How a horse named Dan Patch became a national celebrity and pioneered the field of sports marketing
Every year, thousands flock to Indiana for an event celebrating one of the state’s most famous athletes. A century after his heyday in the sport, he is recognized in the highest echelon of storied Hoosiers, both in Indiana and across the country.
Dan Patch is studied by fourth graders along with President Benjamin Harrison and other figures who figure prominently in Indiana history. Railroad lines and highways are named after him. His story transcends sports and has achieved mythical status.
His own biography parallels pivotal decades in Indiana’s transition from farm life to a more industrial society. At the turn of the 20th century, Dan Patch was perhaps the best-known sports figure in the country and among the most recognizable Hoosiers of all. Every Indiana resident has an interest in his story.
A superstar celebrity
Decades before Babe Ruth, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, an Indiana-born horse named Dan Patch was one of America’s first superstar celebrity athletes. Led by a marketing-savvy owner, Dan Patch’s remarkable success as an advertising icon is responsible for many of the marketing and branding techniques still in use today. From chewing tobacco to washing machines to automobiles, the Dan Patch name was pure gold for companies trying to differentiate themselves. His face was everywhere. Many of the advertising tactics we take for granted today can be traced back to Dan Patch. If today’s kids want to “be like Mike,” a century ago Dan Patch was the symbol of unsurpassed excellence. American businesses and consumers couldn’t get enough. In fact, in the opinion of Frederick Klein of Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Journal, “it can be argued that, adjusted for inflation and population size, he was bigger than anyone today.”
A legacy that endures
Dan Patch’s influence on Indiana life, indeed American life, is evident every spring.
On a Saturday at Hoosier Park in Anderson, thousands will gather to enjoy the Dan Patch Invitational Pace, a race that pits some of the best harness racehorses in the country in a race worth $200,000. It is the most important race of the season. Hundreds of thousands of dollars will change hands when fans on the track at Anderson and at off-track venues in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Merrillville handicap the field. His birthplace of Oxford, Indiana, hosts an annual Dan Patch Days festival that began in 1901. There is a virtual cottage industry in Dan Patch’s memorabilia. An Internet search for his name returns 3,200 pages, and in fact, there are many sites devoted solely to the lore and legend of Dan Patch. Just as an example, a Dan Patch thermometer recently sold at auction for $3,000.
Dan Patch heralded a new era in consumer marketing
The reason for its enduring influence has as much to do with marketing as its record success on the race track. The rags-to-riches horse and his owner, Marion Savage, overcame rocky starts to their careers to achieve phenomenal success.
To understand the Dan Patch phenomenon, you need to appreciate the popularity of harness racing in turn-of-the-century America, including Indiana. Dan Patch was born in 1896, when horses were still the main means of transportation; By the time of his death in 1916, horseless carriages called automobiles were rapidly making horses obsolete as a mode of passenger transportation.
During Dan Patch’s lifetime, harness racing was immensely popular, especially in rural America. County fairs across the United States hosted races, attended by tens of thousands. An appearance in Muncie towards the end of Dan Patch’s career drew 20,000 spectators, at a time when Muncie’s population was less than 23,000 in total.
It was into this pre-automotive America that Dan Patch was born at Oxford, conceived for a stud fee of $150. The horse at birth did not look like a winner at all. His ankles were badly twisted; at first he needed the help of a trainer to get to his feet, and he developed a wildly bouncing gait. Some neighbors even suggested “turning it down”.
But his original owners saw something in Dan Patch. They worked with him slowly and he finally started racing at the age of 4. He immediately surpassed the competition. He never lost a race. In fact, other owners stopped racing their horses against him, so his owners switched to time trial exhibitions.
The magic of marketing: decades ahead of its time
The legend of Dan Patch began to transcend sports when he was bought by Marion Savage. Savage owned a large cattle feed manufacturing company. Savage had failed in farming and agriculture-related businesses until he founded the International Stock Food Company and built it into the largest company of its kind. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a marketing genius. Like Dan Patch, he started badly but now found his rhythm.
Dan Patch set track records that stood for decades. His reputation became world-wide in 1906 when he broke the world record with an unofficial mile pace of 1:55. Savage found several creative ways to exploit the horse’s popularity. He developed creative contracts to turn a profit at the country fairs where the horse appeared, and promoted these appearances relentlessly. The horse earned thousands more for Savage in stud fees. In addition to using Dan Patch’s likeness to “endorse” his own company, Savage licensed Dan Patch’s likeness to other companies. Products ranging from cigarettes to soft drinks, baking soda, toys, furniture, stoves, clocks, thermometers, clocks, sleds, cutlery, china, stoves, and washing machines all sported Dan Patch’s name or likeness. There was even a Dan Patch car. As the “spokesperson” for Savage’s feed company, the legend of Dan Patch was used to suggest the performance-enhancing benefits of using International Stock Food products. The company produced brochures promoting the farm where Dan Patch lived and sent them out to customers. The posts were filled with exploits by Dan Patch and advertisements for International Stock products.
While Dan Patch provided Savage with riches, the owner treated his horse like royalty, with his own private train carriage and a stable so luxurious it was called the “Taj Mahal.”
Dan Patch and Marion Savage died just days apart in July 1916. Their funerals were held on the same day. The country around them had been changing rapidly, from a nation of farmers to a nation of machine builders and car drivers. It had also become a nation of consumers. With that change came a new era in product branding and promotion, brought about through a special horse and its owner’s visionary zeal for merchandising. Both the horse and the owner were decades ahead of their time. The horse built the brands, and the brands helped build the horse to larger-than-life mythical status.