There are two subjects Kermit Allen of Blue Hill likes to talk about – blueberries and trotting horses.

Allen is the owner of G.M. Allen and Son Inc. Blueberries, a blueberry processing and freezer plant in Orland, a business his father started in 1912 in Camden.

Like almost every Maine horse owner, Allen has a personal story of how he got involved in the “hoss and buggy” sport.

In 1954, Babe Snow, a Blue Hill horseman, came looking for Allen’s brother to sell him a horse. His brother didn’t buy, but Kermit did and he and Snow went to Pennsylvania and bought a fairly well-bred trotter named Spencer Wyn. An agreement was struck that Snow, an experienced trainer, would keep the horse at Mountain Park in Blue Hill, jog him daily to get him ready to race. After about a week, Snow told Allen the horse was wild and he couldn’t do a thing with him, so the training chores were turned over to a cousin, Charlie Snow.

It didn’t take too long before both Allen and Snow realized Wyn really liked to race, but he did not like to jog every day. Allen said the horse would fight to keep from jogging and that if a driver didn’t pay attention, the horse would dump him out of the bike. Riley Davis, a trainer from Down East, finally got the horse to trot an error-free mile and declared the trotter ready to race.

Alec MacAtee, one of Maine’s old-time drivers, agreed to drive Allen’s trotter at Blue Hill. At the race starter’s command to “go” MacAtee let the trotter race, kept him flat and finished second in the mile race. A major accomplishment, Allen thought, until he discovered after the race that his trotter was cut and sore from hitting his legs in every direction he could.

Lyman Trueworgy, a top trainer from Blue Hill, told Allen he could fix the horse so he wouldn’t hit himself. Trueworgy worked all winter getting the trotter straightened out and had him ready for the Bangor summer meet.

They brought the trotter to the Bangor race meet in the back of a pulpwood truck with no sideboards or anything else for protection. “It’s a wonder the horse didn’t fall off the truck,” Allen recalled.

Allen signed on Roy Gartley to drive his trotter. Gartley was a well-known Maine driver and a champion distance runner from Houlton.

Gartley took the trotter out on the Bass Park track for his warm-up mile and Spencer acted terribly. He wouldn’t trot, Gartley couldn’t turn him and he stood on his hind legs and almost went over backward. Gartley returned to the paddock, said the horse was dangerous and he wasn’t going to drive the horse. But with a little coaxing, Gartley relented and agreed to drive Allen’s trotter.

It was Gartley’s practice at racetracks to “mark a program” for almost anyone. He would circle the horse’s name in a particular race that he thought should win. As Gartley was marking a program, Allen looked over his shoulder and saw that Gartley had circled The Duchess of Marble to win the second half of the daily double and not Allen’s trotter, which Gartley was driving in the same race.

“Did you pick my horse to win,” Allen asked? “Nope,” came Gartley’s reply. “Well, you’re not going to try with him,” Allen queried? “Oh, I’ll try,” Gartley said, “but, The Duchess just trotted a 2:10 win at Gorham Raceway last week. Nobody’s going to beat her tonight.”

Allen had planned to bet on his own trotter, but if the driver didn’t think he could win, he guessed betting on his horse this time would be a waste of money. So he pocketed his money and leaned on the paddock fence to watch the race.

The race started and Allen’s trotter stayed flat and on gait. He left the starting gate like a rocket and blew away the field, winning by open lengths and paying huge odds. Allen was dumbfounded, but figured he had been to horse racing school that night and learned a valuable lesson – that everything doesn’t go as planned in a horse race.

That summer, Buddy Reed drove and won with the trotter at Foxboro (Mass.) Park and Warren Strout (who was driving then) drove him at Rockingham (N.H.) Park. Stout later became Allen’s trainer and unfortunately, the trotter was later killed in a fire at the old Lewiston Raceway stables.

But the experience whetted Allen’s horse racing appetite. And 47 years later he still owns and races horses in Maine, primarily his favorite, the trotting horse.

In 1975, Allen bought a trotting filly, Miss Lilly Hayes, the first of many trotters bearing the Hayes name. The filly was the product of a union between Adios Honor, a stallion owned by Albert Merrill of LaGrange, and Strout’s trotting mare, Helen Hayes. She was outstanding and soon raced herself out of trotting competition in Maine and was later named Trotter of the Year in New England by the New England Horsemen’s Association.

“When she was at her racing peak,” Allen proudly says, “No one could beat her.”

Allen continues the Hayes line today and her best offspring was Miss Mandy Hayes, according to Strout.

Allen was honored last winter at the MSBOA’s annual winter meeting with a special recognition award for participating in the Breeders Stakes with at least one entry each year since 1976. And this year, Allen has another bunch of stakes hopefuls. When Bangor Raceway opens its extended meet on Sunday, May 13, one of the top stakes stables on the grounds will belong to Allen.

He currently has nine MSBS 2- and 3-year-old horses paid up and eligible for this year’s stakes programs. Will they all make it? Statistics say no, but Allen’s longtime driver/trainer, John Davidson, thinks there is definite promise among Allen’s MSBS youngsters.

Davidson, a Canadian who trains and drives at most of Maine’s summer race meets, has been training all of Allen’s stake horses in St. John, New Brunswick, since last fall. He soon will be moving the brood to Bangor Raceway for its 30-day extended summer race meet.

Allen’s MSBS entries in the 2-year-old divisions are: Chucky’s Best, a trotting filly and Miss Gabrielle Hayes, a trotting filly, both by RuckAChucky; Not Enough Cash, a pacing filly by Tridium and RoMar’s Gal, a pacing filly by Meadow RoMar. The 3-year-old entries include: Midnight Gal, trotting filly; Sedgwick Slew, trotting colt; JMK, trotting filly; and Go Ross Go, trotting colt, all by RuckAChucky; and Berry Fast Cash, a pacing filly by Longfella.