Harness Racing
Trotting races, evolved from single "matches" between gentlemen out to prove their horse's superiority on the road, were first popularized in England, reaching a peak in the late 19th century. Legislation and undesirable practices then killed the sport in the United Kingdom, and it is only now struggling to stage a revival. But if trotting disappeared as a recognized sport from the British scene, the enormous success of harness racing in the United States is due, in part, to the blood of imported British trotting stallions in the past. In Europe, as well as in many other countries, this form of racing has a top priority in sport.
For the
first few decades of the 19th century harness racing was fairly informal, a
matter of owners challenging each other on some suitable stretch of road.
If trotters were raced on tracks, it was usually under saddle. Trotting
was spared the religious disapproval which closed the flat-racing tracks of the
Northeast in 1802. Lawmakers reasoned that since a horse in a trotting
race was not running as fast as it could run--in a faster gait--trotting
races weren't really races and therefore were not immoral. Thus favored,
the sport flourished and, by the 1840's, improved tracks and sulkies made racing
in harness the preferred style for trotters. Harness racing gained in
popularity up to the Civil War, but when it was resumed after the war its
disorganization and crooked practices were a disgrace to the sporting
scene. Through the 1860's strenuous reforms were undertaken and by 1870 a
governing body had been set up that in time became the National Trotting
Association. Harness racing finished out the century in a very healthy
condition, honestly conducted and attracting an increasing number of breeders,
owners, and fans.
Two inventions gave impetus to the sport in the late-century
years. First, in 1885, the hopple was introduced to the pacing game.
Though faster generally than trotters, pacers were less popular with bettors
because of their tendency to break out of the pacing stride. (The trotter
that breaks stride can be urged back into it; the pacer cannot.) The
hopple was simply a harness that prevented the horse from running in any gait
but the pace. Next, in 1895, came the light, "bike"-type sulky
with pneumatic tires and ball-bearing wheels. Pulling this vehicle, horses
began shaving seconds from the records. In 1897 the two-minute mile, once
thought impossible, was cracked by the pacer Star Pointer in a time of
1:59&1/4 (1 minute, 59 and 1/4 seconds).
At the turn of the century the legendary pacer Dan Patch
began a career that made him almost a national hero. He raced for nine
years and 30 times ran the mile in under two minutes. At age nine he did
it in 1:54&1/4, a pacing record that stood for 33 years.
Harness racing declined in the Twenties and Thirties, though
the sport was kept alive at smaller tracks and fairgrounds. The Standardbreds
were due for a stunning comeback, however, and it began on an
evening in September, 1940, at Roosevelt Raceway on Long Island when night-time
harness racing made its debut.
Harness racing entered an era of fabulous popularity in the
mid-Forties. Night racing attracted afternoon flat-track fans and people
with daytime jobs. And the type of racing they saw was more exciting than
before. False starts were eliminated by the automobile-mounted starting
gate, introduced in 1946. The old custom of deciding a winner on the best
of several heats was largely abandoned in favor of single-heat decisions.
As attendance climbed, track managements enlarged and expanded their plants.
It is still a golden era for the Standardbreds. About
25 million people attend trotting and pacing races annually, spending nearly $2
billion at the betting windows. In the vintage year of 1969 Nevele Pride
earned the title "fastest trotter in history" with a mile in
1:54&4/5, and New Zealand-bred pacer Cardigan Bay retired at age 12 as the
first Standardbred
to earn a million dollars.
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Inside Harness Racing
Harness racing--a sport as American as baseball-has a distinctly democratic
flavor. The more aristocratic patrons of horse sports have traditionally
favored Thoroughbred
racing (or flat
racing), "the sport of kings." Special to
the harness scene is the close involvement of owners with the day-to-day careers
of their horses. It costs much less to own and race a Standardbred
than a Thoroughbred, and the harness horse has more years of track life to reward its
owner's investment. Many owners are in the sport of harness racing with
just one horse, while in Thoroughbred racing it is more usual for owners to
command whole stables of promising runners. Also, it is not unusual for Standardbred
owners to drive their horses on the track--in workouts and
sometimes in races. The Standardbred
has a calm disposition, and the
dangers of driving one do not approach those of piloting a Thoroughbred.
Few sports performers have longer careers than sulky
drivers. With luck, a man can start in his teens and retire in his
seventies. Some drivers train the animals they race; many of the leading
drivers are also owners and breeders. The dream success story of harness
racing is that of Mr. Harrison Hoyt, a Connecticut businessman and amateur
driver, who won the 1948 Hambletonian--the most prestigious race of the harness
world--driving Demon Hanover, a horse he had bought as a yearling and trained
himself.
The breeding of trotters and pacers is on a much smaller
scale than that of Thoroughbreds. There are two major establishments,
several farms of important size, and a number of medium-size to small
operations.
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A Harness Race
Harness
tracks are usually a half-mile or five-eighths of a mile long. A few are
mile long ovals. Surfaces are firm, in contrast to the soft tracks of flat
racing.
To begin a race, horses are guided into their positions side
by side along the automobile-mounted starting gate. To effect a running
start, the car moves down the track at a gradually increasing rate of speed,
sulkies moving in line behind it. As the starting post is reached, the car
speeds ahead and to one side. The wing-like gates fold away to clear the
field.
The race is likely to be for the mile distance, although odd
distances up to two miles are sometimes run. The driver should be a master
tactician, keeping every move of his horse in tight control. On the longer
oval of a mile track, he may attempt a pass on the turn, and he takes advantage
of the longer straightaways. If he has been lucky enough to draw a place
near the rail in the pre-race draw for starting position, he should be able to
pull well ahead in the field at the outset of the race, when all runners move in
toward the rail.
As one post after another is passed, the driver waits for the
right moment to make his move for the lead. If he has been clever, he
won't find his four-foot-wide sulky boxed in when the time comes, for if he cuts
in, crowds, or collides with another sulky he will be penalized. He should
know just how much he can ask of his horse. Two bursts of top speed are
about all the average horse can deliver. The wise driver knows just when
to "use" his horse. If the animal performs and finishes first,
it takes only a few minutes for the judges and film replay to confirm that he
has won a fairly run race.