The Sport of Kings

QUESTION: I love horses. When I was about 8 years old, my dad took me to a horse race. Ever since I’ve gone to horse races whenever I can, especially some of the famous ones like those if the Triple Crown. I especially like going to the Kentucky Derby. Over the years, I’ve collected an assortment of memorabilia from these races—tickets, programs, souvenirs. I’ve never seen anything written up about them, so I’m not sure if any of this stuff is even collectible. Can you tell me what might be collectible? I’d love to get serious and start a real collection.

ANSWER: True, there hasn’t been much written about horseracing collectibles. But as with any other sport or event, there’s certainly plenty of memorabilia floating around. While the items you have directly relate to specific races, there are others that relate to specific horses and race tracks. To understand just what treasures are out there, we have to go back to see how this all started.

The history of racing on mounted horses dates back to ancient Greece and Rome. But it was the English in the 12th century that began to selectively breed horses. In 1110, Henry I, King of England, imported an Arabian stallion from Spain, which he mated with English mares to breed horses suitable for warfare. As the breeding continued, the horses evolved into sleek racers.

Informal races between purebred mounts became popular, and in 1174, Smithfield Track, the first public racecourse built since Roman times, was constructed in London. The race horses eventually became bred out or “thoroughly bred.” Breeders realized that they couldn’t make them any better or faster through breeding and thus called them thoroughbreds. Thoroughbred racing subsequently became a favorite pastime of English nobility and was soon dubbed “the sport of kings.”



In 1730, a Virginia plantation owner imported a 21-year-old stallion named Bulle Rock. his arrival marked the beginning of many mares and stallions being imported to the colonies for the purpose of racing and breeding. Major horse centers developed in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and the Carolinas, and even presidential candidates caught the fever.

America's interest in horse racing continued unabated, and its passion for the pastime was evidenced by more than 750 lithographic prints produced by the firm of Currier & Ives. One of the most famous horses of the mid-19th century was Lexington, bred by Dr. Elisha Warfield, who historians consider the Father of the Kentucky Turf. Currier & Ives published the print “The Celebrated Horse Lexington by "Boston" out of Alice Carneal, circa 1855.”

During the Civil War, all horseracing stopped because both armies needed many horses for battle. But in 1867, the first running of the Belmont Stakes occurred in New York, and racing gradually spread south and west. The first Kentucky Derby happened in 1875, and in 1894 the Jockey Club, patterned after the British Jockey breeding of thoroughbred horses while maintaining high ethical standards in horse racing, was formed and incorporated in New York State. Although the Jockey Club brought order to the sport, by the turn of the 20th century a reformist sentiment that disapproved of gambling was gaining momentum. Many states made bookmaking illegal, and by 1908 only 25 American and six Canadian racetracks remained open. By 1913, racing had returned to Belmont Park, Elmont, New York, and although World War I diminished the amount of racing activity, the pastime continued.



From 1919 to 1920, a colt named Man o' War dominated the American horse racing scene, setting several American track records. He won by as much as 100 lengths, and lost only once in 21 starts in 1919 to a horse named Upset. After amassing nearly $250,000 in winnings, Man o' War’s owner retired him to stud in 1920. Racing enthusiasts consider Man o' War to be the greatest race horse that ever lived. Other  horses of the 20th century that have great collectiblity include Secretariat, Seabiscuit, Citation, and Kelso.

The book and subsequent film about Seabiscuit catapulted him to the spotlight and his collectibles soared in popularity. Today, the program from his final race at the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap sells for over $1,000.

In fact, racehorses are the primary influencer in the value of a racing program. Due to their age, Man o' War programs seldom turn up, and collectors should expect to pay $3,000 to $12,000 depending on the race and condition of the program. Although Secretariat progras are more common, they stilml. command high prices. His 2-year-old races in 1972 start at $300 and a mint, unused Kentucky Derby program will still fetch $250, even though thousands were printed.

Condition, age, rarity, race, and to a much lesser extent, the actual racecourse. Here, Kentucky Derby programs are winning by a wide margin. Pre-1929 Derby programs are extremely rare, and start at over $2,000. Programs from Triple Crown winning years— the year in which one horse wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes—go for five times what the same program goes for if there’s no winner.

Unfortunately, betting, itself, is a high-stakes sport, resulting in a number of fake collectibles. One item that’s particularly prevalent in the fake market is the lapel pin, first produced in the 1980s. Each of the major races now has one of these little souvenirs. For instance, fake ones exist for the 1985 and 1986 Breeder’s Cup, but the lapel pins weren’t even made for it until 1988.

