...and other things you didn’t know about the earliest days of America’s greatest trotting race.
Rome wasn’t built in a day and, neither was the Hambletonian. Contested every year since 1926 and staged at six different race tracks, the race has now settled into its comfortable home of the Meadowlands. Now the longest serving home of the race, it has been contested in East Rutherford, N.J. since 1981, always taking place on the first Saturday of August.
The race has now called three different tracks its home for an extended amount of time. First, in Goshen, N.Y. at William H. Cane’s three-cornered track, Good Time Park, from 1930-1942 & 1944-1956. The outline of the irregular track can still be seen on Google Maps where NY State Route 17M now runs through it. Second, the DuQuoin State Fair from 1957-1980, and finally the Meadowlands from 1981-present.
Before the race found firm footing in the “Cradle of the Trotter” in 1930, it had two different homes in its first four years, in Syracuse and the Red Mile. In 1943, due to wartime rationing of gasoline the race was contested at the Empire City track, now known as Yonkers, instead of at Goshen.
Though prominent in name since day one, the prestige level of the race went through a series of growing pains in its first decade or so, as it grew into the title of being America’s top race for sophomore trotters. Early on, the race wasn’t quite the polished spectacle that we all enjoy today. Here are some quirky, lesser-known facts from the earliest days of the Hambletonian that you may be interested to learn.
1926:
Three different tracks made bids to stage the inaugural Hambletonian. Atlanta, Georgia made a play for the race but the additional $3,000 they were willing to add to the purses was rejected. Kalamazoo, Michigan also made an attempt to land the race but their additional $5,000 to be added to the purse was also rejected. A third bid from Syracuse, New York was successful. Adding an additional $8,000 to the already huge purse, Hambo No. 1’s total purse topped out at $73,451.32, which in 2018 terms of purchasing power is equal to $1,011,592.92. Guy McKinley, as the favourite, won in straight heats to collect the Onondaga Hotel Cup, the trophy presented to the winners of the first three editions of the race.
1927:
Hambo No. 2 was set for August 29, 1927, again to be contested in Syracuse, NY, but following five days of rain, the track in Syracuse became highly inadequate, forcing a change of venue. The race was moved to the Red Mile in Lexington, Kentucky, and pushed back a month to the end of September, during the second week of the Grand Circuit meet. The race would produce its first filly champion in Iosolas Worthy.
1928:
Moved back to its original location of Syracuse, Hambo No. 3 was set to go off without a hiccup until two weeks prior. A prep race for Hambo probables was contested in Cleveland, Ohio. The pre-race favourite, Fireglow, driven by Walter Cox, was involved in a pile-up with some blaming Cox for the spill. Two days after the race Fireglow was found dead of a mysterious poisoning, that some saw as possible retribution for the accident Cox caused. Spencer, the eventual Hambo champion, was also involved in the pile-up prior but escaped with very little injury and recovered to win the last Hambletonian ever contested at the New York State Fair.
1929:
The race again was rained out, and moved from Syracuse to the Red Mile, forcing it to be contested in October - the latest ever date on the calendar for a Hambletonian. The most interesting thing here however, is the mystery of what eventually became of the race winner.
Whether dead or alive, the current location, or fate, of 92 of the 93 Hambletonian champions is known. For the 1929 champion, Walter Dear, his fate will probably remain a secret for the rest of time.
After his undefeated three-year-old campaign, owner Walter Cox sold his champion stallion to the unprecedentedly successful, and larger-than-life, Irish-German trainer/driver Charlie Mills. The German-based trainer continued to race Walter Dear across the European continent, and in 1934 they won the Prix d'Amerique. After his racing career concluded Mills stood the horse at stud in Germany at his castle/farm located east of Berlin. Walter Dear is believed to have called Mills’ German retreat his home for the majority of the war. By 1945 however, with Nazi Germany on its heels, Walter Dear became lost to history. As the Soviet Army ravaged and pillaged their way to the German capital of Berlin, Mills’ castle was enroute. Mills never returned to his home following the war, electing to start over in France, as his home was now located in newly formed East Germany. There are multiple possible theories as to Walter Dear’s fate.
