By Tom Schardin, Staff Writer

New York author Charles Leerhsen spent two years digging up information for his soon-to-be-released book about Dan Patch.

Was there a nugget of information that even he was shocked to find about the famous pacer, who turned 112 years old on April 29? Many books have been written about Dan Patch, but Leerhsen wanted to tell the complete story in “Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America.”

The book, published by Simon & Schuster Inc., is due out in hardcover on May 20. It’s already the winner of Harness Tracks of America’s 2008 award for contributions to publicity, publishing and promotion of harness racing.

“I was surprised to discover just how famous and beloved Dan Patch was,” said Leerhsen, an executive editor at Sports Illustrated. “Fans turned out 80,000, 90,000, 100,000 strong, and they could Charles Leerhsennot contain themselves. At the Minnesota State Fair in 1905, thousands of people streamed onto the track after Dan Patch’s race against the clock and his driver and his groom were worried for their own and the horse’s safety.”

The story of Dan Patch has been told, heard and revered many times from local horse-racing enthusiasts.

Leerhsen’s goal was to bring Dan Patch back to life and have him jump off the page as if he was back setting world records again at the State Fair.

Writing about Dan Patch was a no brainer for Leerhsen, who started his writing career for the Harness Tracks of America newsletter of the U.S. Trotting Association.

“I feel like I was lucky enough to hit pay dirt in terms of a main character because I think Dan Patch is at least as good a story as Seabiscuit,” said Leerhsen. “Think about it: Seabiscuit was born in the Kentucky bluegrass, bred to be a thoroughbred racehorse. He just wasn’t very good at the start.

“Dan Patch, meanwhile, was born cripple and had to be held up to nurse,” continued Leerhsen. “For a while, he pulled the grocer’s cart around his original hometown of Oxford, Ind. But he went on to become an undefeated champion and a pop-culture superstar.”

“Publisher’s Weekly” describes Leerhsen’s book as a mesmerizing look into a strange corner of American sports and folk history when Dan Patch became a household word, earning roughly $1 million a year at a time when the highest paid baseball player, Ty Cobb, was making $12,000.”

When Leerhsen started writing the book, the first place in Minnesota he went to was the old M.W. Savage property on the northern end of the Minnesota River. He said he clambered over the railroad tracks and walked around the best he could to get a sense of Dan Patch’s former surroundings.

“I was trespassing, but I really didn’t care,” said Leerhsen. “It was like walking around in an old Hollywood idea of heaven. One thing I discovered while working on this book is that there is nothing more beautiful than a Minnesota day in September or June.”

Leerhsen said his stops into Razor’s Edge in downtown Savage, where he introduced himself to owner Jens Bohn, president of the Dan Patch Historical Society, were necessary in writing the book. He also met with historical society members Janet and Will Williams and George Augustinack.

Leerhsen said not everyone agrees with some of the conclusions he came to in his book, particularly about M.W. Savage. “But I respect their opinion and I’m grateful for the time they gave me and the knowledge they shared,” he said. “My visits to Minnesota were usually in short bursts, but I made quite a few of them, probably a dozen.”

Leerhsen has written books over the years, including ones about NBC president Brandon Tartikoff, Donald Trump and test pilot Chuck Yeager. But writing about a famous pacer is a little different.

Dan Patch has no voice of his own. If Leerhsen’s book was going to garner mass appeal – he said most people don’t even know who Dan Patch is, let alone care about his racing career – Leerhsen had to tell the whole story. He had to start with the humble beginnings of Dan Patch.

That led him to this conclusion, Leerhsen writes: “M.W. Savage didn’t understand the limits of mortal horseflesh, and because his business empire was crumbling, and he needed the money and publicity Dan Patch had brought him in the past. He pushed the horse until the once-glorious Dan Patch road show became a rather pathetic thing.”

 For more information about Leerhsen’s book, go to www.charlesleerhsen.com