Skowhegan, Union Fair plan special harness racing events

Skowhegan Raceway has two special features scheduled on Saturday afternoon’s 10-race program. One is a pacing classic, the $5,000 Walter H. Hight Memorial Pace, that has been showcased each year on the last day of Skowhegan’s race meet and the second feature is something that most race goers have never seen in Maine – a time trial.

Five of Maine’s best pacing horses, plus a New Jersey entry, make up the field for Saturday’s Hight Pace. The annual Skowhegan pacing classic also carries an additional $4,000 prize to the horse owner if the track pacing mark of 1:55.2 is lowered even further. Race secretary Ken Sumner has gathered together a competitive field of six pacers who will vie for a big payday on Saturday.

The field for The Hight, from the rail out, includes: Postcard Jack, driven by Donny Richards, with a lifetime winning best of 1:55 (5/8 mile); Chatham Hoochee, Heath Campbell, 1:51.2 (7/8); Jack The Laird, Jim Doherty, 1:54.1 (5/8); Armbro Raptor, Dave Ingraham, 1:56 (5/8); Branchbrook Mystic, Kevin Switzer, 1:54 (5/8) and Yo Ho Ho, Gary Mosher, 1:53.4, (mile).

Immediately following The Hight Pace, racing spectators and horsemen will have an opportunity to watch something that hasn’t taken place in Maine for more than 50 years – a “time trial.”

Most of today’s racing fans are too young to remember the great trotter, Nelson, or pacers like Margaret Dillon, John R. Braden or Single G., who traveled the state competiting in matched races and exhibition miles. They drew big crowds wherever they raced. Today, most all time trials are done under USTA rules and supervision at The Red Mile in Lexington, Ky.

But on Saturday at Skowhegan, Tom Dillon, president of the Skowhegan State Fair, said he would time trial his “good horse,” Soulofthematter, by going an exhibition mile. A 3-year-old black colt by Matt’s Scooter out of a No Nukes mare, Soulofthematter is owned by Dillon, Walter Hight and Jimmy Doherty of Clifton, N.J., and has successfully campaigned the Meadowlands in the New Jersey Sire Stakes.

The first time New England racing fans saw Soulofthematter was last month at Bangor Raceway, when Donny Richards drove him to a 1:56.4 win in the $10,000 Penobscot High Stakes Invitational Pace. He has since set a new pacing record at Plainville Racecourse, winning in 1:53 over the five-eighths mile track. But on Saturday, with Jimmy Doherty in the bike, it will be pure speed, right from the start to the finish. There will be no prompter horse on the outside to spur him along. He’ll just pace twice around the Skowhegan oval as fast as he can.

“We just want to see what he can do,” Dillon said. “If he should beat the 1:55.2 mark set by Autobot and George Brennan, that mark will still remain as the track’s pacing standard,” Dillon said.

Harness racing on Maine’s agricultural fair circuit moves to Union Fair on Sunday with afternoon racing. Union will continue its free admission policy to the daily harness races. Union’s free admission applies only to the harness racing and not the fair or midway. Racing passes will not be accepted at the front gate, but all racing fans will be admitted free of charge at the regular racing gate off Route 17, according to John Lohnes, director of racing.

Ken Sumner serves as race secretary with Scott Niles as assistant secretary. Dana Delisle is presiding judge and Frank Woodbury and Sheridan Smith are associates. Roger Smith Jr. is the race starter.

Union Fair also has a number of special racing events planned in conjunction with the 130th edition Maine’s Annual Wild Blueberry Festival Fair. Lohnes said the The Fifth Annual Drivers’ Challenge will be the opening feature on Sunday. He said the response for drivers for the challenge brought 20 participants and four alternates.

The rules governing the driving competition state that each driver will compete in at least two preliminary drives to accumulate enough points to place him in the final. Points are earned by position of finish in the preliminary races and only the top eight drivers with the most points will complete in the final on Saturday, Aug. 28, in a winner-take-all pace for a $1,000 prize and a trophy.

Union will also host all divisions of the 3-year-old Maine Standardbred Breeders Stakes – trotters on Wednesday, pacing fillies on Thursday and pacing colts on Friday. Union officials will also award $300 each, plus trophies, to the leading trainer and leading driver during the Union Fair meet.

Lohnes says every race during the week is a blanket-sponsored race. Post times for Union are: 2 p.m. Sunday; 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 2 p.m. Friday and Saturday.