There’s an endless variety of authentic items available for those who love the sport. Posters, prints, weather vanes and sculptures depicting racehorses are always of interest, as are race-specific items, such as Kentucky Derby glasses. There are even elaborate board games, such as the Saratoga Sweepstakes Horse Racing Game with coin dispenser, six numbered horses and riders, and three iron gates and a finish line.

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An American Tradition

QUESTION: My grandmother always had several hooked rugs on the floors in her house. I grew up playing on them and grew to love them. As an adult, I’ve learned how to make them and have purchased several antique ones. But no one seems to know anything about antique hooked rugs, other than approximately when they were made. Can you tell me more about these beautiful old rugs? I’d love to know how rug hooking began and how it got to where it is today.

ANSWER: The making of hooked rugs dates from New England in the early 19th century. Poor farmers’ wives, in need of some padding on cold dirt floors, began using old fabric scraps no longer suitable for clothing which they cut into strips and pulled through old burlap sacks to create mats for their floors. And while these original rugs were somewhat crude, the women who made them got ideas for improving the process and for decorative patterns from their friends and neighbors.

For centuries the method of pulling loops of colored material through a mesh of open fabric was well known but the settlers who came to America. The technique of pulling up or hooking rag strips and woolen yarns through a woven fabric base proved to be an economical and undemanding method of making floor coverings for drafty homes. Plus the simplicity the simplicity of the hooking process allowed rug makers the freedom to express their individual creativity.

While the craft began earlier in the 19th century, it wasn’t until the 1850s, when jute burlap from the Indies, which lasted longer than earlier materials, came into common use for burlap feed sacks, that rug hooking gained popularity. Women would stretch the empty burlap feed sacks onto a wooden frame, draw a pattern with a charcoal stick, and then draw yarn or thread through the burlap. And while the result was usually artful as well as very practical, it look a long time to make a rug. To make a rug with an intricate pattern took nearly as long as it took to sew a full quilt. 

By the 1860's, the art of making hooked rugs had spread all over New England and as far away as Ohio, Tennessee, and North Carolina.

By 1867, Philena Moxley of Massachusetts had begun stamping patterns of horses, dogs and other animals onto the burlap to allow homemakers to then produce hooked rugs without first sketching a pattern. By the 1870's peddlers were traveling from house to house selling stenciled designs on burlap. It wasn’t long before general storekeepers began selling hooked rug patterns and completed rugs.

Ebenezer Ross enhanced the process of hooked rug making in 1886 with the invention of a mechanical punch-hook in Toledo, Ohio. Prior to that time, rug makers used crochet hooks made of wood, bone, or metal. Ross and his company became a major supplier of the punch-hook in both the eastern and central United States, and by 1891 the company also published a catalog of 56 color-printed patterns. Ross’ catalog stated, "every household has a supply of odds and ends, rags and ravelings which can be woven into articles beauty and utility.”

In 1895 the Montgomery Ward catalog featured patterns that included a Spaniel dog with  lake and mountains in the background.


Rugs depicting ships, landscapes, and people required far more skill than the simpler deigns. Those who were unable to purchase a commercial pattern often relied on a talented family member or friend to  draw the design. One or more family members would then hook the rug.

Because pictorial patterns took longer and required more skill, many rug makers chose, instead, to use floral or geometric patterns.

Floral patterns very often involved combinations of trees, flowers, vines, branches, and leaves. One of the most common featured a bouquet of flowers in the middle surrounded by a vine border. They were frequently produced on commercial patterns following the Civil War and into the1920's and 1930's.

Rug makers usually produced geometric patterns—featuring rectangles, squares, circles, and ovals—freehand. They were as popular as homemade patterns as they were commercial ones.

Still, commercial patterns persisted. Among the many innovators was Edward Sands Frost, a disabled veteran, who sold patterns made from metal stencils to the women of New England and built up a business which flourished into the 20th century.

By 1908, Sears, Roebuck and Company joined the many companies offering patterns with a selection that included a pretty flower design, Arabian horse, a large lion, and two kittens playing on a carpet.

During the 1920's and early 1930's, cottage industries of hooked rug making flourished in sites like Deerfield Industries in Deerfield, Massachusetts, Rosemont Industries in Marion, Virginia, Pine Burr Studio in Apison, Tennessee, and the Spinning Wheel in Asheville, North Carolina.

The popularity of hooked rugs peaked in the 1850s and again in the 1890s as part of the Arts and Crafts Movement which lasted well beyond the turn of the century, and as part of the American Colonial Revival of the latter 1920's. They were also popular for a time during the 1950s era of Early American decor.

Because hooked rugs were made in the home for personal use, they can seldom be traced back to their original maker or pinned down to an exact date. Those believed to be over 100 years old command the highest prices.