2008 Feburary 8th friday evening, I experienced one of those once in a lifetime events, that few people ever get to do. Ray and I went to Northville Downs, a race track in Northville Michigan, a small town suburb of Detroit MI. Northville Downs is a harness horse racing track. Harness racing is where a little two wheeled cart called a sulky is pulled by the horse. The person in the sulky is called a driver, not a jockey. The race track was having a special evening and everyone put their name in a drum. Five people were called from that drum, and one of them was Ray. They were given a chance to spin a wheel. Some of the chances were for tickets for Red Wing games, and free wagering tickets. One of the prizes was a ride in the official car during a race. Ray won that one, and he was allowed to bring me as his guest. The official car looked like a modified SUV, with a gate attached to the back of the car. The gate is like wings. When they are spread out, the gate is a wall that the horses come up to, and start the race from. When they are not spread out, the wings move forward and cover up the doors, so you can't get in or out of the car. It was about 10pm and a cold Feburary night. We walked out from the club house to the track and the driver opened the gate wings enough for us to get into the car. There was an opening between the 2 front seats and i crawled up between them and up a step to an small area with 2 stools. Ray sat in the passenger side of the front seat. The poor guy was just not going to get the view that i was in for. There was an older gent at the wheel in front,and another older gent sitting on a stool on my left, and we were facing backwards. The horses would be racing on my right. We moved in the car to the opposite side of the track. We were there for about 5 minutes while the gent next to me explained how everything works. The driver in front only steers. The guy in back, next to me controls the speed with a little brass lever, He controls the gate with another like same lever. He pressed a button and an annoucement of 2 minutes to start blared out to the drivers,and then he opened the gate. It was amazing to see the gate opening a few feet in front of me. All the drivers and horses had been out, prancing and pacing around for a warm up. Then another push of a button and an announcement of one minute. The horses started to manuver closer to the gate. Some were quite a distance. He open up the window in front of me and i was surprised at the awesome smells and sounds. The horses were coming up to the gate and they were only a couple of feet from me. I could smell their breath as they snorted. I could almost reach out and touch them, they were so close. They had excitment in their eyes, and their bodies were alive with excitement too. The car began to move slowly and then began to pick up speed as the drivers jockied the horses into the correct gate position and trying to keep the nose of their horse as close to the gate as possible. The sound of their hooves was loud and exciting. The car went half way around the track to the starting-finish line in front of the club house and then sped up and away from the horses, folding up the wings to the side of the car and moving the car to the outside of the track. We continued to drive along side the horses as they raced, about 10 or 12 feet away, close to the outside wall. The car paces the horses and has 4 different cameras to record any objections or inquiries. I was amazed at the amount of noise the horses and drivers make. The horses breathing and snorting, hooves clip clopping,sulky wheels and leather sounds, whips banging on the metal struts of the sulkies and the whistles, hoots and yelling by the drivers. It was the most thrilling combined sound i have ever heard. I realized the horses were really into this. I asked the gent next to me if the horses like racing and he said they know exactly what it's all about and get all excited before the race starts and are indeed really into it. I know i have seen horses give up when they get passed. Its a mind game for them too. I asked how fast they are racing, because we seemed to be going fast, especially around the curves. He said we were going about 35 mph or more. The average speed of the pacers is about 35 mph sometimes a little more. Trotters are a little slower. We went around the track twice for a mile and then it was over. Too fast - Too soon. I wanted more. Alas... It was such an awesome experience.
Thanks for listening to me.Shirl
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