Tuscarora Lily tries to close on Duschene in a tense finish at the 2007 Orleans County Fair. Fairgoers lined the rail to watch the pacers compete. Photo by Joseph Gresser
BARTON — People have been racing horses at the Orleans County Fair since before the Civil War, and this year the fair has been given national recognition for the longstanding tradition. The fair has been named a Blue Ribbon Fair by the United States Trotting Association.
Stan Churchill of Orleans was about eight or ten years old when his uncle introduced him to the sport of harness racing by putting him behind a standardbred racehorse hitched to a hay rake in a 100-acre field.
"She took off," Dr. Churchill remembers. The mare was used to going like crazy once she had made a turn, and that she did. The first time was pretty scary for the little fella. But the second time he was ready and never looked back. Dr. Churchill got his first racehorse, Addison Hanover, in 1962. He has had standardbreds ever since, even though he retired from racing them some years ago.
Kim Brooks of Brownington gets the same look in her eye when she starts talking about standardbreds. She got hooked on the sport as a little girl and started marshalling races when she was in about eighth grade.
Jogging along in a sulky behind one of those horses is just like nothing else, she says.
"What a rush. All you hear is the beat of the hooves."
Ms. Brooks never got her license to race but has trained horses for years.
"I've always been horse crazy, but the standardbred — I sparked onto those way early," she said. Ms. Brooks serves as assistant clerk of the course
Stan "Doc" Churchill with his two retired standardbred racehorses, Maurice and Mimi (behind Maurice). Photo by Bethany M. Dunbar
in Barton. She has put together a mobile museum about harness racing and finds homes for retired standardbred racehorses. She has placed 17 so far.
In her research about harness racing, Ms. Brooks came across a bulletin put out in 1967, at the time of the centennial anniversary of the Orleans County Fair. In it is an article written by Mildred Lang Miller called, "Reminiscences of the Orleans County Fair."
In 1900 the fairgrounds was rebuilt by F.T. Holder of Yonkers, New York. According to the Orleans County Monitor, he spent $100,000 building a half-mile regulation track, large barns with steam heat systems, and a house for his trainer, and he extended the grandstand by 48 feet, increasing the capacity to 2,500.
Mr. Holder hired Frank Lang of East Charleston to be his driver, according to Ms. Miller's article, and sent him to the sales in New York to buy horses. One of these was a little brown filly named Ecstatic.
"She was by Oratorio from a mare named Ethelwyn. Ecstatic was two years old when she came to Barton. She was small. Her legs were slender — deer-legged, the horsemen called her — and her hooves were tiny. She was nervous and erratic and required careful handling, but she soon showed signs of great speed....
"Ecstatic was what is called a free legged pacer. She wore no rigging except quarter boots. She wore a light harness made especially for her by Allen Spier of Glover. She needed no whip, and often her driver carried none.
This photo of Ecstatic appears in a bulletin printed at the time of the Orleans County Fair's centennial celebration in 1967. This horse was raced at the fairgrounds just after the turn of the century (1900) and held a world record. On the right is her owner, F.T. Holder, and on the left is her trainer, Frank Lang. The photo appears in the bulletin courtesy of Dr. Roy Sherburne.
"Ecstatic won many races on the grand circuit, going as far west as St. Paul, Minnesota. At one time she held the World's record for pacing mares. Her mark was 2:01 3/4."
That means she paced a mile in just over two minutes.
The brochure also has an article by Daisy Dopp describing how horses would be raced on narrow roads on the way to church or to the fair.
Dr. Churchill first came to the fair in Barton as a youngster visiting the races with his uncle E.C. Bray, who lived in Whitefield, New Hampshire.
Later he became a veterinarian and went into harness racing as a hobby the whole family could be involved in.
"When I first started racing you could race in Lyndonville, Barton, Essex, Tunbridge, and Rutland." Not to mention four fairs that held races in New Hampshire and more in Maine and New York.
"There was about ten weeks there that you could just race on the circuit," he said. There was a time when Dr. Churchill kept his horses at the fairgrounds and trained them all winter long. He remembers others who kept their horses there over the years, including Irving Foster, who had 56 horses.
Dr. Churchill's son George caught the racing bug early on. "The first horse George raced was Golden Echo. In order to harness him he had to stand on a pail or a chair."
He said one of the highlights of his racing career was courtesy of Golden Echo. He was 14, which means he had to retire that year, and he was entered in a last race at Tunbridge. George came back to the barn after hearing of some horse they had never heard of who had run a mile in two minutes and seven seconds.
"George came back. His eyes were as big as watermelons," Dr. Churchill recalled. Dr. Churchill got ready to race, and the horse that had such a fast record had a bad start. It looked like Golden Echo had a chance. Dr. Churchill was third or fourth coming into the home stretch, but he saw a hole and took his chance, beating the whole bunch by a nose. George and a friend had been watching from the top of a truck, and George's shirt was dirty. He made his friend switch shirts with him as the two raced to the winner's circle so George would have a clean shirt for the traditional
This photo appears in the centennial bulletin with the caption: "Cash Counter and trainer Will Utton. Frequent winners during the ’30s."
winner's circle photo.
Dr. Churchill is still a familiar figure at the racetrack.
"I miss it now, but everybody's a lot safer that I'm not doing it," he joked.
Harness racing on the fair circuit was never a way to make money, but the purses this year are as much as $1,500. Race entrants will each get a $25 gas card for each horse entered, and commemorative T-shirts will be available.
The fair this year runs from Wednesday, August 13, through Sunday, August 17. People can take a chance on a big screen television, to be given away during racing on Saturday, which is when the Blue Ribbon Fair award will be presented. The winner must be in the grandstand.
"I think it's an honor to still be able to have harness racing," said Ms. Brooks.
