Fall fair season is upon us once again. Sure, the warm weather is over, school is back and the days are getting shorter

. But what could be more fun at this time of year than heading out on a nippy but comfortable morning to the fair to have some burgers and fudge, ride the midway – and take in some old-fashioned harness racing! The fair season in Canada has been on for a while now, with fair meets out west having ended or nearing completion, and with several fairs in Ontario and Quebec having already conducted cards of harness racing, but there are still some fairs to come.

Harness racing has been a part of agricultural fairs in Canada. This past summer, we were treated to a retrospective by Robert Smith, in which he chronicled the importance fall fairs once had in this sport and offered anecdotes from those bygone days. Some of you complemented Mr. Smith’s narrative with stories of your own, which helped many of us understand the history of fall fairs in Canada that much more.

I have been a fan of harness racing at fairs since childhood, even before I began going to pari-mutuel harness tracks on a regular basis. My family and I never missed the Markham Fair when I was growing up in the suburbs of Toronto. To this day, the Markham Fair and the other fairs in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada that still conduct harness racing provide fans of the sport with the chance to enjoy it in a relaxed, pastoral environment. In a sense, it is harness racing in its purest form: horse owners gathering in a rural setting to see which of their animals are the best, while those who engage in other agricultural activities compete for top honours elsewhere on the fair grounds.

Just as importantly, while harness racing at fairs brings us back to the sport’s glorious past, it also has a role to play in the future of our industry. Conducting harness racing at fairs allows people who may not normally choose a pari-mutuel track as a destination for a family outing, group party or night out to “test drive” the product as an entertainment option. If you and your family are having fun getting up close and personal with the horses, munching on cotton candy and other treats, and cashing some winners along the way, might you not be inclined to replicate the experience at a track near you at some other time of the year?

It is important that we support the fairs that continue to present live harness racing. Such fairs are becoming rarer and rarer every year. On the surface, it seems uneconomical to conduct harness racing at fairs, both for horse people and the fair boards that include racing among their activities. However, harness racing at fairs is a link between the past and the future of our sport, as well as a source of enjoyment for the participants and fans. The horse people who continue to race at fairs realize this, and so do the sponsors whose support makes fair racing possible. In the long run, the investment that the industry makes in harness racing at fairs can be a worthwhile one.

You can experience the thrill of harness racing at various fairs in the next few days. The Wallacetown Fair and the Markham Fair have full cards of harness racing this weekend, hot on the heels of last week’s exciting action at Forest. The Norfolk County Fair in Simcoe will continue its tradition of including harness racing in its jam-packed schedule for the Thanksgiving long weekend. Let’s get out there, show how much it still matters to us to have harness racing at agricultural fairs. Cheer your heart out, place a bet or two, and give the horse people a round of applause for the time, energy and resources they have devoted to carrying out this great rural tradition.