Bangor host for youth camp

Local youths will have a chance to find out firsthand what a career in harness racing, training or horse care is like as the Harness Horse Youth Camp returns to Bangor Raceway next month.

The five-day camp is open to youths between the ages of 11 and 13. Ten applicants will be picked to spend five days and four nights at Bangor Raceway learning about the care of horses, stable operations and professional harness racing.

The camp, which is run and sponsored by the Harness Horse Youth Foundation, costs $100 per child and includes lodging at the Best Inn in Bangor and three meals per day for five days and four nights (July 8-12). Daytime activities include feeding, grooming and learning to drive harness horses.

“The whole thing culminates with an actual race in a regular race card where they’ll drive in two-seaters [sulkies] with real drivers,” said Bangor Raceway race director Fred Nichols. “It’s comparatively probably the most inexpensive program of its kind in the country. The quality of instruction is top-flight, it gets kids outside and it’s real-life intensive.”

The race involving the camp participants will take place July 12.

This is the second time Bangor Raceway has hosted the program. Those who participated in it in 2005 gave it rave reviews.

“Everybody loved it. We got thank-you notes from just about every participant in it,” Nichols said. “One of the 10 kids will be selected to go to The Meadowlands [East Rutherford, N.J.] July 26-28.”

To apply for the program, candidates must fill out application forms available at Bangor Raceway. Anyone interested in the program can get a form or more information by calling Corey Smith at 561-6068. Part of the application is an essay in which applicants must write why they want to participate. The entry deadline is June 25.