by Dean A. Hoffman

by Dean Hoffman

Forty seven years ago, Paige West drove into harness racing history.

He did so by sitting behind a bay speedball named Adios Butler for a time trial at The Red Mile. Paige West was attempting to go where no harness driver had ever gone, and Adios Butler was just the horse to take him there.

The time trial was ostensibly to beat Adios Butler’s 1:55.4 record as a 3-year-old, but everyone knew that the real goal was to beat 1:55. No horse had ever done that.

Billy Direct was clocked in 1:55 in a time trial at Lexington in 1938, but no horse had gone faster. Adios Harry equaled that mark in a race at Vernon Downs in 1955, but couldn’t shade it. Could The Butler do it?

Indeed he could—and did. With Paige West in the sulky and Delvin Miller and Eddie Cobb driving the prompters, Adios Butler paced into the books with a 1:54.3 effort.

West was also in the bike a year later when Adios Butler paced a final eighth at Hollywood Park in 11.2 seconds in 1961. Yes, that makes for a quarter in 22.4 and—sustained over a mile— that equals a mile around 1:31.

USTA Photo

In 1960, with Paige West in the sulky, Adios Butler paced into the record books with a 1:54.3 time trial effort.

Today, Paige West is 74 and has been retired since 1990. He was a young man—just 25—when he fell in love with the yearling Adios Butler at the 1957 Harrisburg sale.

“He had the sharpest looking head I’ve ever seen,” recalled West. “He had good conformation, too, and he was well bred, being by Adios out of a Billy Direct mare.”

West took the youngster to Macon, Georgia where he was based for the winter. He liked him from the beginning. The colt was owned by West and his friend George Phalen, an established driver on the New York circuit.

Phalen drove him to a 2:04.1h track record for 2-year-olds at Ocean Downs in late July, 1958, but that was the high point of his season.

“He got a virus and didn’t come out of that race at Ocean Downs so good,” says West, a native of Snow Hill, Maryland.

Adios Butler’s freshman slate read 10 starts with a 4-0-1 placing.

As a 3-year-old, Adios Butler was driven by the veteran Clint Hodgins and they swept to a Triple Crown triumph, the first pacer ever to do so. He won the Cane Pace (then the Cane Futurity) over Adios Oregon and bested Meadow Al in the Messenger and Little Brown Jug.

The Butler then went to Lexington and zoomed around The Red Mile in a 1:55.4 time trial, the fastest ever by a sophomore.

Early in 1960, Adios Butler was syndicated for $600,000, then a record price. Part of the agreement was that Eddie Cobb would drive him.

West continued to handle the training duties and never ceased to marvel at The Butler’s intelligence. Fortunately, the horse was sound with the exception of some minor stifle problems as a 3-year-old.

As a 4-year-old, Adios Butler won 13 of his 17 starts and was named Horse of the Year.

That fall, when Adios Butler paced to his record 1:54.3 time trial, the knowledgeable crowd at Lexington gave him an ovation that lasted several minutes.

“There was a lot of excitement that day,” says West in his low-key manner. He was just 29 years old at the time.

After becoming the fastest horse in history, Adios Butler was shipped to California, sharing a plane with Bullet Hanover, the ’60 Jug winner that had broken Adios Butler’s sophomore world record with a 1:55.3 time trial. The TWA plane in which the Butler and Bullet were traveling caught fire while in the air, but the pilot was able to land safely in Chicago.

In his first start as 5-year-old in 1961, Adios Butler was tossed to the lions, locking horns with the free-for-allers. (In that era, there were no qualifying races.) Adios Butler was beaten in his first start, then won the last 13 races of his career.

Although The Butler was booted up with knee, tendon, and quarter boots, West said those were worn strictly for protection. The horse was superbly-gaited and perhaps even better on a half-mile track than he was on the mile tracks.

“He paced in 1:57.4 on a half-mile track [at Roosevelt Raceway],” said West. No horse had ever gone around four turns any faster and more than 28,000 fans witnessed the record mile. After the race, driver Eddie Cobb said that The Butler could easily have gone faster.

West drove him in his final starts in California, including the memorable 1-1/8 leg of the American Pacing Classic.

“That race was on a Saturday and we were planning to ship him back across the country and race him one more time at Roosevelt on Friday,” says West. “So I didn’t want to use him any more than I had to.”

He set all the fractions with Adios Butler, passing the mile marker in a respectable 1:59.4. When the others began to challenge, The Butler turned on the afterburners and paced his final eighth in 11.2 seconds.

“You know, the Thoroughbred horse that held the track record for 1-1/8 miles at Hollywood Park only came his final eighth in 12 seconds,” recalls West.

His time of 2:11.1 lowered the world record, set only a week earlier, by three seconds.

Adios Butler then traveled across the nation and went out a winner in the 1-1/4-mile National Pacing Derby at Roosevelt, capping another Horse of the Year season. He is only one of six pacers to be Horse of the Year more than once. (The others are Good Time, Bret Hanover, Albatross, Niatross, and Cam Fella.)

He ended his career with 37 wins in 50 starts and earnings of $509,844. He left the track as the richest and fastest horse in harness racing history.

West continued to train for three decades after Adios Butler, “but I only had one like him,” he says.

He trained many sons of Adios Butler, the best being El Patron, a contender in the 1971 Jug made memorable by the duel between Nansemond and Albatross.

Adios Butler stood his entire career at Fair Chance Farm in Ohio, and his long-term impact as a sire was minimal. His best pacers were Van Kirk, Escondido, Honest Story, Adios Waverly, Dean Butler, and Pantry Man.

Paige West saw Bret Hanover, Albatross, Niatross and all the greats come along over the years, but says, “I never saw a horse that I’d trade Adios Butler for.”

He admits that the changes in harness racing have caused him to lose interest in the sport, even though he’s lived in Pompano Beach, Florida for many years. Only occasionally does he visit the nearby track.

As the fans and owners watch all the fast miles, perhaps few people realize that the older man in the crowd is the one who drove the very first sub-1:55 mile in harness racing history.