- The new race would be the Hambletonian. Races named after great horses are commonplace today. The Little Brown Jug, named after a famous pacer from the late 1800s, was started 20 years after the Hambletonian. The Messenger for sophomore pacers, was started 30 years after the Hambletonian.
- Hambletonian Harness Race and Hamiltonian 10 or Rysdyk's Hambletonian The Hambletonian stakes is a prestigious American harness race, named in honor of Hambletonian 10 a foundation sire of the Standardbred horse breed, also known as the 'Father of the American Trotter.'
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Even the most casual of sports fans knows about the Kentucky Derby, the most famous horse race in the United States.
But even the most hardcore of sports die-hards may not know about The Hambletonian, the Kentucky Derby of harness racing held annually at Meadowlands Racetrack, in which horses run a mile (once around the New Jersey track) for glory and a $1 million prize.
And, I'd venture to guess, they may not know much about harness racing — the horse race that involves equines pulling drivers on wheels — to begin with.
Horse Racing Results Graded stakes horse racing results & video race replays. Watching race replays is an invaluable handicapping tool for horse betting. 2021 Gotham Stakes Contenders & Odds Road to the Kentucky Derby stops at Aqueduct Racetrack for the Grade 3 $300,000 Gotham Stakes on Saturday, March 6. 2021 Tampa Bay Derby Contenders & Odds. The Hambletonian Stakes is a major American harness race, named in honor of Hambletonian 10, a foundation sire of the Standardbred horse breed, also known as the 'Father of the American Trotter.' The Hambletonian is held annually for three-year-old trotting Standardbreds. It is the first event in the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Trotters.
I know I'm in that group. I grew up seeing advertisements for harness racing in nearby New Jersey, but I was never curious about it. It honestly looked like a slower version of a thoroughbred race on horseback (as you'll see, I was wrong). So when I was invited to actually get on the Meadowlands track where one horse will win this weekend's Hambletonian (Aug. 4, airing on CBS Sports Network Saturday afternoon) to give it a shot, I jumped at the chance to learn a new sport.
After a ride behind Do Your Job — a standardbred horse with a name Bill Belichick would love — and a chat with driver Mike Fumeniero, I came away having learned a ton about the sport by putting myself in the driver's seat (and attire).
1. Harness racing has a whole different language to describe it
Fumeniero tells me to not call people like him 'jockeys.' They are 'drivers.' The horses train with a 'jog cart' — which is what I sit in alongside the driver as we run in the shadow of MetLife Stadium — and race on what's called a 'sulky.'
2. Standardbreds are not thoroughbreds
Thanks, Captain Obvious. But there's a big difference.
'Standardbreds are built for endurance and work,' Fumeniero tells me,' and a thoroughbred is built for speed and needs longer to recover. We're catching up to their speed due to breeding advancing, but the faster you go, you see more injuries.'
Which brings us to …
3. Harness racers in the United States don't gallop
It's because galloping is against the rules. Races are run at a fast trot and horses are required to 'maintain a proper gait.' Standardbreds can run in two ways: By trotting (in which the left front leg and right back leg move and then the other two opposite legs) or pacing, in which the right legs move and the left ones follow. Fumeniero explains that at the speed they run, pacing can be more efficient.
Do Your Job is a pacer. While we did a warm-up around the track, she trotted, as you can see here:
But when Mike got her to go faster, it was like a gear shift in an engine. Suddenly, Do Your Job's right legs and left legs moved in sync.
That's all learned through training, and the New York Times reported on a gene discovered a few years ago that explained why some horses are pacers and some aren't.
4. Harness racing can start behind a MOVING gate car
Check out the 2017 Hambletonian — instead of starting from a closed gate like thoroughbreds, these horses get up to speed behind a truck with gates that close when the race starts:
5. It's faster than it looks
Admit it: You watched that video and thought, 'Eh, those horses look slower than what I see in thoroughbred racing.' While that is true — throughbreds can run upwards of 40 mph — these horses can go over 30 mph.
