Thirty years ago, on Monday, July
19, 1982, I was one of a few hundred people who were at Fredericton Raceway on a
hot, humid evening to witness Clipper Seelster win a $2,000 Invitational Pace
in 1:59.3 for Willard (The Wizzard) Carr.
With that mile in 1:59.3, Clipper
Seelster became the first horse in Maritime harness racing history to pace
better than 2:00, ending the futility of many who had chased the elusive
‘Miracle Mile’.
Actually, the 2:00 barrier had
previously evaded three other horses that had stopped the clock in exactly 2:00
flat in their attempts.
Andy’s Son was the first to 2:00 in
October 1971 at Exhibition Park Raceway in Saint John for trainer-driver Elmore
White. That story is interesting in its
own right.
A match race had been set up
between Andy’s Son and his stablemate Gons Butler who, ironically, would be
driven by Willard Carr on this occasion. However Gons Butler, who sometimes had a tendency
to jump shadows, failed in two attempts to complete a clean start. The match race was abandoned and it was decided
that Andy’s Son would go it alone and Carr missed out an opportunity for fame
on that occasion.
McGarret N equaled the E.P.R.
track record of 2:00 in Provincial Cup IV in 1981 and the legendary Saul’s
Pride accomplished the feat twice in Charlottetown and Truro the same year.
Doug Colwell, General Manager of
E.P.R., had had a standing offer of $2,000 to the driver who would break Andy’s
Son track record. It had been announced
earlier in 1982 that Provincial Cup V in Saint John would race for a record
$25,000 - an increase of $5,000 – an offer designed to entice horses from the
U.S. and Upper Canada with the idea of
breaking the 2:00 barrier.
Interestingly, Fredericton Raceway GM Brian
Embleton presented driver Carr with a cheque for $500 after breaking the
record.
Just a couple of months prior to Clipper
Seelster’s racing into the record books, Embleton offered me a summer job
working with him in the race office and part of my responsibilities was to take
over writing a column in Atlantic Post Calls (APC), aptly named “The
Fredericton Scene.” It was then that I
became acquainted with the esteemed editor of APC, Doug Harkness.
Harkness was putting together the finishing
touches on the weekly edition of APC that evening and the front page would
feature a picture of Silent Class, who had just established a new track record
of 2:00.4 in the Metro Pace at Sydney the previous week. However, a few minutes after Clipper Seelster’s
historic journey, I raced down from the grandstand and went to the phone and
called Harkness. Breathlessly, I
shouted, “Clipper Seelster just went in 1:59.3!
We just beat two minutes!”
Of course Doug didn’t know me
well and maybe he knew Clipper Seelster even less because he said, “You mean
Columbo Seelster?” referring to Clipper Seelster’s older half-brother who was a
top Invitational pacer in the Maritimes at the time.
I said, “No Doug. CLIPPER SEELSTER!”
I had only been working for two
months in the industry and my 15-year-old self already had what he thought was his
moment of fame. I was a rookie 'reporter'
and I got to break the news of the biggest event in Maritime harness racing
history!
Of course, Harkness had to make
some last minutes changes to the front page of APC and he would recount this
memory in stories he wrote about Clipper Seelster and Fredericton Raceway over
the years.
When the July 21, 1982 edition
was published a couple of days later the headline read:
To complete the front page there
was the illustrious picture of Clipper Seelster with Carr waving his hand and
stopwatch triumphantly while being chased by Big Hugh. What is interesting about this historic photo
are the three race fans along the hubrail doing the exact same thing – jubilantly
holding their arms high, one with a stopwatch in hand.
What I distinctly remember about
that night was the buildup by track announcer Gerald Bishop as he began to
sense that history was about to me made.
There was a buzz in the crowd when the half-mile of: 58.4 was announced and
it only intensified as Bishop’s voice built that buzz up to a roar by the third-quarters
in 1:28.3. His voice was barely audible as
he was screamed the final eighth of the mile. Bishop knew the ‘unbeatable’ 2:00 mile was
about to be beaten.
The chase had finally ended.
Thirty years later, almost to the
day, the veteran 11-year-old pacer Perfect Approach - a horse who I trained
this summer - opened up the race program at Fredericton with a win in
1:59.2.
