In today’s game of sub-1:50 speed and million dollar purses, many may not remember the name ‘Rambling Willie’.
The Bob Farrington trained and driven superstar of the seventies retired as racing’s richest horse, with over $2 million in earnings, and his three straight victories in the Canadian Pacing Derby at Greenwood Racetrack definitely helped turn at least one young Canadian boy into a lifelong fan and participant in the sport. By Dan Fisher.
Going to Greenwood Racetrack as a little kid in the 1970s was a big deal - from the line-up of cars just to get into the parking lot, to the smells and sounds of the backstretch as we made our way to the race office for clubhouse passes, to the large crowds frantically pushing through the turnstiles, the hustle and bustle of the place was just purely electric.
After making it through all of that you’d come to the spot where the horses, trainers and drivers crossed the path right in front of you on their way into the three-race paddock after going second-trip. The security guards would hold a thin yellow rope across to keep the crowd from crossing as a horse approached, and if you were near the front you could get within inches of the animals themselves. You would also hear lots of choice words, in many different languages, as certain members of the betting public saw it as an opportunity to perhaps tell a driver or two what they might really be thinking of them at the time. It was all part of the racetrack atmosphere.
The next stop had you at the foot of the tall escalator that took you up to the main floor of the clubhouse, and at the top of that very escalator was one of my very favourite places at Greenwood, thanks to the large, probably ten foot tall and six foot wide, brown wooden plaques on the walls on either side of you. They were gigantic scrolls that took up the entire wall, with names and dates written across them in an eloquent golden font. One of these monstrous lists was of past winners of the Maple Leaf Trot (it may have been the one on the left, but I’m not 100% certain) and the other marked the winners of the illustrious Canadian Pacing Derby - what would become my favourite race. Why did it become my favourite race? Because of Rambling Willie, that’s why.
Other kids my age loved Darryl Sittler or Jim Palmer - maybe it was Bobby Hull or Reggie Jackson. I can’t lie, I did like Bobby Orr, but who didn’t? To me though, Rambling Willie would become just as big a star in my eyes, as Bobby Orr ever was. In fact, it was because of Rambling Willie that I came to care about Greenwood’s giant wooden scrolls at the top of the escalator.
The 1975 Canadian Pacing Derby is the first one that I remember. I honestly don’t recall if there was a lot of mainstream publicity about Willie before that race, but as a little kid I could read a program just as well as anyone, and he was my pick - and he won. But it was in a dead heat. I remember that taking a bit of the lustre off of it for me, but he still won, and he had a new fan.
I don’t recall whether his name went on that giant board a week later or a month later, or more, but I do know that once it went on there I’d stop and stare at it for a little while, every time I was there. I’d soon be trying to memorize the other names as well, on the Pacing Derby one as well as the one for the Maple Leaf Trot - but there were no names on there that shone to me like Rambling Willie. I didn’t know he was known elsewhere as ‘The Horse That God Loved.’ I only knew that he was the horse that I loved. He was my Bobby Orr.
When the entries eventually came out for the 1976 Canadian Pacing Derby, they confirmed that Willie was coming back to defend his title. I would be back too - no matter what. He won again, and this time there would be no dead heat. Please. No one could challenge Willie, either on the track or in my mind.
The same happened again in 1977 - Willie was back at Greenwood, I was back at Greenwood, and he won again.
For years, until they sadly closed the place and tore it all down, I would continue to go to Greenwood, to race or just to spectate, and I’d always pause at the top of that escalator to see it…
Tr: Bob Farrington • Dr: Bob Farrington
Tr: Bob Farrington • Dr: Bob Farrington
Tr: Bob Farrington • Dr: Bob Farrington
Now he takes his rightful place in Canada’s Horse Racing Hall Of Fame, and I get to write this piece - what a huge honour for me.
Congratulations Willie!
The winner of 128 races in 305 starts during the 1970s and early 1980s, Rambling Willie was a three-time winner of the Canadian Pacing Derby - 1975 in a dead heat with Pickwick Baron, 1976 and 1977. At the time of his retirement in 1983 he was the leading Standardbred money winner of all-time, earning more than $2 million, with most of his wins coming from overnight and invitational races.
A $15,000 purchase by trainer/driver Bob Farrington, ownership was later split between Bob’s wife Vivian and Paul Seibert. Mrs. Farrington in-turn pledged 10% of Willie’s earnings to the church where her father served as pastor, earning the gelding the nickname ‘The Horse That God Loved.’ In 1981 a book titled with that nickname was published. Willie and his connections did a promotional tour that included races in 17 cities and appearances on television shows including 60 Minutes.
Following his retirement from racing in 1983, Willie moved to the Kentucky Horse Park where he resided until his passing in 1995, when he was buried near his paddock at the Hall of Champions. Rambling Willie was inducted into the United States Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 1997 and into the Indiana Standardbred Hall of Fame in 2003.
