And they’re off at Bangor Raceway Bright sun, big crowd welcome track’s 124th season of harness racing

BANGOR – The horses weren’t the only ones champing at the bit to get started as Bangor Raceway opened its 124th season of harness racing Sunday afternoon.

Drivers, owners, trainers and bettors – the winning ones, anyway – were all smiles as sunshine greeted them at Bass Park and the Bangor Historic Track.

“This is a coming-out party for me. It’s just as infectious and as big an adrenaline rush now as it was when I started,” said Bangor native and veteran driver-trainer Greg Bowden, who started racing at age 16. “I couldn’t wait to get here.”

This is the 45-year-old Bowden’s 25th season of racing.

“I feel like I’m 17 today. It doesn’t seem like I’ve been racing that long… It flies right by,” said Bowden, who grew up on nearby North Street.

Whether it was the weather, the fact the Bangor Home Show was taking place right next door, or the allure of the horses, hundreds of fans jammed the grandstand area and lawns around the track and made empty parking spaces scarce.

“Opening day is always exciting, especially with these weather conditions, which were perfect,” said Bowden. “When you look at what it was a week ago, it could have been disastrous.”

Track officials estimated the crowd to be around 700, but it might have been more, judging from the lines of people waiting to place bets, buy food, or get a beverage. Those lines were a welcome sight to the tired eyes of race secretary Fred Nichols.

“Well, it’s a relief because it’s such hard work putting everything together. It’s a pleasure for me to actually see the races going on and see all the people here,” said Nichols, for whom race day is almost a welcome day off. “This is the best [opening-day] weather I think we’ve had in the 15 years I’ve been here. It might be the best opening day in 124 years, for all I know.”

Sunday’s total handle (the total amount of money bet on Bangor’s 12-race program) may not have been the highest opening-day figure in 124 years, but the $37,710 figure dwarfed last year’s April 28 first-day total of $31,181 on a Friday night. Sunday’s handle was bigger than any of the first four race day handles last year. The closest was a May 7 Sunday afternoon handle of $37,171.

Although he made some, money wasn’t foremost on Bowden’s mind Sunday. Although he drove to a second-place finish, two fourths and a fifth (top five places pay), it was the crowd that fired him up.

“Oh it always has, yeah. There’s nothing like a live crowd,” he said. “You can hear them and it pumps you up, no doubt. It even pumps up some of the horses.”

Yea Nay Maybe, a 16-year-old mare owned by raceway grand marshal Tara MacDonald, was a bit too pumped up to fulfill her duties, which involved leading the procession of race entrants onto the track before each race, rounding up any stragglers, and making sure none of them wandered away on their way to the winner’s circle afterward.

“Yeah, I think she’d rather be racing today,” MacDonald said as Yea Nay Maybe noisily stomped the ground with her lead right hoof. “She’s been a little too high strung and skittish today, so we haven’t done all the races.”

The fact MacDonald was there at all, especially on horseback, was a feat in itself since she’s only been medically cleared to ride for eight weeks. This is the second week back on a horse for the accomplished show horse/equestrian rider, who was seriously injured after being rolled over while on a horse last June.

“I’ve had several surgeries after tearing all the ligaments in both legs. My last one was in February,” MacDonald said. “We thought it would permanently end my riding career.”

Corey Smith’s career as Bangor Raceway’s new director of racing got off to a quick start.

“I’m doing some of the race- day things Fred used to do, making announcements, doing prize drawings, troubleshoot and make sure everybody’s happy,” said the Bridgton native and University of Maine-Farmington graduate. “It went fantastic. Everything has finally fallen together. Before today, you have all these unknowns, but now everything has kind of fallen into place and you see a lot of smiling faces. Everybody seems to be happy.”