Last weekend, Stephen Mahar reached a milestone few others in the harness racing world can brag about.

Mahar’s third win of the night Saturday at Bangor Raceway was also the 4,500th in his 35-year career.

The 56-year-old driver and team owner from Saint John, New Brunswick, has been working around horses since he was 15, but even now, in his fourth decade of racing, reaching that kind of win mark still makes him roll his eyes.

“Yeah it’s pretty special, really,” Mahar said. “There aren’t too many in Atlantic Canada or the East Coast in general who have that many wins.”

Mahar could think of only three – all from Canada and all regular drivers at the Meadowlands in New Jersey and other venues in New York – who have 4,500 wins.

What’s his secret? He’s not sure, but he thinks it’s a combination of things.

“I can say that I’ve never really had a bad year since I started racing. I’ve had bad weeks here and there, but never a bad year,” he explained. “And I try not to be too hard on the horses and bring back a little bit each week by not overworking or over-racing them.”

Mahar and his wife Twila own their own stable of horses (currently 21 in all) and do most of the work themselves. If that doesn’t keep them busy enough, Mahar pulls double duty on Saturdays by racing in the afternoon program in Saint John and then making the three-hour drive south to Bangor to race at night.

“It’s just that one day that’s so busy. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t feel I could, or I didn’t like it,” Mahar said. “And on the way down, it’s not as bad because we gain an hour [going from the Atlantic to the Eastern time zone].”

It is obvious Mahar loves harness racing. He began racing on the side after graduating from high school and going to work as a machinist in a shipyard. He did so well at racing, he decided to make it a full-time gig.

They’ll probably have to pull him out of the seat of a sulky before he gives it up.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s something I really enjoy doing and I hope my health allows me to keep doing it for a long time.”

Weather plagues Bangor opening

Cold and rainy weather combined with a shortage of horses to make the opening weekend of Bangor Raceway’s 2005 season a bit of a disappointment, at least in terms of wagering.

The total three-day handle – $80,568 – was down about 20 percent from last year’s opening weekend figure of $100,922.

“It rained Sunday, so that hurt, but even when it wasn’t raining, it was threatening to all weekend,” said Bangor Raceway general manager Fred Nichols.

Weather difficulties were compounded by a scarcity of horses that were ready to race, which was indirectly caused by the near-constant rain that soaked the area for the last three weeks.

The shortage shows up when comparing last year’s race slate to last week’s. This year’s number of races was down 14.3 percent (from 28 to 24), which differs from this year’s in that this year’s schedule started off with a Friday-Saturday-Sunday format whereas last year’s was Friday and Sunday (so the following Friday was included for the three-day handle comparisons).

Bangor featured eight races each night, but not every race offered a full field of horses. Of the 24 races, only four (all on Friday) had the full complement of eight. Five races had just five in the field and eight had six.

“It’s made it difficult for the horses to train in the soggy conditions. The bad news is we got by with a bare minimum due to the low supply of horses. The good news is we had 50 qualify to race,” Nichols explained.

And there will soon be more, especially as the weather improves and the purses increase, something Nichols expects will also improve as the raceway expands.

There’s good reason for Nichols’ optimism. After having just 42 horses – the lowest total in the last four or five years, according to Nichols – available for last Sunday’s race, another 41 were added to the pool. As a result of the greater supply, Friday’s racing program will feature 10 races.

On top of that, the weekend weather forecast calls for more sunshine and high temperatures. Seems those dark clouds are parting quickly.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.com