A Name I Shall Never Forget

[Teach]

Hawkins Hoss. Adios Butler. Zither. Cams Fella. Dream High. Overtrick. Ivan Chief. Charmax. Su Mac Lad. Riyahd. Crux.

The above are just a sample of some of my favorite harness (standardbreds) horses that I’ve either bet on and/or watched over these past many decades. Each one, in their own way, brought excitement into my life. Yes, I had seen these horses at various venues: Foxboro Raceway, Rockingham Park, Suffolk Downs (they used to run a one-month fall met), Roosevelt Raceway, Yonkers Raceway, Freehold Raceway and The Meadowlands.

Yet, there’s one horse that will always stand out. Everyone remembers their first big hit.

It was the spring of 1964. In a month or two I would be graduating from college. Soon, I’d begin my teaching career. I was even able to buy my own car, a 1952 Dodge coupe. Life was good.

On either Friday or Saturday evenings (sometimes both) my friends and I would pile into an available car and make the trip from Boston to either Foxboro Raceway (summers) or Rockingham Park (spring or fall).

Well, on this occasion, it was my turn to drive. On an April evening five of my friends piled into my car and we headed north for Salem, New Hampshire (just over the MA line). As usual we arrived with high hopes. Sometimes those hopes were realized; other times they were dashed.
As I think back, shortly after we arrived at Rockingham, we were picked up by one of many trams that would take patrons from the spacious parking lot directly to the front gate.

When my friends and I arrived, we found seats in the grandstand. We began poring over the past perfomances. One of the gimmicks I would occasionally play was an exotic in which you needed to pick two back-to-back daily doubles. If you hit the first half, you then got to exchange that winning pick(s) for another ticket in which you would make another “daily double” pick. Four races in all were involved.

That night, I went partners with a friend of mine. We had two tickets after the first half of the “Twin Double”. We subsequently exchanged our two winning first-half tickets for two tries in the second half.

As it turns out, we both like the first horse on our exchange ticket but differed on the second and concluding horse. I recall from friend liked the #3 horse. I liked #7 horse.

Well, we hit the first leg of the second half. All we needed now was one more. We then saw the payoffs on the infield tote. Our #3 horse was paying close to $60 for $2; yet, the 7-horse, a longshot, was paying $400.

As the race unfolded, the #7 horse charged out for the lead from his outside post. It was a lead he would never relinquish. We were ecstatic. $200 a piece. Possibly, today, nobody would get excited over that number, but for relatively poor Boston city-kids this was a huge payoff.

Per usual when one of the guys in our group made "a hit," it was “treat time”. I bought my friends whatever they wanted at the snack bar: hot dogs, hamburgers, sodas… You get the picture.

As we drove back to Boston after the races that night we relived our thrilling win. It was a moment to savor. Oh, the name of the horse. A name I shall never forget: Necy II.

[wilderness]

from Sept 18, 1963 Harness Horse and Yonkers:

George Sholty-guided Necy II, the French-bred pacer

[am1947]

Teach,

Great story on that twin double hit.

Remember that Suffolk meet as I was stationed at Otis 1966 - 1969.
We would drive up there to se the likes of
the Filions and Buddy G.!
A

[Greyfox]

An enjoyable story Teach.
I could never warm up to harness racing.
For whatever reason we used to call them "Jugheads," maybe people still do.
But when harness racing first came to our town in the 1950's, I went on a few occasions.
It seemed that every race on the card had at least one horse with the tag "Skipalong."
"Skipalong Direct, Skipalong Over, Skipalong Boots....that sort of thing.
I haven't followed harness racing at all over the interim decades.
However, I haven't noticed any "Skipalongs" in any of my track acquaintances programs when they play simulcast harness racing.
Is the "Skipalong" line still running anywhere in North America?

[Teach]

Greyfox,

I'm not so sure about Skipalong, but when I was a boy there were two names that stood out: Hanover and Adios. Hanover I believe refers to the Hanover Shoe Farm and Adios was an early prolific sire.

[BlueChip@DRF]

Don't forget about Almahurst and Lobell. A LOT of standardbreds had those in their names.

[Faceless Enemy]

It's funny you should mention Crux. I scored big time on this horse at Freehold back in the late nineties. Jay Randall was the driver and the horse paid 30+ dollars to win..... It is incredible that all of the thousands of wagers since then that a simple name can just draw you back in time. Thanks!

[Greyfox]

Originally Posted by Teach

Greyfox,

I'm not so sure about Skipalong, but when I was a boy there were two names that stood out: Hanover and Adios. Hanover I believe refers to the Hanover Shoe Farm and Adios was an early prolific sire.

On yahoo I found Skipalong Direct.
He was foaled in 1944 and still racing well into the 1950's, as were other Skipalongs.

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/skipalong+direct

[wilderness]

Many, many Standardbreds were and are renamed each year (before they race) and after being purchased as yearlings. Some of the renames use Farm Names.

From the 1960 USTA YearBook there was a 5YO Pacer named Skipalong Direct 2d by Skipalong Direact-Francis Cole.
The owner was a resident of British Columbia and most of the horses races were in Canada. His earnings were so dismal that it wouldn't have made any sense to bred hime.

For 1960 there were 3 Standardbreds with a leading-Skipper, three with a leading-Skippy and three with a leading-Skip.

I've a 1927 reference to a gelding; Skipalong, bg, by Robert J. K.