During the
post parade Sam McKee makes it a point to inform the bettors about what brand
of sulky a driver is using. If he guesses wrong he will come back prior to the
race and make a definitive call. It wasn’t always like that. One of the major reasons the year 1976 serves
as a significant turning point for harness racing is the fact that In December
of 1975 Joe King’s modified sulky had been successfully introduced as the
Yonkers meet came to a close. When racing shifted to Roosevelt Raceway the bike
was used on 14 horses on the initial eight race card and six of them won. The
bettors cried out for a designation on the program and the OTB entry sheet. The
buzz was similar to that which accompanied the emergence of King’s single-shaft
sulky earlier in the decade, only this time the USTA was powerless to legislate
it out of existence. The modified bike would speed up the game as nothing else
had.
Although it
was obvious that the horses were moving markedly faster than they had in the
past, some trainers, drivers and owners remained in a state of denial. Joe
O’Brien was one of those. Seventeen of the eighteen trotters in that year’s
Hambletonian were hitched to the new bike; O’Brien’s outstanding Speedy
Scot-Armbro Flight filly, Armbro Regina, was the only one pulling a traditional
wooden sulky. Regardless, there’s no doubt that the new bike was a major factor
in the speed explosion that was initiated in 1976.
Another
factor in the sudden explosion of pacing speed was superior breeding. Meadow
Skipper was sixteen in 1976. His first crop, which contained Most Happy Fella,
hit the track in 1969, and Albatross came along the following year. By ’76
Skipper had a number of quality horses in play, including: Governor Skipper,
Handle With Care, Nero, Jade Prince, Escort, Windy Way, Tarport Skipper,
Windshield Wiper, Raven Hanover, Seedling Herbert and JR Skipper. They hadn’t
taken over yet, but by the time Skipper passed, six years later on January 28,
1982, he was firmly in possession of the crown.
A look at
the Little Brown Jug provides us with some perspective on the sea change that
was occurring. Pre Skipper—the winners of the Jug came from Adios, Billy
Direct, Good Time, Knight Dream, Poplar Byrd and their sons. MHF won the race
in 1970—the first year a Meadow Skipper was eligible. This win was followed by
a brief dry spell during which Strike out, Melvin’s Woe and Armbro Omaha won
the Jug, but during the 42 years from 1970 on, almost 75% of the Jugs were won
by colts, and one filly, that trace back to Skipper on the top line. In
addition, eight of the first ten editions of the Meadowlands Pace were won by
sons or grandsons of Meadow Skipper.
Most Happy
Fella’s first crop was four-years-old in 1976, and it included Tarport Hap and
Silk Stockings. Oil Burner, whose claim to fame as a stallion lay with No
Nukes, was a member of MHF’s second crop, along with Precious Fella, the sire
of Tijuana Blue Chip and Whitey’s Fella, as well as the influential New Zealand
sire, Smooth Fella. Tyler B came along in ’77 and Cam Fella two years later. No
Nukes (79) was MHF’s most influential grandson, giving us Western Hanover and
Jate Lobell. Tyler B contributed Dragon’s Lair.
Skipper’s
son Nero, who was four in ’76, was a great colt and in March of that year Alan
Leavitt syndicated him for $3.6 million, the highest valuation ever placed on a
standardbred; there were 25 shares valued at $144,000 each. The first of his
progeny raced in 1980 and his last crop hit the track in 1997. He was very
prolific, and he was popular, for a while. In the end he was not highly
regarded as a sire—Runnymeade Lobell, Icarus Lobell and Trutone Lobell were
three of his best. Skipper did have some misses.
Albatross
produced plenty of good racehorses, but was not a sire of sires. His son
Niatross is credited with success in his first two crops with the likes of
Nihilator, Barberry Spur, Pershing Square, Caressable, Handsome Sum,
Masquerade, Semalu D’Amour and Smartest Remark, but he fell off the earth after
being relocated to New York.
The Skippers
did not dominate the sophomore pacing division in 1976. Keystone Ore, Stanley
Dancer’s Bye Bye Byrd colt, was the star for most of the season. He won the
Cane, Jug, Tattersalls and Bluegrass. But his sire was 21-years-old and
Keystone Ore would be his last shooting star. Nesbit, Batman, Bye And Large,
Bye Bye Max, Meadow Paige, Albert’s Star, Keystone Smartie and Keystone Memento
had all come before Ore. And none of them would extend their dad.
Tar Heel was
28-years-old in 1976. Richmond, a full-brother to Nansemond and Isle of Wight,
was a stakes colt but not a prominent one. Like Bye Bye Byrd, Tar Heel, who
lived to the age of thirty-four, was past his prime as a stallion. His son
O’Brien Hanover was twenty-one, but he had never been anything but a NYSS
stallion. Laverne and Isle Of Wight were ten that year, Kentucky was nine and
Nansemond eight, but none of them were worth anything as stallions. Steady Beau
was sixteen and sired Steady Star, the fastest horse on the planet for nine
years, but that one never won anything of note. Armbro Ranger, from Steady
Star’s first crop, was a top tier colt, but he was about it.