There was no fame on this
occasion.
It was just another “Miracle Mile.”
* *
* * *
Miracle mile odds
and ends:
· The $2,000 purse was more than usual amount for
an overnight race but Fredericton Raceway General Manager Brian Embleton bumped
it up to entice Paul Perry’s horse, Big Hugh, to stop at the glib oval. Big Hugh finished second for local driver Mike
Campbell, who was a supper time replacement for Boyd Tremere, who had originally
been programmed to drive.
· Embleton was quoted in Atlantic Post Calls one year earlier, “If we
ever get a good field assembled here on a hot night in July, we’d have a good
shot at it,” when talking about the elusive ‘Miracle Mile.’
· Though Embleton spent the afternoon calling radio
stations in an attempt to draw a large
crowd to the track for the Invitational race, the $30,000 wager on that Monday
evening was considered ‘disappointing’ in view of the field of horses.
· Owner Paul Daeres told columnist Howie Trainor
the next day that he thought “Clipper” could have could have gone a little
faster if he had been pushed and that a mile in 1:58 and change was not out of
the question, according to his driver.
· Daily Special, who finished fourth to Clipper
Seelster, had made some history of his own three years earlier on June 14, 1979
when he established a new track standard of 2:02.1 for trainer-driver Mike
Downey, breaking Walter Dale’s long-standing record of 2:02 1-2 set in 1937. On this particular night though Daily Special
was driven by Mike’s father, Cerdic Downey.
·
A 14-year-old Willard Carr watched from the
centerfield when Walter Dale paced his record trip in 1937.
· From Atlantic Post Calls on July 28, 1982: Paul Breau commented that he would have liked
to be sitting in the two-hole with Silent Class behind Clipper Seelster after a
third-quarter in 1:28.3. “I think we would
have come home better than 31 seconds,” he said.
Clipper Seelster facts :
· Clipper Seelster was a $4,000 yearling
purchase. He was one of six horses owner
Paul Daeres purchased as a package from Seelster Farms, along with
half-brothers Columbo Seelster and Carmen Seelster.
· He entered the race with a lifetime mark of 2:00
taken earlier in the year for trainer Mike MacDonald at Blue Bonnets, a
five-eighths mile racetrack in Montreal.
His fastest win on a half-mile track previously was 2:03.1.
· After his record setting mile Clipper Seelster
was offered a start in the Cruickshank Memorial at Sackville Downs even though Daeres
had already accepted an offer for stable mate Columbo Seelster. Daeres opted to keep Columbo in that race
and the decision proved to be a astute one when he won in 2:01.2. Clipper raced in the “back-up” class, winning
in 2:02.4 from post eight.
· Clipper Seelster never won a free-for-all
event in the Maritimes. He finished
fourth in the Gold Cup and Saucer elimination (won by Silent Class in 2:00.3)
at Charlottetown and was second in the consolation. He finished fifth in the Walter Dale at Fredericton to Pennant
Play and then was second to Silent Class in the A.N.E. Invitational in Saint
John.
· His lifetime record of 1:59.1h was taken at
Scarborough, Maine the same year as his record mile.
· His final start was as a 12-year-old on January
15, 1989 in a $2,000 claimer at Connaught Park.
He retired with $81,134 in earnings and 46 lifetime wins.
As Fredericton Raceway celebrates
125 years, this is the second in a four-part series reflecting on the track and
its rich history. I would like to
acknowledge the contributions of Patrick Eastwood, Scott Green and Fredericton
Raceway hobby historian Doug McCarty.
Next week:
It has been said that
‘The Ghost of Walter Dale’ haunted the Fredericton racetrack for years after
the legendary horse set a Canadian record of 2:02 ½ on September 15, 1937.
Brent Briggs was the General Manager of Fredericton
Raceway from 2003 to 2008 and also a long-time Race-Secretary in New
Brunswick. He has also been a long-time race
horse owner and trained Spudland Sierra p.6,1:52.1s, one of the fastest New
Brunswick-bred mares.
For more blogs on New Brunswick
harness racing go to
thefrederictonscene.blogspot.ca
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