Two of the top men in the business then were Tom Moore, who was well over six feet, and Garland Bradshaw, who was my size. It brings back a memory of my early days in the show horse world. He was giving me a report on a horse he’s training for us, and, and as usual, he’s doing a top job.īut being 5’6” on my tip toes, I’m quite conscious of other people’s height, especially when they’re tall, as Brad is. On a personal note, I just had a phone call from Brad Maxwell, one of the best trainers in the business. In my early days those same feet would be going right through the spokes of someone else’s wheel. If you’ve ever actually driven in a race, in every turn you hear the loud bangs as horses whack each other’s wheel discs. Before it was created, every day or night there were serious accidents when one horse would put his foot through another horse’s wheel. The starting gate was the key to commercial harness racing, but there was another small but essential piece that appeared first in the late ‘50s. When the time comes, fingers crossed, he’ll be waiting to berate me some more for my misplaced loyalty. Levy and Roosevelt are gone, and I’m probably the last person who knew both the man and the place first hand. And he never stopped asking why wasn’t I on his side, since we were the only two people in these discussions with a higher education, plus a shared religion, Judaism. Levy would start at something like 18 per cent, and then grudgingly work his way up to the low 30’s. He could never understand how I would always take the side of the owners and trainers in the never-ending battles over what percentage of the betting handle should go to purses. This kid has colorful memories of George Morton Levy. Et violá! Harness racing suddenly became a viable betting proposition. The mobile starting gate cured all those ills, and George Morton Levy immediately put it to good use at this new track, Roosevelt Raceway. However, it frequently would take a whole afternoon to get a race off. Before the gate was introduced, the field would come to the start in a line, and if everybody was lined up properly, the starter, standing on the side of the track, would drop his flag and the race was on. This was before the starting gate was invented in 1939 making modern day harness racing possible. All races were in heats then, and the race winner was the first horse to win two heats. I mean names such as Nat Ray, Walter Cox, Tom Berry, Doc Parshall, Ben White, and on and on in the same vein with the list of giants who created our sport.Īmong the many stories Childs told me, he described how things worked in the early, pre-pari-mutuel days. He also told stories about the old days on the racetrack, where he and his contemporaries had all become legends by my early days. I attached myself to him, and he gave me my early education in our business. Many years later, as I was just getting started, Childs was employed by Hanover Shoe Farms to prep their sale yearlings. The Hambletonian was first raced in 1926, and in its second year, 1927, the winner was a filly, Iosola’s Worthy, driven by Marvin Childs. I wish them both a hundred years of happiness. Now I’ve just learned that the transplanted SwedishĬircle is complete, as Mikela Melander and Lucas Wallin Here at The Red Mile taking care of the mercurial Greenshoe. As it happens, I met Melander’s charming sister, Mikela, when she was I’ve already remarked on the great success both Marcus Melander and Lucas Wallin have achieved in the relatively short time they’ve been here from Sweden. In April, Lucas Wallin married Mikela Melander – Adam Strom / stalltz
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