wilderness
08-03-2011, 09:14 PM
Nat Ray was the first driver to Win the Hambletonian (http://www.hambletonian.org/) in 1926 with Guy McKinney (http://www.hambletonian.org/archives_hambo/h_1926.html)
Today with most tracks having removed the hub-rails (at least for harness racing), it's difficult to grasp the humor in Nat's 1947 comments (today everybody would be yelling that he crossed the pylons).
Nat Ray was a mere 65YO in 1947.
The following from Feb 1947 Hoof Beats and Jerry Shively's (son of Bion Shively) Quarter Crack column:
Nat Ray tells about the time up in Ontario when his pacer stuttered going away and the rest of them were at the quarter when he finally got flat.
"The track was as narrow as an aisle in a big hotel," says Nat, "and it didn't have an inside fence." Most people finding themselves out of the fight like that would lay up the heat, but not Nat!
"I just clucked and shook the whip a time or two and headed out through the grass across the centerfield. When I got to the front I stayed there and I'll be damned if they didn't give me the heat."
Art Hinrichs or Walter Moore wouldn't believe this story when I told it to them, but I will swear it's on the level because Nat told me so himself.
Nat, who has for some time been against stake racing, changed his tune--maybe it was a New Year resolution-for he has Hadley Hanover staked about as heavily as possible. The colt is Nat's own property, for he purchased the youngster at the Harrisburg sale last fall. He is a brown two-year-old son of Dean Hanover-Hollyrood Lydia, by Peter the Brewer, and can already fly on the trot. Hadley Hanover is a large youngster, perfectly mannered and has a good, glib way of going. When Nat led him out the other morning before I had seen him step he told me that here is one they'll be reading about when spring and summer comes.
Nat has a half-dozen in his shed-row stable at Good Time Park, Goshen, and plans to return to Roosevelt Raceway for the early opening of the plant on Long Island. Aside from Hadley Hanover, the others of his stable comprise: Murat, p, 2.08, a brown son of Schuyler-Miss French, that raced well during 1946; Baxter, 3, 2.11, a bay gelding by Bunter; Lady Be Good 2.10, a black six-year-old trotting mare by Scotland; Brilliant Hope, a chestnut five-year--old pacing mare by Calumet Adam, and Lisamite, p, 2.10, a brown daughter of Volomite.
Today with most tracks having removed the hub-rails (at least for harness racing), it's difficult to grasp the humor in Nat's 1947 comments (today everybody would be yelling that he crossed the pylons).
Nat Ray was a mere 65YO in 1947.
The following from Feb 1947 Hoof Beats and Jerry Shively's (son of Bion Shively) Quarter Crack column:
Nat Ray tells about the time up in Ontario when his pacer stuttered going away and the rest of them were at the quarter when he finally got flat.
"The track was as narrow as an aisle in a big hotel," says Nat, "and it didn't have an inside fence." Most people finding themselves out of the fight like that would lay up the heat, but not Nat!
"I just clucked and shook the whip a time or two and headed out through the grass across the centerfield. When I got to the front I stayed there and I'll be damned if they didn't give me the heat."
Art Hinrichs or Walter Moore wouldn't believe this story when I told it to them, but I will swear it's on the level because Nat told me so himself.
Nat, who has for some time been against stake racing, changed his tune--maybe it was a New Year resolution-for he has Hadley Hanover staked about as heavily as possible. The colt is Nat's own property, for he purchased the youngster at the Harrisburg sale last fall. He is a brown two-year-old son of Dean Hanover-Hollyrood Lydia, by Peter the Brewer, and can already fly on the trot. Hadley Hanover is a large youngster, perfectly mannered and has a good, glib way of going. When Nat led him out the other morning before I had seen him step he told me that here is one they'll be reading about when spring and summer comes.
Nat has a half-dozen in his shed-row stable at Good Time Park, Goshen, and plans to return to Roosevelt Raceway for the early opening of the plant on Long Island. Aside from Hadley Hanover, the others of his stable comprise: Murat, p, 2.08, a brown son of Schuyler-Miss French, that raced well during 1946; Baxter, 3, 2.11, a bay gelding by Bunter; Lady Be Good 2.10, a black six-year-old trotting mare by Scotland; Brilliant Hope, a chestnut five-year--old pacing mare by Calumet Adam, and Lisamite, p, 2.10, a brown daughter of Volomite.