Champions |1960-1969

First Four Heat Race at DuQuoin

  • august 31, 1960

  • DuQuoin, IL

  • DuQuoin State Fair

  • Purse $144,590

The gruelling test of stamina and courage that befits a great and classic race like the Hambletonian was evident in the 1960 race, with the gutsy Blaze Hanover earning the winner’s trophy after a long, tiring afternoon. It was an exceptional field which faced the starting gate on this afternoon, with Blaze Hanover, a son of Hoot Mon owned by S. A. Camp Farms taking the first heat in 1:59 4, equalling the stake mark held by Emily’s Pride. Not since 1934 had the Hambletonian gone four heats. In reality, it probably would not have gone that distance had O’Brien, driving Blaze Hanover, not clipped the wheel of another horse making the apparent winning move in the second heat, won in stake record time of 1:59 3 by the Victory Song colt Quick Song and Frank Ervin. The third heat was taken by Hoot Frost, a full brother to 1955 Hambletonian winner, Scott Frost, scoring for Jimmy Arthur in an identi-cal 1:59 3 . It was the first time in history that a three heat race had the first three miles all trotted faster than 2:00. The final, with so much speed, proved to be one of the most memorable of all time. The three speedsters loafed through an opening three-quarters of a mile in 1:43, but then thundered through the long stretch in an unbelievable :27 3 final quarter with Blaze Hanover holding firm over Quick Song and Hoot Frost. The purse was again a new record $144,590 and the winner, again bred by Hanover Shoe Farms, proved his mettle in the heat of battle.

A fourth heat race-off was required after Quick Song won the second heat and Hoot Frost won the third heat in identical miles of 1:59.3 - a stake record. Blaze Hanover equaled the existing record of 1:49.4 in winning the first heat. The long day was made even more difficult by a thermometer reading of 102 degrees, accompanied by Midwest August humidity - probably the hottest Hambletonian ever. The last quarter of the fourth heat race-off was 27.3, the fastest quarter ever in the Hambletonian at DuQuoin. The mile was in 2:10.3. It was Sol Camp and O'Brien's second Hambletonian win, and Blaze Hanover is the only chestnut to win the Hambletonian. O'Brien drove in 25 Hambletonians, second only to Miller's 26. Purchased by Italian interests a few weeks prior to the race, Hickory Fire, a full brother to 1957 winner Hickory Smoke, was driven by Walter Baroncini, the first European driver to start in the Hambletonian.

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Champions |1960-1969

World Mark lowered

  • august 31, 1961

  • DuQuoin, IL

  • DuQuoin State Fair

  • Purse $131,573

The Hambletonian and world trotting record was again lowered this year, with Harlan Dean trotting two nearly perfect miles to capture the stake. Jimmy Arthur, an assistant in the powerful Delvin Miller stable, got the driving assignment from Miller on Harlan Dean and Arthur showed his talents as well. The field was a good one, perhaps the best ever to start in a Hambletonian up to that point. It included not only Harlan Dean, but the very fast Hoot Mon colt, Caleb, Matastar, and the beautifully gaited Spectator, handled by Ralph Baldwin. There was precedent for Miller to give up the drive on the eventual winner. In 1953, Miller had his young assistant Harry Harvey handle the reins on Helicopter, and Harvey ushered the filly to victory. Likewise, Miller handed the assignment to Jimmy Arthur for Harlan Dean on the eve of the race. Harlan Dean raced for his breeder, Max Hempt, later a president of the Hambletonian Society, and one of the leading breeders in the sport. He was co-owned by Miller and Ray Cleveland. The first heat in 1:582 was a new stake and world mark for three-year- old trotters.

For the second time, one of Delvin Miller's assistants drove the winning part of the entry. (Miller asssistant Harry Harvey drove Helicopter in 1953). Three-year-old World Record of 1:58.2. Harlan Dean was voted 3-year-old Trotter of the Year. The Trotting Horse Club of America was dissolved and the stakes which it sponsored, including what is now the Historic Series, the Tompkins Memorial, the Geers Stakes, the Matron and the American-Nationals, were assumed by the Hambletonian Society. Founded in 1927, the Trotting Horse Club of America, an association of breeders, was instrumental in the growth of stakes and futurity racing in the sport, resuscitated the Grand Circuit, acquired the Register and the Year Book, and created the U.S.T.A. and the Hall of Fame of the Trotter. It also sponsored John Hervey's monumental 1947 book, The American Trotter.

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Champions |1960-1969

The Viking Sails To Victory

  • august 29, 1962

  • DuQuoin, IL

  • DuQuoin State Fair

  • Purse $116,612

The year marked the end of an era in Hambletonian history — that of the last son of the great stallion Hoot Mon to earn Hambletonian glory. Hoot Mon, winner of the 1947 Hambletonian, sired four winners of this great event, but A. C.’s Viking was the last. Sanders Russell, the 62-year-old Alabama horseman, prepped his big colt perfectly but needed every inch of the stretch in both heats for narrow wins over Safe Mission and Isaac in the 1:59.3 and 2:00 heats. Russell drove in the classic event himself despite the fact he had a broken ankle and had to be helped on and off the sulky. One of the highlights of the 1962 race was the appearance of four of the finest trotting fillies in the history of the sport. Impish, the world cham-pion two-year-old trotting filly with a mark of 1:58.3 was 3-5 for Frank Ervin despite a long layoff prior to the race. The famed Rodney daughters, Spry Rodney and Sprite Rodney also competed, along with Worth Seein.

Trainer/driver Russell won two straight heats with his foot in a cast. Despite his injury, he felt it was his best chance to win the Hambletonian. A.C.'s Viking also won the Yonkers Futurity, but was beaten in straight heats by Safe Mission in the Kentucky Futurity. A.C.'s Viking was voted Three-Year-Old Trotter of the Year.

