Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on October 29, 2014
John Bielenberg was one of Deer Lodge’s biggest enthusiasts and local patrons of horse racing. While he and his brother Conrad Kohrs partnered 50-50 on the business side of racehorses, it was really John’s passion for blood horses that drove the breeding program at the Grant-Kohrs Ranch. His commitment covered both running and trotting/pacing horses, at a time when U.S. racing was finally sifting trotters and pacers out of the Thoroughbred category and into their own studbook, under the name of Standardbreds.
John took a hands-on approach. He personally raised, and trained, many of the young horses. His training sulkies are still in the ranch’s historic collection.
Things didn't always go as planned. In his autobiography, Conrad Kohrs wrote about attending the 1868 Helena fair and race meet with his new wife and John, who had entered his trotter Sorrel George. Kohrs related that George "bolted and lost the race."
Kohrs & Bielenberg maintained close ties with S. E. Larabie, whose own racehorse establishment stood just across the highway. This was how Larabie’s turf champion Montana Regent came to be sired by Kohrs & Bielenberg’s Regent.
(Photo from Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS collection)
Originally researched, authored and posted by Patricia Nell Warren on October 29, 2013
John Bielenberg’s greatest contribution was possibly his effort to build up the quality of Montana performance horses. He was one of a group who had made the valley a hotbed of breeding good running and trotting horses. Some, like S.E. Larabie and Marcus Daly, shipped their horses out to compete on the Eastern circuit. But Bielenberg was among those who dreamed of a Western circuit good enough to outshine the “downeasters.”
In those days, performance horses had a value way beyond sport -- a good trotter or pacer was still the fastest form of long-distance transportation in vast rural areas.
The result, in 1886, was the launch of an annual Deer Lodge race meet, and formation of the Deer Lodge Fair and Racing Association. We found a rave review of the Deer Lodge meet in a 1889 issue of "Breeder & Sportsman," a San Francisco publication devoted to promoting Western harness racing. In addition to John Bielenberg, patrons of this annual meet included S. E. Larabie, Nick Bielenberg, William. B. Miller, Samuel Scott, Jas. B. McMasters, W. N. Aylesworth and 0. D. Joslyn.
"Breeder & Sportsman" singled out the “good and faithful work from John Bielenberg, whose heart is wrapped up in the cause.”
So hot was interest in Deer Lodge ( which had only 2000 people by then) that as many as 90 horses arrived from as far away as California to compete in a three-day card – Thursday, Friday and Saturday. (No racing on Sunday out of respect for local Protestants who shunned sports and other amusements on Sunday.) Most of the races were for trotters.
The meet was apparently held at the private track on the Larabie farm, with addition of new buildings to accommodate spectators and visiting horses.
The photograph shows Bielenberg on one of the ranch’s greatest horses – Woodtick, a brown gelding purchased from John Grant in 1864. Kohrs called him “the best long-distance horse in the territory.”
(Photo from GRKO archives)