Garrison Finish (1893)

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   David Shulman did some work on "Garrison finish."  There are over 300
Google hits, but it doesn't seem to be properly recorded.  I did some NEW
YORK TIMES checking for him.


29 October 1930, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 18 obituary:
   Edwar H. (Snapper) Garrison, one of the most famous jockeys in turf
history, whose name lives in the expression "Garrison finish," died at 8
o'clock yesterday morning at the Swedish Hospital in Brooklyn.
(...)
   The term "Garrison finish" was earned in 1886, when he was riding for
James R. Keene in the Eastern Handicap at SHeepshead Bay.  Mounted on Dutch
Roller, an outsider not considered by the experts, Garrison pushed his mount
through from the ruck in a ding-dong finish which swept the crowd off its
feet.  The label, applied at that time, has remained a by-word at the tracks
for that type of close finish.
   It was typical of his style of racing.  Garrison did not like to be in
front.  He preferred to hang back and come through in the stretch with a
breath-taking finish.
(...)


8 June 1893, NEW YORK TIMES, pg. 3:
_LOST IN THE LAST INNING_

_THE GIANTS FAILED TO WIN_
   _FROM THE PITTSBURGS._
(....)
   At the end of the eighth inning yesterday the score between the New-York
and Pittsburg nines was even and every enthusiast looked for the Giants to
make one of their Garrison finishes.  But they didn't.  On the contrary, the
big Giants pulled up, so to speak, and allowed the youths from Allegheny to
get the rail and win hands down.

(1893 is the earliest cite for the term on the database--ed.)