looked like a wonderful night ! would be nice to have my father nominated to the hall of fame! frank lomangino srco owner, co founder of the famed lindy farms of ny , triple crown / grand slam horse lindy's pride, in 1969 and his last champion happy dreamer in 20011, with hundreds of horses and partners in the industry thru out his 50 plus years in the harness horse industry
Check out Northfield Park I can tell you that there is a lot of horses that don't have a fair chance at starting position. There is one horse I can tell you after 20 start he haven't got a number one hole yes 1 hole pretty sad
i saw the handle at Oak Grove on Sunday, 15 stakes races and the handle did not even hit $ 500,000......i hope the harness racing industry understands that nobody would care about harness racing if it wasnt for the Meadowlands
Those retired work horses can be fun. When I was a kid my dad bought me a retired trotter that raced pulling sulkies. He was the sweetest horse but we would bounce our innards out of place on his back. It was very difficult to get him out of a full out trot and into a lope or run. But we didn’t run him much anyway. He was just our pleasure horse and he was awesome.
A shame. I saw state greed cause the Meadowlands downsize, and the old grandstand sits like a mausoleum viewable from the new grandstand area I really felt like I was at a funeral after having not been there for a while, looking at the old grandstand remembering from season to season the different places I watch the races and the incredible races I was able to see it from its opening until what they have now. Unfortunately, a beautiful race track where you can enjoy handicapping and take your time can’t compete with casinos that killed it and now the lottery has its own version of slot machines in every convenience store at 50% take out in New Jersey. it is very sad but shouldn’t have been. Even the racetrack is not as enjoyable since they’ve turned it into a crap game with simulcasting and a race going off every 30 seconds it seems like. All of the farms that were built, and most of them are gone. I wonder if the drivers in a few years will know what they are living and what was. The shaking roar of the grandstand with the apron filled with people. Last time I was at the track, there was dead silence. It was like I was on a farm watching a couple horses training. Music really sets the mood in this video. Excellent work, thank you for posting
I bought a standardbred pacer from a rescue who saved him from the kill pen. We're riding him but can't get him to pace. He just trots. The Amish suggested see-sawing the reins and be sure to make him go fast. Hope it works! He's a son of Magical Mike. Nice filly by the way, I love pacers!
I am sure you are a very nice person but - we have a baby (yes - an immature horse) being strapped up to the hilt - two bits in her mouth and her head held in position. Not just you of course - but the level of abusive practices inflicted on horses so they can be put on a race track or into an arena to win money/prizes is beyond comprehension. Sadly USA is one of the worst offenders for gadgets in the horse sporting world.
🇸🇪 Here. It feels like a hundred years years ago, when I spent a winter grooming horses for the great Mr W. R. Haughton, the track was still named 'Pompano Park Raceways'. It was in 1982 - 1983, and Swedes had made themselves names at the American scene. Seriously. A couple of Swedish trainers started up business in America already during the early seventies, Berndt Lindstedt, Håkan Wallner and Jan Johnson. They built up Continental Farms, trained and raced horses like Ambro Goal, Nan's Catch, Dart Hanover (One time winner, one time second in the Elitlopp), Pershing (his second career, so to speak), Keystone Profile, Workaholic, Royal Prestige, Kit Lobel, Yankee Glide, Smok'n Lantern and many more. Sören Nordin and sons Jan and Ulf followed, and through the years I GUESS around 20 trainers, and how many grooms? MANY. When I was at Haughton Stables we were around ten Swedes. Stanley Dancer also had 'a Swedish connection', and of course Continental Farms had several Swedes on the payroll. Most of us were younger than 25, the limit for being in a so called (😂) 'Exchange student's program', by 'The Swedish - American Foundation'. I have no idea what they actually did, how serious their work was, but it opened doors to apply for a job at a bunch of trainers, and no questions asked about visa, the American embassy in Stockholm took copies of the papers from the Foundation and job offers, that was it. We weren't 'working', we were 'studying the American way of grooming and training harness horses'. Yeah, 😂, I