Word: hambletonian
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...muffled rhythm of trotters' hoofs is daily music in little Goshen, N.Y., but the howling of hot-dog hawkers is heard only once a year-the day of the Hambletonian. Last week the hawkers were in raucous full cry for the Kentucky Derby of harness racing...
...annual U.S. harness-racing classic, the Hambletonian (TIME, Aug. 23, 1943), was also held last week, at Goshen, N.Y. As usual, a sign hung in front of the county jail reading: "Welcome Horsemen." The race brought out what the black-dirt farmers of Orange County called a "middlin' crop of three-year-olds." The favorite was Yankee Maid, owned by Arch L. Derby of Wichita, Kans., first horse from west of the Mississippi ever to win the event. She won as expected. Her fastest time over the mile course...
...payoff on this unexciting Hambletonian was that one day later, Darnley, a four-year-old owned by Aaron Williams of Corning, N.Y., trotted the distance in 1:59¾ for the fastest competitive mile ever recorded on the Goshen track...
Then he trotted a sizzling mile to pull up from last (eleventh) to third. Clock watchers figured he had actually trotted a two-minute mile against Worthy Boy's winning 2:02½. Volo Song took the remaining two heats and the Hambletonian for Owner Bill Strang of Brooklyn without much trouble...
Over them all hovered the spirit of Hambletonian, progenitor of champions. Never a flashy winner, Hambletonian (1849-76) broke no records. But his blazing spirit and his success as a sire made him a harness immortal. Ninety-five per cent of top trotters today trace their blood to him through at least one line. Standard breds, from Hambletonian down, are still the only purely U.S. contribution to the sporting horse, and to a sport where age as well as youth is served...