Michigan owner-breeder Marshall Field dies

Longtime Michigan-based Standardbred owner-breeder Marshall Field, whose top horses included Royal Strength, Band’s Gold Chip, Speedy Shopper, Precious Shopper and Fifty Percent, died Sunday morning, June 6 after a five-year battle with myasthenia gravis. He had just turned 78 on May 23.

 

Mr. Field was the owner of M & M Industries Inc., a Standish, Mich.-based company that specialized in building fixtures for the automotive industry. Over the years he and his wife, Lois, owned hundreds of horses. “Although I had a pair of special horses in Speedy Shopper and Precious Shopper, Marshall loved all his horses,” said Lois Field.

 

In speaking about her late husband, Lois remembered the horse Spartan Martin, a son of Storm Damage who was diagnosed with cancer in a hoof after his 2-year-old year in 1991. Lois said Marshall refused to euthanize the horse, telling the veterinarians to “save him, which they did and eventually he got well enough to race and race until who knows when.” Actually, Spartan Martin returned to the racetrack in 1993 and went on to win 29 times in 233 starts in a career that spanned through 2000 with earnings of $217,367.

 

The Field’s Royal Strength was voted the 1991 Two-Year-Old Colt Trotter of the Year, a season in which the Castleton Farm-bred son of Royal Prestige counted among his seven victories the Valley Victory final and the Walnut Hall Cup.

 

Visitation for Mr. Field will be held from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, June 8, at the Pixley Funeral Home, 322 W. University Dr., Rochester, Mich. 48307, after which he will be cremated.

 

In addition to his wife, Mr. Field is survived by his daughters, Linda, Deborah, Connie (Glen) Nast, and Sheryl (Jeff) Guske; son, Thomas Compton; brothers Robert (Georgianna) Field and Arthur (Maxine) Field; 12 grandchildren; and 16 great grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America, 355 Lexington Ave., 15th Floor, New York, N.Y. 10017.