Horse Racing

East Dubuque Local Area History Project

	by L R. 3/17/00
	At the turn of the century, Dubuque harness racing was the top of the nation. Some of the names of the horses were as common as the professional athletes today. Dan Patch was as famous as Michael Jordan. The horses raced at Nutwood Park. Nutwood Park was just east of the Sageville Road, between Sageville Road and John Deere Road. It was named for a race horse owned by Henry Stout.

	Henry Stout decided to build a trotting and breeding stable in 1894. The stable was near Asbury Road outside the city, at what is now the corner of Carter and Chaney. Stout sent his son, Frank, to Kentucky to find a well-known horse for his breeding stable. Instead, he brought home an unknown 16 year old black stallion named Nutwood which he bought for $22,000. Everyone thought that he was crazy to spend that much on a horse that had run his last race six years before. That amount of money was considered to be foolish.

	Nutwood was powerful in his muscles and in his legs. The owners of the mares had to pay money for Nutwood to breed them. The fee for a mare to be bred to Nutwood was $1,000, and Nutwood would breed about sixty-five mares a year. Horsemen from all over the nation brought in their brood mares. Stout entered the horse business to make money. When Nutwood died in 1896, he had earned his owner $650,000. It turned out that it was not a foolish purchase after all! After he died, Nutwood was buried on the Highland Stock Farm.. Frank Stout left $10,000 in his will for a monument to be built on Nutwood’s grave, but it was never built.

	Dubuque built a new race track and fairgrounds in August of 1874. Some of the stalls were rented for $1,160.00. Dubuque horse racing was big business. The Company of Nutwood Park was established in 1894. They lengthened the track from a half of a mile to a mile, and named the new racetrack after Stout’s horse. Nutwood Park was nationally recognized. One hundred horses were entered in the 1894 races, and three hundred forty-eight horses were entered in 1898. Nutwood Park was part of the Great Western racing Circuit, and was a booming business in Dubuque.

	1899 was the biggest year of all for horse racing in Dubuque. In 1899, the Dubuque Trotting and Pacing Association was formed. They held a week-long fair with the largest bill of races in the nation, and offered large prizes. A great new grandstand was built and the track was widened. One of the street cars that ran between the park and the city estimated about 8,000 people rode to and from the races on opening day. Excursion trains came from all over the U.S. and dropped passengers at the track. The hotels were all filled, and some people slept in the park. The tickets cost about one dollar apiece. Although the track was packed for the beginning of the fair, when the last race was run on Saturday, the seats in the grandstand were empty. Nutwood Park closed soon after that. The first airport in Dubuque was built on the site of Nutwood Park. The trotters, pacers, the bright colors, and the cheering of the crowds is gone.

	To enter the races at Nutwood Park was not cheap. That’s why the other tracks like Grandview and Locust were the favorites in the winter season. Grandview Track was one mile from Delhi Street to the Grandview fire station. Grandview was one hundred feet wide and could easily handle four to five horses with a single seat sleigh. Between Eighth and Seventeenth streets ran the Locust Street track. Races had not been planned, but people were waiting in lines on Sunday afternoon. Racing at Locust Street was banned in 1877. By 1900, this type of racing was stopped altogether.

	Three years after Nutwood died, the Stouts sold the farm and all of the horses. Henry Stout died in 1900 and the farm was willed to his son Frank. The stock barns, stables, and tracks went to his sister Fannie. She seeded the tracks. She flooded the boundary of the track and turned it into a pond. All of the buildings were demolished. Fannie died on December 28, 1914, with no will, and the property was sold to the Sisters of Mercy. The house was torn down and replaced with a brick house in 1921. This home still remains. The property was turned over to the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1969.

	Bibliography Dubuque Folklore: A Contribution from American Trust and Savings Bank to Dubuqueland in Celebration of Our Nations’ Bicentennial 1776-1976. Dubuque, Iowa: American Trust and Savings Bank, 1976. Lyon, Randolph W. Dubuque: The Encyclopedia. Dubuque, Iowa: First National Bank of Dubuque, 1991.