The New York herald., 1921-05-08
HALF MILE TRACKS
IN HARNESS RACING
Brockt0n's Offering of $40. 900
i'm Purses Sets New Record
and Rivals Grand Circuit.

Brockton's offering of $4,000 in
purses for four days of harness racing
sets new record for trotting meetings
on half mile tracks and serves as a re-
mnder OF the sweeping change in the
status of the two lap rings Wiich has
taken place in recent years. In the early
days of the trotting turf they held no
such place as they hold to-day. when
not only Brockton but Goshen, Endicott.
Springfield and others are giving purses
as large as some of those OF the Grand
Circuit meetings and getting a class OF
horses almost equal TO those or the
Grand Circuit
All OF the earliest trotting Courses,
after the matchmakers left Third avenue
and Jamaica Turnpike. were one mile
ovals, the notable ones being the New
York Trotting Club course at Centre
vile, l.. T.; the Union Course. at Ja-
maica, and the Hunting Park Course in
Philadelphia. These three mile tracks
almost monopolized the sport until 1888,
when the Beacon Course st Hoboken
was opened
One Of the first half mile trotting
tracks. if not the first, was the old Har-
lem Trotting Park at the western foot
Of Mount Morris, south of 125th street
on the island of Manhattan 1t was
opened in 1888 by John Woodruff. the
father of Hiram Woodruff, and though
such horses as Edwin Forrest. Conf
dence and Columbus trotted some Of
their early races there. 1t was never
more than a training track and a place
Tor the road riders to race their horses
in impromptu matches for money or
wine. When important matches for
large stakes We're made they were al
ways decided on the mile tracks.
Vacant land in abundance was avail
able almost everywhere in those days
and long afterward, and wherever
horsemen of enterprise and spirit pro-
NOTED the building Of new tracks for
the trotters, as they did in nearly all
large cities and many smaller ones
their ambition rose above the two lap
rings, which meant slow time and sec
ond rate horses in the races
The mile tracks in operation forty
years 5go or even later could be count
I'd by the score. On Them all the turf
history of the nineteenth century was
made. In the last decade Of the CEN
tury came the advent of the pneumatic
sulky. which. improved and perfected in
recent years, has done more than any
thing else to give the half mile tracks
their present and fast growing promi-
nence.
The early, straight axle, high wheel
sulky made the two lap tracks, with
their sharp turns, quite impracticabe
for high class harness racing, and even
after Pray, Caffrey and Toomey had de-
veloped their. high arch axles to make
close hitch possible the high wheels
were still subject to such vibra ton and
sbidding that 1t was like dropping an
anchor behind q fast trotter to start
him on half mile ring. But the small
bicycle wheels revolutfonized all this,
and the modern track sulky, with its
long shafts and low seat, citing the
driver down close behind his horses
heels, takes the sharp turns as well as
II does the longer ones, making it pos
sible for many trotters to go almost as
fast on the two lap tracks as on .he mile
courses.
Such factors as first cost and up
Feep have also counted strongly In
favor of the half mile tracks OF recent
wears. and then there is the matter of
pleasing the crowds which attend great
fairs like the one at Brockton. They
ike TO see the horses go twice around
and keep within such distance that Il is
@'ways easy 10 identify them from the
grand stand
How the old mile tracks have dis
appeared is brought to mind by recall
ing the campaigns of twenty-flves years
ago. when the trotters were in possess
sion of the Pimlco track in Baltimore,
row given over to the runners. The
spring meetings there began about this
time OF year, and from there the horses
of the southeastern circuit moved to
Philadelphia for meetings at the old
Point Breeze track and the Belmont
Driving Park. Fleetwood Park In New
York was their next stopping place
After the meeting there they sometimes
went to Huntington. l.. l., and then on
to Island Park at Albany, Charter Oak
iark at Hartford, Franklin Park at
Saugus. Mass, Mystic Park In Boston,
Old Orchard and Rigby Park at Port
land. Me-, after which the pick of the
horses went to Detroit for the opening
of the Grand Circuit. Belmont and
Charter Oak are the only tracks among
them now on the harness racing map.