This is why I LOVE harness racing!

C

Crosshill Pacers

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Perusing websites on my lunch break, ended up on the 'Rasus' website (must be subconsciously counting down the days until the racing season starts again).

Just wanted to show you two videos which sum it up for me. The first is a horse called Infinatey, little guy who was a really good 3yo. Had a few lameness problems through the start of the season as a 4yo, but the owner (who is also the trainer and driver) got him back on an even keel and he came out with this truly fantastic performance to win from the back of the field, coming five wide towards the penultimate bend:

http://s4c.co.uk/rasus/cgi-bin/rasus.pl?rm=race_watch;tx=124;race=1193;l=c

What the video doesn't show is Marc's two young daughters being interviewed afterwards, they were brilliant! It was a real family victory :)

The second video is of a stallion called Doonbeg. He smashed the British record on a half mile track and made his high-class opposition look very ordinary. The little horse came over from Canada due to a seasonal allergy which affected him racing over there, and flourished in our climate:

http://s4c.co.uk/rasus/cgi-bin/rasus.pl?rm=race_watch;tx=106;race=1132;l=c

I was there that night, stood by the rail along the home straight and I remember looking at the clock as he came around the last bend and it said '1.45', so I started screaming at my friend to 'LOOK AT THE CLOCK! LOOK AT THE CLOCK!'...it still gives me goosebumps now!

This is what harness racing is all about: pure excitement, success stories and great fun. I actually can't wait to get back to it, I'm heading back to my part-time job of groom next week to start getting the horses fit again and plan to keep a blog that follows the horses we train throughout the summer :)

Hope you enjoy the videos!
 
Good videos. For me, they were enjoyable for another reason too - the use of the whip, or lack of it.
Doonbegs jockey just laid it on his back towards the end, no more than that, and I couldn't see any whips being used in the first one.

So much nicer to watch than the manic flailing in ridden racing.
 
The stewards are always on the look out for excessive use of the whip, it's picked up and punished whenever they see evidence of it (I'm not saying the sport is completely excessive use of the whip-free, but it's something that is actively tackled).

Doonbeg is owned by the guy who was driving him, and his brother who is the trainer, and as is the case with the majority of the horses involved in the sport, they are such loved animals :) apparently the one condition attached the sale of him from Canada was that he was never to be sold by the two brothers who now own him.

That night was so amazing to watch, he was rolling from start to finish in a gear that none of the others could find :D I'll never forget being there, or the feeling (the time on the clock was actually revised down to an official time of 1.53.7)
 
Landcruiser said:
Wow! They really fly, don't they!
Click to expand...

Yes they do! And apparently there's talk of bringing back saddle races, which are exactly the same as in sulkies (same speed and same harness - just a small racing saddle). They still have saddle races under Wales & Borders rules...I entered my mare last summer and asked a friend to ride her, couldn't stop laughing because it all seemed a bit bizarre. I would never do it myself though when you see the speed they travel at and the corners they take!
 
Not entirely the same, "yours" are pacers, I'm into to trotters , I read about Swedish Trotting Harness Racing every week and watch it on TV usually once a week.

If you're interested, here is a map over the race tracks in Sweden http://www02.atg.se/english/swedish-racing/race-tracks

I love this video, with some English text, from where Stig H Johansson wins the biggest Swedish Race, Elitloppet, 2000 with Victory Tilly, notice how the audience sometimes is chanting Stig H's name during the race, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Kv_A6Dtjzk , the only thing is, someone missed to translate the last thing Stig H says in the video, with a cuddly voice he says to both Victory Tilly and the reporter "Han é ju så duktig" which roughly means "He is soo good".
When Stig H celebrated becoming 60 years old in 2005, Victory Tilly's owners gave him to Stig H, so he has his forever home on Stig H's farm.



If HHO:ers want to see ridden trot racing = monté? Here's a French video from Vincennes, when the French trotter Rapide Lebel (who has competed a few times in Sweden also, but then it has been in "ordinary" races with sulky behind him) had his first try at monté http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ2osvifmqc


So perhaps needless to say, but I really enjoyed the videos you posted!

:D
 
Hi FL, we have trotting as well although it's not as popular as the pacing races. It is growing in popularity and prize money though, and more people are importing trotters from Sweden, Holland and France. There's been a particular boom in Ireland for the trotters, and there's even a British-bred series held at York which will hopefully continue to grow in popularity.

I must admit, I prefer pacing. I think it's the movement, I now look at a horse on a racetrack and this it moves 'right' when it's pacing, and 'wrong' when it's trotting. But then I've been working with pacers for nearly six years. Also because we race in Wales and along the borders on predominantly grass tracks, we don't see many trotters as they're not suited to the slightly rougher conditions (as opposed to the hard tracks). There is one trotter who races against the pacers bless her, and on the hard track in South Wales she can beat plenty of them. When it comes to the grass though she's more inclined to 'break'. The whole of Wales supports her in her trotting races up in York though, she's our token trotter :D

I can't find any videos of the trotting races, but have found a promotional video by the owner of York Harness Raceway (have spotted my boyfriend and his mates on there briefly, will have to tell him he's famous!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVRZUWbInjc
 
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