Have you ever been in a moving vehicle going 30 mph? Fine. But have you been on the back of a horse seated on something that you could fall off of with no doors or roof and just some reins — called driving lines — to steer? Thirty mph is fast. The second GIF you saw above — Do Your Job pacing — wasn't the horse running at full speed. But even then, I could barely hear Fumeniero telling me weren't going that fast because of the wind now howling through my ears and the cart started shuddering more. I dug in my right foot in a stirrup and steadied my grip on a bar on the jog cart.
Now imagine you're this guy, leaning back on the sulky and going faster than that.
6. Controlling a horse is subtle as heck
I rode besides Fumeniero for a couple of laps around the track — which, fun fact, is covered crushed limestone so that both horses and wheels can go over it — before he handed the lines over to me.
Do Your Job immediately stopped. Fumeniero figured it out right away: In taking the lines, I had pulled a little too hard.
So I gave a lot more slack and, a minute later, she started speeding up. Too much slack and she thought she was being turned loose.
Once I got in between with the amount of tension on the lines, I realized we kept edging to the right of the track. That was because I was on the right side of the cart. But I learned driving a horse is like having two ropes as a steering wheel: Pull to the right and Do Your Job's head turns that way and her body follows. Eventually, I got the hang of it, but I had serious respect for drivers. They have to find that subtle middle ground, know when to hold a horse back or to push it forward, make turns, avoid bumping opponents and find a way to navigate to a win. On top of all that, each horse is different.
7. The whip is a scare tactic
While on the ride, I had to ask Fumeniero about the other tool held by drivers: Whips. He has fond memories of growing up in New Jersey, heading to the track with his dad and getting the whips of some famous drivers because he was such a fan.
He explained the whip is there to make a loud noise and not to hit the horse. The noise — created by striking somewhere on the racing bike — scares the horse and gives it a last kick of adrenaline that it might need to finish.
Hambletonian Horse Race 2020
8. Hambletonian was a horse
Hambletonian 10, a horse from the the mid-1800s, sired some standardbreds that ended up in harness racing … and their foals ended up in the sport, and their progeny did too and so on. Per the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame:
In twenty-four seasons, he sired over 1,300 foals, many of them champions and including foundation sires Dictator, Happy Medium, George Wilkes and Electioneer. Hambletonianlives today in just about every trotter and pacer racing, which is why he is known as the 'daddy of 'em all.'
The Hambletonian Society manages 129 harness racing events and owns 43 of those races, including The Hambletonian Stakes at the Meadowlands.
9. It's totally not like the chariot race scene in Ben Hur
Although there are historical ties to chariot racing, the modern sport is far from what you saw Charlton Heston do on screen in 1959.
EAST RUTHERFORD — 'So, you ready?'
This is the question posed to me by Ken Warkentin, the silky-voiced announcer at Meadowlands Racetrack and Freehold Raceway who has called, by his account, 200,000 horse races of both the harness and thoroughbred variety all over the world, including in his native Canada.
By my account, I have called all of zero of them, and I've spent about 45 minutes with Warkentin, attempting to learn what it takes to call a race like the Hambletonian, the most prestigious harness race of all, which happens to be coming up on Saturday (his call will be on CBS Sports Network at 4 p.m. ET).
So, no, I'm not ready.
Luckily, I'm standing in front of a monitor in a Meadowlands hallway instead of in Warkentin's booth a few stories above the track. Nobody, really, is listening.
Yet I'm still nervous all the same. I've always been fascinated with race callers because it looks impossible. How do you announce a race when there are so many names to remember — from horse to jockey to trainer to owner — while also keeping an eye on a full field and keeping it creative and exciting? And then how do you do that a dozen or more times in one day, or sometimes 50 races in 36 hours, as Warkentin estimated?
Hambletonian Horse
It never looks or sounds easy, and as I learned, it's actually harder than you expect.
Pre-race
The Hamiltonian Horse Race At The Meadowlands
Warkentin grew up in Toronto with dreams of doing hockey play-by-play for his beloved Canadiens despite living in Maple Leafs country. So he figured if he started calling horse races, he might have an in to do hockey. While working toward a degree in broadcasting from Seneca College in Ontario, he began announcing races wherever he could, eventually landing at Flamboro Downs. When his neighbor got a satellite dish to watch races at the Meadowlands, he asked her to tape them on VHS so he could study the legendary voice of Tom Durkin.
