Trots

Standardbred trotters originate from a single progenitor, the legendary grey English thoroughbred stallion named Messenger. Messenger originated from England however was transported to America in 1788.His sire, Mambrino was an excellent trotter who won 10 of his 16 starts. However Messenger wasn’t considered a stayer as he was unable to last past the two mile mark. Despite this, Messenger’s status as a great horse was proven by his stud record. In one season he was visited by 106 mares. In the following decades, Messenger’s bloodlines were passed down through great mares and stallions and continued along through many decades. His greatest descendant was Hambletonian in 1849 who sired hundreds of foals and 150 of these foals would go on to make significant developments to create the modern harness horse.

In Australia, harness racing was first introduced in 1810, and the first Australian winner of any harness race was “Miss Kitty”. Despite the popularity of harness racing, Australia still heavily relied on imported stock to continue racing and breeding Standardbred horses. In 1820 Edward Curr noticed the excellent pedigree of trotting horses being bred in Tasmania. During the 19 Century, the most popular race track was named the Lillie Bridge track. This was used primarily for pony racing however in each programme there was also a trotting race. The track was extremely dangerous and was closed for a short time. In the early 1900s the Government banned unregistered racing and in 1902 the New South Wales Trotting Club was established to formalise the new found sport.

Despite this new club, organising the sport took some time with the registration of horses, licensing and framing of rules taking time to complete. In 1929 the famous Harold Park track was named after Childe Harold, a great sire of past trotting stock. Harold won races throughout the world and was then brought to Australia. Australian trotting really took off once night trotting meetings were established in 1914 in Western Australia. Following this trend was South Australia in 1920. As most fans of the sport were required to work during the day, the Gaming and Betting Laws were amended by the Government to allow for betting to take place at night and therefore the sport would attract more spectators and betters. This amendment improved the sport dramatically with both the crowd numbers and stakes increasing.

The invention of the sulky can be traced back to the mid-1800s when wooden wheels were first used to carry a one man carriage with two wheels. The carriage was then labelled as a “sulky” due to the owner’s desire to ride alone. Until the 1820s the sulky was only used to carry doctors and light travellers. In the first two decades of trotting, riders would sit on top of the horse in a saddle however in 1860 when the sulky was introduced to horse racing, the rider became the driver.

To suit the racetracks, the springs were removed from the carriage to lower the driver’s position. Soon after, several companies increased the wheel height, hoping this would improve stability. However at six or seven feet high, the wheels were too wobbly. The axle was also an aspect of the sulky which received constant modifications. In Boston, a carriage builder was using a steel arch axle while others were using wooden axles which reduced the weight of the sulky. Experimentation with sulky’s structure continued with bicycle tires, elevated seats and wheel heights. New York was also becoming involved in the continual modification with a man by the name of Payne, who set up 24-inch wheels on one of his sulkies which resulted in a lowered driver’s seat and less wind resistance.

By the 1920s, Ohio was manufacturing a standard sulky used by majority of racers which had 28 inch wheels and a weight between 33 to 40 pounds. Since then, even more improvements have been made to achieve faster speed records for trotters.

Harness Racing Records

Pacers
Overall Pacers Record Over A Mile (Time Trials Included): 1:51.9 Smoken Up NZ

Trotters

Overall Trotters Record Over A Mile (Time Trials Included): 1:55.6 Scotch Notch (TT) and Lyell Creek NZ

Most Wins Of All Time:

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