Laurel’s oldest resident, Virginia “Ginny” Scagliarini, who turned 102 in August, loves to tell stories about her father, Ben Chapman, and his racehorse, Mountain Rose II. Mountain Rose was sort of a local Seabiscuit, a horse referred to as a “plater”—one not expected to be great but nevertheless frequently wins money and has a long career. The horse was extremely popular at Laurel, given that Chapman and his wife, Kathryn, lived in Laurel on Main Street on the lot that was eventually used for the Post Office.
The Chapmans were very involved in Laurel in areas besides horse racing. In 1929, after Chapman had spent years as a successful owner and trainer, the couple expressed interest in building a new movie theater in Laurel on the lot next to their home. Laurel’s only theater at the time, the Red Wing theater, had burned to the ground on Route 1 where the Tastee Diner now sits.
The Laurel Leader reported “New Picture Theater, The Chapmans to Build Large Fireproof Amusement House” and said that the Chapmans planned to construct a 500-seat theater. The Leader reported “there is general satisfaction among Laurelians over the fact that we will soon have a new and modern moving picture house...Mr. and Mrs. B.E. Chapman have about completed all arrangements for the building ... and expect the contractor to begin work next week.” It’s not known why, but a new theater was constructed on the Main Street site by Sidney Lust, not the Chapmans.
Chappie
Chapman, or “Chappie” as he was known, had an unusual route to horse racing. Born in 1871 in Maine, he left home at 12 years old and made his way to Boston, where he performed a series of odd jobs until the early 1890s, when he left for New York City and a job with the Evening Journal newspaper supervising newsboys and newspaper delivery by horse-drawn wagons. His newspaper transferred him to their Chicago paper in 1897.
On a lark, he bought his first horse at the Springfield (Ill.) State Fair for $30. He bought more and started contracting out his horses for newspaper delivery routes. He became their trainer and would race his horses at county fairs, winning several times. He was hooked.
“I love them not for their winning of races but because they are the grandest animals alive and the best friends a man can have,” he was quoted in an undated and unknown newspaper clipping in Ginny’s scrapbook.
His career as an owner and horse trainer took off and was quite successful. Over the years, Chapman’s horses raced at tracks up and down the East coast and in Canada, but he was a fixture at both the Laurel and Bowie racetracks. Everyone knew Chappie and Kathryn, who owned quite a few horses herself over the years.
“Idolized by Maryland racing fans”
According to the Daily Racing Form archives, Mountain Rose II was sired by Yankee and The Rose and born in 1913. He started racing in 1917 as a 4-year-old but it’s unclear when Chapman claimed Mountain Rose II. However, Chapman raced him frequently until his untimely death in 1924 as an 11-year-old. Newspaper accounts said that Mountain Rose was “idolized by Maryland racing fans.”
Another clipping from the scrapbook said, “Like horsemen throughout the ages who fell in love with their courageous steeds, B.E. Chapman revered his Mountain Rose II.”
Horse racing articles from the period of Mountain Rose’s racing career are peppered with racing slang and sound like the dialogue from Guys and Dolls:
“Mountain Rose II—You may remember him. He was no Twenty Grand, if you judged by his class. Just a cheap plater. But he was more dependable than Twenty Grand. Drop him in where he belonged and he’d come home on the chin strap. He was at his best in the mud, for one of his legs was unsound.”
But as the purse money piled up for Mountain Rose, sportswriters recognized his outstanding ability. In 1923, when he was the top earner for 10-year-olds in the country, the Daily Racing Form blamed the jockey when he finished second in a race:
“The race at a mile and a half proved the outstanding feature and it enabled Pit to win his first purse of the year. His margin of victory was by a nose and it was a lucky win and brought about by Harvey’s superiority as a rider over the inexperienced Costello, who had the mount on Mountain Rose II. There was some surprise expressed that the stewards would permit Costello to ride Mountain Rose II in view of the fact that the horse appeared an outstanding favorite and ruled at odds-on before the posting of the riders. Had Mountain Rose II had the benefit of a good rider he would have won off by himself. Costello was simply helpless when it came to giving the horse assistance and Pit barely managed to outstay him.”
A Shocking, Sad End
On Oct. 10, 1924, Mountain Rose won a claiming race at Laurel, earning $1,000 for the win. But two weeks later at Laurel, on Oct 24, another clipping described his last race:
“He stood at the barrier with eleven other entrants—many of them turf upstarts—old Mountain Rose was honored by the public as he has been time and again. He was made the favorite of the field. Patrons of the turf sport had not forgotten the gallant gelding’s past performances. Never a stake horse, the honest son of Yankee and The Rose was one of the most consistent selling platers on the American track. His earnings ran into the thousands.”
At the half-mile post, he was in fourth place and gaining, but then he broke a rear leg approaching the homestretch. The badly limping Mountain Rose finished the race and beat one other horse to the finish line.
A sportswriter named “Stirrup” (in another unknown newspaper in Ginny’s scrapbook) interviewed Laurel Racetrack veterinarian J. H. McCarthy about what happened next:
“After a hurried but thorough examination of Mountain Rose II, I found that it would be impossible to save him, and in turning to speak with Mr. Chapman, I noticed tears streaming down his face. I told Mr. Chapman what would have to be done, and when I did he could not control his emotions any longer—he moved off in solemn grief. As I walked up to the horse with my gun in hand, I noticed an expression in the horse’s eyes that I had never seen before in the eyes of an animal. I lowered my gun to shoot, and as I did, Mountain Rose II started to lick my hand with his tongue while his eyes seemed to express thanks for the emancipation of his pain.”
Chapman buried Mountain Rose II with his silks on the grounds of Laurel Racetrack near the corner of Whiskey Bottom Road and Laurel Racetrack Road, the only horse buried on the grounds until 2017. A headstone marks the spot.
About 10 years after the death of Mountain Rose II, another of Chapman’s horses won a stakes race in Chicago. His horse was draped in a blanket of American Beauty roses in the Winner’s Circle. Chapman put the blanket on ice and shipped it back to Laurel on a train. Kathryn placed the blanket over Mountain Rose II’s grave, and over time rose bushes now surround the grave.
Both Chapman, who died in 1954, and Kathryn, who passed in 1943, are buried in the St. Mary’s cemetery in Laurel.
On Aug. 16, 2024, a claiming race named for Mountain Rose II was run at Laurel Park. Before the race, Ginny Scagliarini and her family gathered at Mountain Rose II’s gravesite to remember the horse who meant so much to her parents and Maryland’s race fans in the 1920s.
Kevin Leonard is a founding member of the Laurel History Boys and a two-time winner of the Maryland Delaware District of Columbia Press Association Journalism Award.
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