He found he had a knack and a passion for the sport, and he put in the work — thousands upon thousands of races — to eventually land at the Meadowlands.
Warkentin handed me a packet he uses for a course when non-pros like myself want to try their hand (voice?) at his job. There's the obvious: You want to be accurate and you want to speak with clarity. But he also emphasizes style.
'Are you smarmy, slick, cool, nervous?' he asks. 'Be yourself. Define your style.'
Then, it's all about coloring in around the information you're providing. Yes, a horse is in the lead, but is it going too fast when it's known for coming from behind? Is it a 99-to-1 longshot that's shocking the world? How many different words can you use to describe the incredible action in front of you ('Dazzling! Astounding! Amazing!')?
I decided I would to be on brand and try to crack a few dad jokes with the horse names, which seems easy enough.
(Narrator voice: It was not).
Warkentin also showed me his race program that he marks up and puts on a music stand in front of his window. He gets the proofs of the program days before races and does his research, scrawling driver silks and notes, such as winning streaks horses might be on, records they might set if they win, and so on.
It obviously helps that he knows the sport and can recite facts off the top of his head when he needs to. That's where I ran into a considerable amount of trouble. Yes, I've watched Triple Crown thoroughbred races since I was a kid and got chills every time I heard Dave Johnson scream, 'And DOWN the stretch they come!' (Johnson, as it happens, worked at the Meadowlands with Durkin.)
But as you'll see, the lack of horse racing knowledge hindered me, along with — I don't know — zero days of race-calling experience.
It's post time
Hambletonian Results
Fumeniero tells me to not call people like him 'jockeys.' They are 'drivers.' The horses train with a 'jog cart' — which is what I sit in alongside the driver as we run in the shadow of MetLife Stadium — and race on what's called a 'sulky.'
2. Standardbreds are not thoroughbreds
Thanks, Captain Obvious. But there's a big difference.
'Standardbreds are built for endurance and work,' Fumeniero tells me,' and a thoroughbred is built for speed and needs longer to recover. We're catching up to their speed due to breeding advancing, but the faster you go, you see more injuries.'
Which brings us to …
3. Harness racers in the United States don't gallop
It's because galloping is against the rules. Races are run at a fast trot and horses are required to 'maintain a proper gait.' Standardbreds can run in two ways: By trotting (in which the left front leg and right back leg move and then the other two opposite legs) or pacing, in which the right legs move and the left ones follow. Fumeniero explains that at the speed they run, pacing can be more efficient.
Do Your Job is a pacer. While we did a warm-up around the track, she trotted, as you can see here:
But when Mike got her to go faster, it was like a gear shift in an engine. Suddenly, Do Your Job's right legs and left legs moved in sync.
That's all learned through training, and the New York Times reported on a gene discovered a few years ago that explained why some horses are pacers and some aren't.
4. Harness racing can start behind a MOVING gate car
Check out the 2017 Hambletonian — instead of starting from a closed gate like thoroughbreds, these horses get up to speed behind a truck with gates that close when the race starts:
5. It's faster than it looks
Admit it: You watched that video and thought, 'Eh, those horses look slower than what I see in thoroughbred racing.' While that is true — throughbreds can run upwards of 40 mph — these horses can go over 30 mph.
Have you ever been in a moving vehicle going 30 mph? Fine. But have you been on the back of a horse seated on something that you could fall off of with no doors or roof and just some reins — called driving lines — to steer? Thirty mph is fast. The second GIF you saw above — Do Your Job pacing — wasn't the horse running at full speed. But even then, I could barely hear Fumeniero telling me weren't going that fast because of the wind now howling through my ears and the cart started shuddering more. I dug in my right foot in a stirrup and steadied my grip on a bar on the jog cart.
Now imagine you're this guy, leaning back on the sulky and going faster than that.
6. Controlling a horse is subtle as heck
I rode besides Fumeniero for a couple of laps around the track — which, fun fact, is covered crushed limestone so that both horses and wheels can go over it — before he handed the lines over to me.
Do Your Job immediately stopped. Fumeniero figured it out right away: In taking the lines, I had pulled a little too hard.
