KRIK: Turf Chronicler

Henry G. Crickmore was born in 1839 at Norwich England, which had long been the cradle of the British newspaper industry, and as a young man was apprenticed to a printer and established in that trade. He brought his developed skills to America and settled in Brooklyn. He was among the first volunteers to respond to President Lincoln’s historic proclamation calling for 75,000 militiamen to suppress the Southern rebellion beginning the Civil War and was in service during the entire conflict.

An African American regiment was organized in New Orleans, Louisiana, in September 1863 and designated as the 1st Cavalry, Corps d’Afrique. Having displayed leadership ability under fire, Henry Crickmore was made their Captain. 

These horseman proved themselves providing defense and garrison support in and around New Orleans and Baton Rouge, seeing action along the Comite River and participating in expeditions into Mississippi. The unit was redesignated Company D of the 4th United States Colored Cavalry, Henry Crickmore was made a Major.

As the primary method of transport, horses and mules were essential to all aspects of an army at that time. The men who relied on these animals and spent so much of their conscious and unconscious time with them, such as Major Crickmore, developed a sharp sense of equine characteristics. After the great struggle, the former Major was able to make a living through his enhanced sensibilities developed during combat.

Following the Treaty of Appomattox, Major Crickmore, who was widely known as “Krik” or “Old Krik” stayed in uniform and was part of reconstruction politics in New Orleans. As his duties to the nation ended, he returned to his newspaper roots and was employed by the New Orleans Picayune as a turf writer.

In 1871 he returned to the Empire State, joining Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World where his horse soldier and turf writing experience in NOLA prepared him to be the turf editor.

While still covering racing for the World, H.G. Crickmore published Krik’s Guide to the Turf, (frequently misspelled as Kirk’s) from 1876-1885. The Guide contained a complete record of all races run in this country and those run by American horses in England or elsewhere the previous season. In addition, the Guide included the tabulated earnings of all stallions and their progeny, sale of thoroughbreds, and the weights carried, with diagrams of tracks where racing took place.

The Albany Journal in 1878 referred to the upcoming release of the most recent Guide; “It won’t do any good. Men will continue to bet on the wrong horse until the end of time. But then it is a satisfaction to know that you ought to have won, and that you did your part anyhow. ‘Krik’s’ book will enable a man to demonstrate that his bet was a scientific one, and that the blundering was done by the horses and not by himself.” Krik’s Guide in referring to the Saratoga Track operations of 1878 termed it the “greatest success of the year.”

In 1887 Krik began issuing what he termed the “Korrect Kard for the Santa Claus Stakes,” where he included his humorous holiday greetings in the manner of a race card to subscribers.

Krik had the friendship of many in racing, including Maryland Governor Oden Bowie, who named a brown gelding Crickmore, which in the Windsor Hotel Stakes at Saratoga, bested the immortal Hindoo.

Once, when a newspaper story written by a young reporter questioned August Belmont’s horse-sense regarding a gelding named Raceland, rather than speaking to the reporter himself, Mr. Belmont, who knew Mr. Crickmore very well, spoke loudly to his friend in the press-box, and at once proceeded to free his mind for the edification of the reporter who had written the objectionable paragraph, “Now you know, Mr. Crickmore, I have only had a few months’ experience in racing, I don’t know anything about horses, and I am very glad to have the young man who wrote that paragraph point out my mistakes.” It is doubtful that this turf writer criticized Mr. Belmont again.

There was a Jockey Club in Great Britain that established and controlled the rules of the sport, yet in America local jurisdictions prevailed, which led to a discontinuity of regulations. Mr. Crickmore, as a trusted horseman and turf writer, without skin in the game, became an anchor in the industry, and a consultant when the Board of Control was established in 1891. This organization of owners of stables and racetracks would evolve and was reorganized into the Jockey Club in 1894.

In 1890 Krik left newspaper employment to become Secretary of the Monmouth Park Racing Association and later became Secretary of the Jockey Club, as well as becoming racing secretary for the Westchester Racing Association and clerk-of-scales for the Washington, Brooklyn, and Coney Island Jockey Clubs, and also the National Steeplechase Association.

In 1901, as part of his purchase of Saratoga Race Course, William C. Whitney commissioned Krik to compile turf records, filling a gap between 1860 and 1870, a very valuable addition to our turf literature.

In early November 1908, Henry G. Crickmore passed away, a lifelong bachelor. He was interred at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, where the face of his tombstone displays his name and vital dates, and the top of the marker, in large letters, reads KRIK.