The thoroughbreds have been running at Fort Erie Race Track since 1897, but ask any railbird there which horse took the old border oval’s wildest ride, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: Puss N Boots.
Puss N Boots was a 2-year-old chestnut gelding with a reputation for doing the unexpected. And that’s exactly what he did on Sept. 2, 1961, before 14,000 fans. He had a nice lead on the track’s turf course as he rounded for home with jockey Eddie Behrens aboard in the day’s fourth race, when suddenly, only about 100 yards from the finish, he veered left at full speed, cut through an opening in the hedge and headed for one of the track’s lush infield ponds. He ran right up to its edge but stopped short, causing Behrens to tumble forward right into the pond… splash! Then a couple moments later, Puss N Boots himself slid into the pond—backward… an even bigger splash!
Now both jockey and horse were in the drink… followed by Puss N Boots’s trainer, Frank H. Merrill Jr., who dove in to try to rescue them both. But he couldn’t, so now there were three in the pond. It took about 45 minutes for track workers using a rowboat to fish the colt and both men out of the water---a most unceremonious end to the Vandal Stakes, the important race that Puss N Boots was leading at the time he took his excursion.
Fortunately, the horse was none the worse for wear. In fact, he went on to a successful racing career, winning several key races, despite retaining his quirky nature (once he almost jumped the railing at Florida’s Gulfstream Park simply because a loose piece of paper blew across the track). Puss N Boots’ victories included a win in the 1963 Niagara Stakes, run on the same turf course at Fort Erie that had lured him astray two years earlier---a redemption of sorts.
Merrill, the third-winningest thoroughbred trainer of the 20th century, had fond memories of Puss N Boots, who, after he went for his swim, was written up in Ripley’s Believe It or Not, Esquire Magazine and almost every newspaper and horse racing magazine in North America. “He was a publicity hound, always getting into trouble, in New York, Florida--- trainers didn’t want to run against him,” Merrill recalled. “But he was a good horse, won two or three stakes races, including the Niagara. He was my ‘Wonder Horse’… because for a while there I wondered what he was going to do next!”
Today, the memory of Puss N Boots lives on in the Puss N Boots Cup stakes race, run at Fort Erie every Labour Day weekend since 1986. In the 1996 edition of the race, jockey Francine Villeneuve guided her mount, 99-to-1 shot Dancing for Beans, from last place to first, prompting the horse’s owner and trainer, Robert Elkins, to fulfill his promise to “jump in the lake” if his horse won. A tradition was born.
Ever since, the winning jockey and trainer of the Puss N Boots Cup take a plunge into that same infield pond… just like Puss N Boots himself did all those years ago.
Cast (in order of appearance):
Track announcer: Mike Dugan
Narrator: Susan Banks
Script: Jeff Z. Klein
Sound recording: Cameron Taylor
Sound editing: Micheal Peters
Piano theme: Excerpt from “Buffalo City Guards Parade March,” by Francis Johnson (1839)
Performed by Aaron Dai
Produced by the Niagara Frontier Heritage Project
Associate producer: Karl-Eric Reif
Webpage written by Jeff Z. Klein (Niagara Frontier Heritage Project)
Special thanks to:
Kathryn Larsen, vice president, content distribution, Buffalo Toronto Public Media
S.J. Velasquez, director of audio strategy, Buffalo Toronto Public Media
Jerry Urban, senior radio broadcast engineer
Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski and the Buffalo Common Council for their generous support