So I gave a lot more slack and, a minute later, she started speeding up. Too much slack and she thought she was being turned loose.
Once I got in between with the amount of tension on the lines, I realized we kept edging to the right of the track. That was because I was on the right side of the cart. But I learned driving a horse is like having two ropes as a steering wheel: Pull to the right and Do Your Job's head turns that way and her body follows. Eventually, I got the hang of it, but I had serious respect for drivers. They have to find that subtle middle ground, know when to hold a horse back or to push it forward, make turns, avoid bumping opponents and find a way to navigate to a win. On top of all that, each horse is different.
7. The whip is a scare tactic
While on the ride, I had to ask Fumeniero about the other tool held by drivers: Whips. He has fond memories of growing up in New Jersey, heading to the track with his dad and getting the whips of some famous drivers because he was such a fan.
He explained the whip is there to make a loud noise and not to hit the horse. The noise — created by striking somewhere on the racing bike — scares the horse and gives it a last kick of adrenaline that it might need to finish.
Hambletonian Horse Race 2020
8. Hambletonian was a horse
Hambletonian 10, a horse from the the mid-1800s, sired some standardbreds that ended up in harness racing … and their foals ended up in the sport, and their progeny did too and so on. Per the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame:
In twenty-four seasons, he sired over 1,300 foals, many of them champions and including foundation sires Dictator, Happy Medium, George Wilkes and Electioneer. Hambletonianlives today in just about every trotter and pacer racing, which is why he is known as the 'daddy of 'em all.'
The Hambletonian Society manages 129 harness racing events and owns 43 of those races, including The Hambletonian Stakes at the Meadowlands.
9. It's totally not like the chariot race scene in Ben Hur
Although there are historical ties to chariot racing, the modern sport is far from what you saw Charlton Heston do on screen in 1959.
EAST RUTHERFORD — 'So, you ready?'
This is the question posed to me by Ken Warkentin, the silky-voiced announcer at Meadowlands Racetrack and Freehold Raceway who has called, by his account, 200,000 horse races of both the harness and thoroughbred variety all over the world, including in his native Canada.
By my account, I have called all of zero of them, and I've spent about 45 minutes with Warkentin, attempting to learn what it takes to call a race like the Hambletonian, the most prestigious harness race of all, which happens to be coming up on Saturday (his call will be on CBS Sports Network at 4 p.m. ET).
So, no, I'm not ready.
Luckily, I'm standing in front of a monitor in a Meadowlands hallway instead of in Warkentin's booth a few stories above the track. Nobody, really, is listening.
Yet I'm still nervous all the same. I've always been fascinated with race callers because it looks impossible. How do you announce a race when there are so many names to remember — from horse to jockey to trainer to owner — while also keeping an eye on a full field and keeping it creative and exciting? And then how do you do that a dozen or more times in one day, or sometimes 50 races in 36 hours, as Warkentin estimated?
Hambletonian Horse
It never looks or sounds easy, and as I learned, it's actually harder than you expect.
Pre-race
The Hamiltonian Horse Race At The Meadowlands
Warkentin grew up in Toronto with dreams of doing hockey play-by-play for his beloved Canadiens despite living in Maple Leafs country. So he figured if he started calling horse races, he might have an in to do hockey. While working toward a degree in broadcasting from Seneca College in Ontario, he began announcing races wherever he could, eventually landing at Flamboro Downs. When his neighbor got a satellite dish to watch races at the Meadowlands, he asked her to tape them on VHS so he could study the legendary voice of Tom Durkin.
He found he had a knack and a passion for the sport, and he put in the work — thousands upon thousands of races — to eventually land at the Meadowlands.
Warkentin handed me a packet he uses for a course when non-pros like myself want to try their hand (voice?) at his job. There's the obvious: You want to be accurate and you want to speak with clarity. But he also emphasizes style.
'Are you smarmy, slick, cool, nervous?' he asks. 'Be yourself. Define your style.'
Then, it's all about coloring in around the information you're providing. Yes, a horse is in the lead, but is it going too fast when it's known for coming from behind? Is it a 99-to-1 longshot that's shocking the world? How many different words can you use to describe the incredible action in front of you ('Dazzling! Astounding! Amazing!')?