Probable:
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Killed in the cross fires of war.
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Slaughtered for meat by the Soviet Army - at this point in the war, supplies and food were scarce.
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Because of his size, the Soviet Army used him for work and transportation of goods.
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Though the Soviets generally didn’t view a well-bred horse in the same way the Germans would have, he could have been exported back to the Soviet Union due his looks and stature, to help grow the horse population following the war.
Less-Probable:
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Transported away from the farm by a Mills employee prior to the Soviet occupation of Germany, but since Mills never saw the horse again, this isn’t very likely.
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Transported by German forces to a German horse farm located in Czechoslovakia. Germany believed in the practice of eugenics at this point, and were acquiring the finest-bred horses from around Europe to control to breeding process.
1930:
The 1930 edition of the Hambo is known for a few different reasons.
Firstly, it was the first time the Hambletonian was contested at its new home, Good Time Park in Goshen, NY.
Secondly, because William Cane, who owned the track and was instrumental in the race moving to Goshen, turned the Hambletonian into a national media frenzy, attracting nationwide coverage and bringing in patrons from far and wide.
Thirdly, in that Hanovers Bertha became the first champion bred by Hanover Shoe Farms, and by what the champion filly went through to claim the title.
A two-year-old champion and unbeaten at three coming into the Hambo, in the first heat a group of drivers teamed up against Hanovers Bertha, forcing the filly offstride. Needing to win the next heat, the dirty play from the others didn't stop. Prior to the start of the second heat, there was a 43 minute delay due to 26 recalls! With the lack of a mobile starting gate, competitors were able to purposely miss the start and force a recall. The method of ‘Open Scoring’ was used, and competitors were to approach the start together, with a starter positioned to make sure everyone was given a fair start. Regardless of the tactics of others however, Hanovers Bertha took both heats two and three, and the title.
CBS was able to broadcast the second heat on radio, but because of the delay, the third and final heat took place after the radio program had finished.
1933:
The 1933 edition saw legendary trainer/driver Ben White pick up his first of four Hambletonians from the sulky, with his filly Mary Reynolds. After White and Mary Reynolds won the first heat of the day, Brown Berry beat the filly to the wire in the second, setting up a third heat where Brown Berry was the favourite. Yards from the wire, the Hambo looked locked up, Brown Berry was on top, and then, he fell to his knees. Mary Reynolds, following behind, passed by untouched, and went on to win the heat and the Hambletonian title. That year’s edition was also most likely the first where newsreel coverage of the race was used.
1934:
The 1934 edition was won by Lord Jim, collecting the winner’s share from the smallest-ever Hambo purse of $25,845.44. Even though the purse had lost nearly $50,000 since the first edition in 1926, as the world had slipped into severe economic depression, the drop in purse was out of the control the Hambletonian Society. The race was still being supported as well as ever, despite the hard times, and the next two champions (in 1935 & 1936) would help raise the spirits of the nation and its racing fans.
1935:
The only grey, and first gelding to win the race, Greyhound picked up the 1935 edition in straight heats. Greyhound became the most beloved trotter during the depression in America, setting countless world records throughout his career.
1936:
Of the five fillies to pick up the Hambletonian in the 1930’s, none is more acclaimed then the legendary Rosalind. Trained and driven by Ben White, Rosalind was a gift to Ben’s son, who has been sent to Arizona to recover in the dry heat from tuberculous. Gibson White was in attendance at Goshen when Rosalind won the Hambletonian in front of 45,000 people.
(A Trot Insider Exclusive by Justin Fisher, with files from the Hambletonian Society. Photo, clockwise from top left: Guy McKinney, Spencer, Greyhound, Rosalind)