 (1.13,5), the fastest pacer in the US in 1922, Nella Dillon, winner of the 1917 Junior Kentucky Futurity and 1918 Kentucky Futurity, Sister Bertha, winner of the 1920 Matron Stakes, and Helen Dillon, winner of the 1921 Junior Kentucky Futurity. Horseman Futurity winner Nelson Dillon in turn sired Evensong, one of the most influential broodmares in harness history. Not only did Dillon Axworthy produce good horses, but they generally also had lots of early speed.

When AB Coxe died in April 1926, Lawrence Sheppard bought all of his horses, broodmares and stallions including Dillon Axworthy, for $150,000, in a deal that overnight transformed the Pennsylvania farm, at that point a relatively nobody in the harness racing world, into a powerhouse in the sport. According to a social media comment by Murray Brown, “prior to then, Harper Sheppard and Clinton Myers’ horse holdings consisted of mostly manes and tails as L B Sheppard referred to them. He kept urging them to get rid of them and concentrate on quality. They wouldn’t listen. One summer, when his father and Mr Myers were in Europe, Lawrence B Sheppard sold all the manes and tales. As told to me, Harper Sheppard was so angry that he didn’t speak to his son for months..”

Dillon thus became one of Hanover’s foundation stallions and stood stud until he was retired at the end of the 1933 breeding season. Incidentally, his last foal was a 1934 colt, Hambletonian winner Dean Hanover. The latter achieved immortality when he set a world record with 11-year-old Alma Sheppard driving back in 1937. Alma was a natural around the horses even at such a young age, which she showed with Dillon Axworthy, who wasn’t known to be easy horse. In his book, Don Evans wrote “Alma Sheppard was a delight, a pint-sized thing with curly blonde hair, whose fondness for horses was evident practically from infancy. When she was four she was handling the reins of trotters and pacers, steering from the laps of trainer Tom Berry or her father. Soon she had her own scaled down sulky, circling the big track out behind the stallion barn with a little grey mare. She made friends with most of the horses on the farms, even the aging, cantankerous stallion Dillon Axworthy. Dillon, a handful for even the hardiest of caretakers, would permit Alma to enter his stall and wrap his legs. Then out they would go, Alma holding the end of his lead shank while the ill-tempered stallion contentedly grazed on green grass outside the barn.”

Dillon died in October 1939 at the age of 29. Upon his death, Hanover Shoe Farms owned 31 broodmares by Dillon Axworthy, a clear testament to his breeding excellence and influence.

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