Harness racing is a fair tradition
By Michele Gillis
The Harness Racing event will take place on Sunday, Aug. 11 and Monday, Aug. 12 at the Grandstand at the Washington County Agricultural Fair.
“On Sunday, the racing starts at 10 a.m. and on Monday it starts at 11 a.m.,” said Wayne Hunnell, Washington County Agricultural Fair Board secretary. “Generally, there’s I think eight to 10 races each of those days where the racehorses are trailered in.”
On those two days, the Meadows, the local racetrack here, is closed down. And so they run the races at the fairgrounds on Sunday and Monday since the fairgrounds has a half-mile track.
Harness racing has been around a long time and Hunnell has the photos to prove it.
“They’ve been running the hardest racing here even more than we do a couple of days in the fair,” said Hunnell. “We’ve got photographs on the wall in here from September of 1911 that have pictures of the harnessed racing on the track here at the fairgrounds.”
Hunnell said he has been on the board for 13 years and they have had harness racing for at least two days during the fair.
“I think there’s been some racing here since 1911,” said Hunnell. “They shared the track in the late 40s and early 50s. They also ran stock cars on the racetrack at the fairgrounds. We have photographs of stock cars on the racetrack, that have no actual dates on them. In talking with people familiar with the fairgrounds and the stock car circuit, they have said, that they ran here during that time. It used to be referred to as Arden Downs, which is when they originally were running the horse races at the fairgrounds and then the stock cars.”
Since they will be using the horses from The Meadows for the Harness racing, this means some of The Meadows drivers will be participating too.
“We house racehorses here pretty much on a year-round basis and we have what we call the racehorse barn, which is down by the track, but because of the fair, that barn has to be emptied out at the end of July and the normal people that board here would come back on September 1,” said Hunnell. “So that barn is empty so that when we do the races during the fair, all those 62 stalls are empty. The people hauling horses in can bring their trailers in, get their horses off, get them into stalls and so forth, to get them all harnessed up and ready to run. So now some of the horses that are housed here year-round will end up running here.”
Hunnell said that there will be several other horses that come in beyond that, that they’ll just trailer in for one or one or both of those days to run here.
Unlike the races at the Meadows, betting is prohibited. But, the races are competitive because there is purse money at stake.
“I say it’s competitive because there is there’s purse money paid out to the winners and so forth,” said Hunnell.
In the Harness races, the owner of the horse will have a driver or trainer run them in the race from a cart which is pulled behind the horse and attached to its harness.
The purse money for the prizes is wired to the fair from the Pennsylvania State Harness Racing Association.
The cost to do the Harness Racing to the fair is maintaining the track, bringing in a starting gate and things like that.
“But then ultimately I can submit those costs to the state and I get reimbursed,” said Hunnell. “So at the end of the day, most of the cost of the fair is more to maintain the track than it is anything else. The starting gate, the racing secretary, preparing the programs. We do that or I coordinate having all that stuff available and ready. But we’ll either get reimbursed for it or paid in some fashion for it. All of the purse money is wired to us a couple of weeks before the actual event. So we have the monies here in the account. We have a separate harness racing account set up. So they wire the money to it. And then we write the checks to pay the purses out of that account.”
Harness Racing is a bit different than traditional horse racing.
“Most of the people that are part of that [harness racing] are horse owners, drivers and trainers involved,” he said. “The difference between your Kentucky Derby type race and this, is that in the Derby, the jockey is on the back of the horse. While with harness racing, he or she is physically on the horse in a sulky.”
In harness racing, the sulky poles are coming up each side of the horse, and a harness is attached to those poles and that’s what’s holding the cart to the horse.
“There’s no real back to it or that you’re sitting on this small seat between these two wheels,” said Hunnell. “You’re the one there and they have kind of like a footrest up against the edge of the rails going up the side of the horse. You have your feet up on those rests. So it’s kind of like if you were sitting in an office chair and you put it up for example on the like your desk drawer handle. And you were sitting there with your feet on each side of your desk drawer on the handles with your seat all the way back. That’s essentially the position you are on this cart.”
Hunnell said the event is a lot of fun to watch while cheering on your favorite driver and horse.
“I mean, they’re moving pretty fast,” he said. “And then the horse is trained to a particular, what they would call a gait. The way it’s particularly moving its feet and how it’s actually running. Where when you watch the derby, those horses are running totally differently than a harness horse.”
Hunnell explained that the legs and the feet of the horse are working totally differently than they would in regular horse racing events.
“It’s what they call trotting,” he said. “So it’s a different style of the horse walking or running than what you would see as normal when you ride horseback. Most of your races on TV the jockeys are on the back of the horse and running in that way. So it’s just a particular style of racing and it’s where they use the sulky or the cart. And the horse has, instead of having a saddle on its back with a jockey on its back, it has a harness across its back and holding these two poles on each of its sides. The driver just pulls the reins.”
So they use the reins, to guide it and the movement of the reins or the driver talking to the horse will get it to move where they need it to.
In addition to the fun events at the fair, the main mission of the fair is to promote agriculture.
“The Washington County Agricultural Fair not only showcases the rich heritage and vibrant future of our agricultural sector but significantly boosts our tourism economy,” Jeff Kotula, president of the Washington County Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Promotion Agency.
“Each year, the fair attracts tens of thousands of visitors who join us in celebrating our agricultural achievements while contributing to the local economy through their patronage. Agriculture has been the backbone of Washington County’s past and continues to be a crucial part of our present and future. Events like the Fair underscore the pivotal role that agriculture plays in sustaining our community and fostering economic growth.”
As far as the history of the agriculture for the region, that is still the primary economic driver for not only the state, but also for Washington County. Hunnell said that he thinks Washington County is fourth in the state as far as agriculture is concerned.
“It is the background where over the years that has changed,” said Hunnell. “The county has gone through a period of time, you hardly couldn’t look without seeing sheep everywhere.
That has changed. Now you really have to hunt to find many sheep out in the field. There are still some around. There are still one or two large sheep farms in the county. But historically it’s not even close to what it used to be. And then it made the transition to the large dairies, so the county became very much of a dairy county. Today, in Washington County, there’s only a handful of dairies left. None of what I would call large, comparative to Wisconsin or California and some of those states.”
He said Washington County does not have large dairies and that the largest area in the county right now is maybe 300 or 350 head of dairy cattle that are milked daily.
Now, he said the focus has moved for the largest part of the county, as far as the animal is concerned, to beef. So it’s transitioned from sheep to dairy to beef.
“Their focus has changed over the years,” said Hunnell. “And even some of your longest families and generations have been in the farming business for generations. The farms have been in the families for generations. You’ll see that they’ve transitioned with it as well.”
He said today kids will still raise beef and some lambs for the fair. The other area that has grown is goats.
Hunnell said you will notice the agricultural changes more in the numbers than the animals.
“We’ve got some of the same things, but the numbers have changed,” he said. “For example, the beef side of it is, currently, the main part of agriculture for Washington County. We’ll have the market livestock sale where animals would be sold at the auction at the end of the fair on Saturday night.”
The animals included in the livestock sale are hogs, steers, lambs, goats and rabbits.
“What the fair brings to this whole thing is the education and continued effort of trying to promote agriculture,” said Hunnell. “For example, doing the fair with all the 4-H kids, promoting the agriculture, having them raise animals and various other projects. Our mission is really promoting and educating, the agricultural side of things.
For more information visit Washingtonfair.org.
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