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.

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