can't say I studied, my problem was that my poor English sometimes made it difficult to understand instructions from the second trainers, but after a while I could understand them. However, I could barely make myself understood, of a weird reason. In the seventies, in Swedish schools, they were very particular with that we should speak Brittish English. And I couldn't fit that in my mouth, it came out some noises from my mouth 😂😂! This was a disability, but there were other Swedes to translate if needed, but I avoided to speak English. The thing is that, if you live in a different country, where a lot of things, situations, EXPRESSIONS etc either can't be straight translated, or doesn't even exist in your mother tongue, you start to mix in words, or grammar, from the new language. We didn't speak Swedish, we spoke Swenglish. Sometimes it happened that one person reflected a second over what someone else said, and started to laughing, it could be ridiculous. English words with Swedish grammar, Swedish words and English grammar. Back then, a huge area on the other aside of the race track was for training. It was a while ago, but as I remember, it was on the other side of the railroad 🤔🤔🤔🤔?? Barns, dormitories, and a full mile, full width, training track. I also remember a place, not far from a laundrette, that had the best subs in the whole freaking world🤤🤤😋! More than an inch layer of meet or cheese, a garlic sauce to die for, crispy, fresh iceberg, tomatoes, red onion and cucumber. In absolutely fresh bread. We went there at least once a week, when doing, or leaving, the laundry. A medium sub was a foot, cut in two. One for lunch, one for dinner 👍👌. Greenbrier, I still have a mug somewhere 😂. So many memories, so many memories. Now that's all that's left.😮💨😢😢 I spent the summer at the Meadowlands. Concrete, asphalt and sand. The only windy place around was on the track. F 80-85°, no wind. My roommate and I were the only people who could sleep at night 😂. She had a portable fan, like a suitcase, where you open the sides on. It fitted perfectly in the window. We covered the rest of the window with aluminum foil, to reflect the sun and heat. During the days we had the fan running, blowing outwards, so the relatively cold air in the corridor were sucked into the room beneath the door. Before bedtime we went out to the ice machine (for the horse's leg etc) and filled half of a tall bucket each (it had been clay or something like that in them before). We brought them to the showers, filled up with cold water. Put the buckets besides the beds. Went to bed, with one hand in the bucket. Perfect cooling system!! It was so warm, so the ice didn't cold burn (or what it's called in English) the hands. I was a week at Vernon Dawns too. It was like coming to paradise from the Meadowlands 😅. Camping outside my horse's stall, everything old and worn out (made me think of the books about 'The Black Stallion' from when I was ten-twelve years old!), but it was heaven; AIR!, wind, a pleasant temperature, trees and a creek. And, 😂, a really sweet guy who bought me breakfast from the coffee truck the whole week! Breakfast, that brought up a terrible memory...😵💫😫😩😭 American coffee. I hope, for your sake, that it has changed for the better since the early eighties. In Sweden, I happily drink coffee because it tastes good. Before I went to the US, and after coming home again. In America, a half cup of sugar, and half coffee/half milk. In that Greenbrier mug. The only reason for drinking coffee was literally the caffeine!! This was a journey back in time, wow. Despite the coffee and awful environment at the Meadowlands, a happy time! We lived there and then. No worries for tomorrow, money at Thursday, what did it matter if your wallet was almost empty? One solid meal at the canteen, good enough for Tuesday and Wednesday. And, everything is gone now. Pompano Raceway isn't at all anymore. The Meadowlands Racetrack isn't the same. The whole business has changed.😢 "Those were the days, my friend We thought they'd never end We'd sing and dance forever and a day We'd live the life we choose We'd fight and never lose For we were young and sure to have our way.."
Fabulous memories...I remember almost everything you wrote about...Worked for J. Silverman Stables (RIP) on training side breaking yearlings...Meadowlands, Grand Circuit was all a blast!!!
Long live the Pomp ! Amazing how people would rather stay inside and throw money at a slot machine rather than getting fresh air gambling on a horse race. Harness racing Marketing did not capture the beauty of harness racing because of the race fixing issue. Cheaters damaged the sport as well as keep it alive. Weird.