Good Time
had Crash racing as a two-year-old in 1976 but the little guy was just about
out of gas. His son Race Time was fifteen but, aside from Dream Maker, there
wasn’t much there that year. Good Time’s two best, Columbia George and Best Of
All, were nine and twelve, respectively. Like Steady Star, they had Hanover
behind them and were primed for outstanding careers at stud. Unfortunately that
didn’t happen. George had Beckilyn Hanover, Le Baron Rouge and Timeron Hanover
as four-year-olds that year, but none of the sons of Good Time were of any
value when it came to extending him.
Bret
Hanover, the great hope of the Adios line, was fourteen in 1976, and standing
for $2,500 at Castleton Farm.. His son Warm Breeze was three that year. Like
Steady Star, Warm Breeze was very fast but his accomplishments on the GC didn’t
match his speed. When he won the Matron he paid $118. He was the fastest colt
that year at :54.4 and did set a WR of :53.1 the following year at Sacramento.
His premier son, Falcon Seelster, was an accomplished sire but unless McArdle
throws an outlier Bret is destined to dead end on top with McArdle. It’s
Abercrombie who has kept that Adios branch alive via his son, Artspalce. The
winners of the last four Jugs have been out of Artsplace mares; 35% of the Jugs
since 1970 have been won by colts, and a filly, that are out of Adios line
mares. The mares from all of the above were productive, but things began to
narrow on top.
Yonkers
cancelled their International Pace in March of 1976 after the connections of
the top five Down Under pacers turned down their invitations. The devaluation
of the dollar as well as harsh quarantine rules that pretty much required a
horse to spend most of the season here made the introduction of horses from
Australia and New Zealand much less desirable for the Kiwis. Horses like
Cardigan bay and Cardinal King that had been so instrumental in the growth of
the sport during the 1960s became less prominent. The import business was still
strong but there was less incentive to ship the best Down Under horses to North
America. The sport had decided to privilege speed over stamina and toughness;
distance racing was going the way of the wooden sulky. Also, sire stakes
advocates saw a conflict of interest in subsidizing their blood polluters at
the same time all these grizzled geldings were being imported from Down Under.
There were
712 two minute miles recorded in 1975; with 20% of the year left there were
already double that number recorded in 1976. Yes, the opening of the
Meadowlands played a significant role in this but it was more than that.
Roosevelt Raceway recorded 25 two minute miles in all of 1975, while in the
first 38 nights of the 1976 summer meet in Westbury there were already 31 such
miles. Two-year-old Governor Skipper qualified in a pedestrian, by today’s
standards, 2:03.4 and it was met with shock and awe.
The speed
explosion on the twice arounds wasn’t confined to the top tier horses; on the
fourth of July Adelweiss Rainbow won in 2:00 at RR, and the same night the more
celebrated Albert’s Star won in :59.3 and Jug winner Seatrain in :58.1. Those
three would have amounted to 12% of the 2:00 miles at Roosevelt in all of 1975.
Later on in the month Silk Stockings broke her own TR at Monticello, notching a
win in :57.2. While Keystone Ore won over the Saratoga half in :56.2. And when
Keystone Ore won the Cane his :57.1 mile broke Silk Stockings :58.2 mark for
three-year-olds.
Striking
Image, a pretty good brother to Ring Of Light and Mirror Image, broke the YR
two-year-old TR. Albatross held the RR two-year-old mark of 2:00.4, which he
set for Harry Harvey when he jogged in the Roosevelt Futurity, but Stanley
Dancer’s Nansemond brother to Triple B, Kawartha Eagle, won in 2:01 at
Roosevelt that year, a mere tick off the record. Rambling Willie broke the WR
for a mile and a quarter on a half in the Yonkers Summer Series and Handle With
Care broke the mile and a half record in the Hudson Valley FFA Pace.
When the
Meadowlands opened on September 1, large quality fields and an aggressive style
of driving accelerated the parade of broken records. Rambling Willie
established the TR beating Nero, and Oil Burner went the third fastest mile
ever by a three-year-old in the Holmes, beating
Armbro Ranger in :55.1. He had tied the WR of :54.4 for a three-year-old
pacer earlier at Syracuse. And Young Quinn got Nero at the wire in :55, a WR
for an aged gelding and the third fastest mile in history. The conflation of
Meadow Skipper’s influence, the modified sulky and the opening of the Meadowlands
led to unprecedented speed.
Five weeks
after the Meadowlands opened Jade Prince had folks shaking their heads when the
two-year-old Meadow Skipper colt went the fastest race mile ever--:54.1—for
Jack Kopas in winning the second heat of the Fayette Pace at The Red Mile. He
had paid $30 in the first heat as part of an entry with Super Clint and Crash. The
:54.3 win by four-year-old Albatross at Sportsman’s Park in 1972 was and still
is a significant marker, similar to Steady Star’s :52 time trial, but having a
freshman take that record from him was incredible. Taurus Bomber had equaled
the Albatross mark earlier in 1976 at Springfield, but that accomplishment
turned into a footnote.
Thirty-seven
years later those high tech bikes are still a key ingredient to success, The
Big M is still a prominent player in the speed game and Skipper still rules on
top. With regard to the latter however, the Volomite line running though
Sampson Hanover and SBSW may be mounting a challenge Skipper and his progeny
haven’t faced before, so we’ll have to keep an eye on that one.
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