BREED PROFILE
BORN FOR THE RACES Standardbred racing is a family affair, a passion that has been handed down through generations with a tight-knit community among competitors. B Y PI PE R W H E L A N
“It’s a multi-generational industry. Standardbred racing is very family-oriented,” said Colleen Haining, project manager for the Alberta Standardbred Horse Association (ASHA). “It’s a big family. We all have a common love of the animal.” The Standardbred is what draws them together, a horse that epitomizes the beauty, speed and stamina of harness racing. The breed depicted in Marguerite Henry’s beloved children’s book “Born to Trot” continues to capture the hearts of horse lovers and racing fans. “[Harness racing] is very familyfriendly. There’s no charge to park at a racetrack, there’s no charge to come and watch the horses,” said Haining, who raises and trains Standardbreds with her family in Lacombe, Alberta. “We like to promote ‘Come and meet the horses,’ because there’s a lot of city people who never get to touch a horse.” While these horses look quite similar to Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds tend to be smaller overall, with longer bodies and heavier bones. On average, the breed stands 15 to 16hh (hands high) and weighs around 900 to 1,000 lbs and you will see more bays than any other colour on the track. The Standardbred is known for its two racing gaits: the trot and the pace. While the trotter moves on a diagonal gait, pacers are now more common on the track, moving both legs on one side of the body in tandem. Harness racing began as informal 20
ALBERTA BITS I SPRING 2021
races down rural roads, eventually becoming more organized and popular in the United States during the 19th century. This was the setting for the development of the Standardbred, with its origins in the Thoroughbred stallion, Messenger of the Darley Arabian line, brought to the U.S. from England in 1788. “His progeny, of great trotting capacity, were bred with other breeds and types, especially the Morgan, to produce speedy trotters and pacers,” the Encyclopedia Britannica states. Of Messenger’s descendants, Hambletonian became the foundation sire of the Standardbred breed. Foaled in 1849, Hambletonian sired a line of
After their racing careers, Standardbreds go on to great success in many disciplines, thanks to their versatile nature and willingness to learn. astonishingly fast harness horses, and today an estimated 90 percent of all Standardbreds trace their lineage back to this stallion. To be registered in Wallace’s Ameri-
can Trotting Register in the late 1800s, a horse had to meet the standard of trotting a mile in 2.50 minutes, giving the breed its name. Almost all modern races are still the standard mile in distance. Early on, trotters were favoured in harness racing, but pacers grew in popularity thanks to their speed and ability to travel a mile in two minutes. Pacing was made even more popular by Dan Patch, remembered as the most famous Standardbred and the first to race a mile in 1:55 minutes.
THE STANDARDBRED IN CANADA
The Standardbred and the sport of harness racing have also had long histories in Canada, with Canadian-bred horses, drivers and breeders rising to the top. “Canadian breeders have attained international reputations and their co-operative efforts have established important sire stakes programs that have resulted in larger purses, competitive racing and investment in improved breeding stock,” stated by the Canadian Encyclopedia. “Great Canadian-owned horses include: Tacony, the first Canadian-bred world champion (1853), Gratton Bars, the first to win the top three pacing stakes in North America, all in one three-week period of 1928, Jade Prince, the first two-year-old world champion pacer (1976), Cam Fella, who closed out a sensational career with 28 straight