Sunday, November 25, 2012

The History of Fredericton Raceway - Clipper Seelster - Part 2



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

For more historical data, pictures and stories please LIKE Fredericton Raceway 125 on Facebook. 
https://www.facebook.com/FrederictonRaceway125

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