To the uninitiated, harness racing is a very simple sport. Horses follow a rolling starting gate, they go at a specific pace or trot around the track, and one mile later someone wins. So if I’m writing about a specific harness race from a specific track, and it doesn’t involve Saratoga Harness or any horse that I currently know, then there’s a specific reason.
And that reason was yesterday’s race at Goshen Historic Park. This race was part of the County Fair finals on Sunday, and to understand what’s going on, know that in harness racing there is a tractor that goes around the track after every race or two and smooths out the surface, so that all the races have a uniform running track.
Well … apparently this tractor driver either wanted to get his job done early, or someone mixed up their schedule, or something of that nature. Because in the 7th race at Goshen … this happened.
The tractor came out MID-RACE … oopsie … forcing the drivers to steer their horses out of their normal pathways to avoid getting injured. This caused the lead horse, Kissing Spree, to the inside rail, while another horse, Passenger Princess, was forced to the outside lane and a clearer path to the finish line.
Yeah, this was almost a disaster waiting to happen. Someone done messed up.
The race was eventually determined a no-contest, but still .. that was a straight-up cluster.
And thankfully, no one was hurt.
Wow.
Chuck The Writer 