There is a world champion buried just off the old route of Highway 69 between New Glarus and Monroe. His grave is not in a cemetery, and the name carved into the reddish granite marker is unlikely to be familiar to most people who pass nearby.
Peter McKinney was a harness racing horse, born in Green County in 1925 and bred, raised and owned by Monroe horseman F.B. Luchsinger. By the time he was 4 years old, the pacer had gone from a farm north of Monroe to Lexington, Kentucky, where the inscription on his grave says he became the world's champion 4-year-old pacer of 1929.
His time, carved prominently beneath his name, was 2:01¼. The stone also credits Peter McKinney with Wisconsin records as a 2-year-old and as a 3-year-old pacer over half-mile tracks, both at 2:09. Below those records is a remarkable racing résumé: 66 first-place finishes, 17 seconds and seven thirds.
Then comes the line that explains why a horse that raced nearly a century ago still matters to Green County: "Fastest horse bred by a Wis. owner." The marker identifies Arlie Frost as his driver and Luchsinger as the man who bred, raised and owned him.
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