I decided I would to be on brand and try to crack a few dad jokes with the horse names, which seems easy enough.
(Narrator voice: It was not).
Warkentin also showed me his race program that he marks up and puts on a music stand in front of his window. He gets the proofs of the program days before races and does his research, scrawling driver silks and notes, such as winning streaks horses might be on, records they might set if they win, and so on.
It obviously helps that he knows the sport and can recite facts off the top of his head when he needs to. That's where I ran into a considerable amount of trouble. Yes, I've watched Triple Crown thoroughbred races since I was a kid and got chills every time I heard Dave Johnson scream, 'And DOWN the stretch they come!' (Johnson, as it happens, worked at the Meadowlands with Durkin.)
But as you'll see, the lack of horse racing knowledge hindered me, along with — I don't know — zero days of race-calling experience.
It's post time
Hambletonian Results
The monitor Warkentin put me in front of a monitor connected to a database with replays of recent races from tracks around the country. Sadly, he couldn't give me the full experience he gets every week of calling a live race using binoculars, since races only happen twice a week — Fridays and Saturdays — at the Meadowlands. He would stand with me and point out what to call if I was tripped up, which I was extremely thankful for.
There was one advantage I thought I had: Harness racing is slower than thoroughbreds, and with the standardbreds pulling sulkeys (carts with drivers on them), maybe it wouldn't be as hard as the 16 or 17 horses running in a pack at the Kentucky Derby. Races like the Hambletonian also start behind a moving gate on a truck, with the horses starting at a jog.
Warkentin pulled up race No. 2 from last Saturday's action at the Meadowlands, hit 'watch replay' and up popped a field of eight, ready to trot and pace.
And they're off!
The process: Name all the horses in the field as they settle in. Keep an eye on who's in the lead, but then mention who's making moves. Then, announce the splits if you can at various points, like the quarter pole, half-mile and three-quarters pole to see what the pace is. Then it's all about the finish, where Warkentin advised me to mention the top-four finishers for those bettors who put money on a superfecta.
As you could have guessed, it was a disaster. I couldn't see the numbers on the horses well at all and I had to look at Warkentin's marked lineup to see which drivers were contending. I missed a racer in back making a move, and Warkentin interrupted my call filled with dead air and lots of 'ummmm' by pointing out one standardbred was boxed in. I mis-named horses. I forgot that a 60-to-1 longshot was in contention, something I should have noted. At least I successfully described a 'three-wide' situation — that's three horses side-by-side — as it developed.
The second race he gave me had a shorter field of seven and included a horse named McThriller (who was 'McThriller in the night,' of course), Highalator, who was in 'high gear,' annd Dealt A Winner, who I mentioned would not be a winner since he was at the back of the pack.
But because I concentrated on the humor, I didn't talk about the timing during the race or where the horses were on the track.
'The thing you seem to be struggling with is the vernacular,' Warkentin told me. 'It's the back stretch, the far turn, three-eighths to go. That's something you have to get down over the years and then you don't think about that.'
He set up a replay of a third race from last week — a race of 3-year-old Fillies (so don't give the horses male pronouns!) with nine horses. The result? You can watch for yourself below. Although I can't show you the actual race, all you need to know is Millies Possession and Evident Beauty crossed the line together in a photo finish.
Yes, it's still really bad. I still struggled to see which horse was which for most of the race. Despite the fact that the fillies weren't, in fact, going at a 'blistering pace' (oops!), I finally felt a little more comfortable as they came down the stretch.
The finish
There's an X-factor that Warkentin pointed out after our lesson: Gravitas, especially in the face of a sport that isn't as big as it once was. He remembered the days when there would be five or six days of races per week instead of the two at the Meadowlands now. His thrilling calls, he hopes, are a part of keeping the excitement going.
Although that doesn't mean you turn the call of each and every race into the greatest moment in sports history, it's something to keep in the back of your mind when you step to the mic.
'You are the spokesperson for the sport,' he said. 'This is it. The sport of harness racing, the Meadowlands is it. That's pretty big. That's important.'