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Champions |1960-1969

A Powerful Win

  • august 28, 1963

  • DuQuoin, IL

  • DuQuoin State Fair

  • Purse $115,549

The Hambletonian and world trotting mark was lowered nearly a full second in 1963, but not by eventual winner, Speedy Scot. Florlis, his season-long arch rival, upset both Speedy Scot and the experts with an amazing 1:57 3 opening heat victory that left the Hambletonian outcome strictly in doubt. But, in the final analysis, Speedy Scot, one of the great trotters of all time, prevailed in a world-record setting three heat battle closed off with final miles in 1:58 and 1:58.2. Bred and owned by Castleton Farm of Lexington, Ky., Speedy Scot entered the race as the prohibitive favorite. After the first heat loss where Speedy Scot was forced to go three wide in the final turn, the burly Speedster colt responded in the next two trips with nearly perfect miles, earning him the silver. Speedy Scot and Florlis were clearly the best of this field, which also included Elma, future dam of former record holder Japa, 3, 1:56.3, and Texas, second in the 1977 Hambletonian.

Race conditions were changed to require eliminations if the number of entries created more than two tiers of starters (21 or more). It was rumored that Speedy Scot had been withheld from the Castleton yearling consignment because he was awakward and an "ugly ducking." In fact, Speedy Scot was retained by Castleton, simply because the breeding farm wanted to keep one colt and one filly from Speedster's second crop. Speedy Scot became the second horse to win the Triple Crown of Trotting and went on to be one of the greatest free-for-allers of all time. Castleton Farm (Frances Dodge Van Lennep and her husband Fred) became the first breeder/owner of a Triple Crown winner. Speedy Scot was voted Three-Year-Old Trotter of the Year. Florlis won the first heat in 1:57.3, a world record for three-year-olds.

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Champions |1960-1969

Winner Had A Mind Of His Own

  • September 2, 1964

  • DuQuoin, IL

  • DuQuoin State Fair

  • Purse $115,281

Ayres, the tiny fireball with a mind of his own, provided John Simpson, Jr., with his second Hambletonian winner in stakes record time of 1:564 in the opening heat. As a two-year-old, Ayres was a fast but tempera-mental colt, but patient and competent handling by Simpson turned him into the fastest Hambletonian performer of that time. Ayres was the third winner sired by Hanover Shoe Farms’ great sire, Star’s Pride, and he defeated one of the smallest, but most quality-laden fields in Hambletonian history. The first five finishers all became top trotting sires and Ayres, Speedy Count and Speedy Rodney became sires of Hambletonian winners. Ayres sired full brothers Christo-pher T. and Timothy T. to win the classic in 1974 and 1970, respectively. Speedy Count sired 1976 winner Steve Lobell, and Speedy Rodney sired 1977 champion Green Speed. Owned and bred by Charlotte Sheppard, Ayres trotted miles of 1:561 and 1:581 to turn back Big John and Speedy Count. The mile in the first heat trotted in 1:564 equalled Speedy Scot’s then world mark for trotters, but Ayres had trotted faster than any other in Hambletonian history.

In the first national telecast of the Hambletonian, the race was broadcast tape-delayed three days later on ABC's Wide World of Sports. The homebred Ayres was the third horse to win the Triple Crown of Trotting. Ayres' first heat was a stake record and tied the world record for three year olds in 1:565.4. Ayres was the 3-year-old Trotter of the Year. The five money winners all became top sires; three of the five (Ayres, Speedy Count and Speedy Rodney) produced Hambletonian winners. The other two were Big John and Dartmouth. 39,068 may be the largest crowd to see a Hambletonian at DuQuoin. Nearly 40,000 also attended the 1966 classic. Harness Horsemen International founded.

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Champions |1960-1969

A Dark Horse In Near Darkness

  • September 1, 1965

  • DuQuoin, IL

  • DuQuoin State Fair

  • Purse $122,245

The 1965 race is memorable for a lot of reasons. With an awe-some, torrential rain on Hambletonian eve, the Du Quoin track was reduced to a sea of mud. The first heat of the day’s program did not get off until nearly 4:00 and then the Hambletonian field proceeded to take four heats in determining a winner. It was both an uplifting and disheartening day for Stanley Dancer, trainer of the eventual winner, Egyptian Candor, a colt owned and bred by the Dancers. Dancer had Noble Victory in the race as the prohibitive favorite. Both before and after the Hambletonian, Noble Victory would be the cream of the crop, but on Hambletonian Day, Noble Victory could not handle the off track . Short Stop, with the veteran Ned Bower in the sulky, took the first heat, trotted in 2:051 over the sticky going, defeating Nimble Boy by a head. Noble Victory made a break in the opening heat and finished a badly beaten ninth. In the second heat, Del Cameron, substituting for Dancer, got Egyptian Candor home a winner over Nimble Boy and Armbro Flight. The mile was trotted in 2:04.3. The three heat winners were barely visible as they loafed through the opening three-quarters. Egyptian Candor came out just after the half, and engaged the filly Armbro Flight from there home, and recorded a narrow win. For Del Cameron, it was his second Hambletonian victory, and for Stanley Dancer, victory was tinged with the defeat of Noble Victory, who was fourth overall.

Stanley Dancer won his first Hambletonian as a trainer, with a horse owned by his wife. However, he elected to drive the overwhelming pre-race favorite, and seemingly unbeatable, Noble Victory, who came into the Hambletonian with a 20-race win streak. In the first heat, Noble Victory made a break over the sticky racetrack and finished ninth. In the second heat, Del Cameron, subbing for Dancer, won with Noble Victory's stablemate Egyptian Candor. Noble Victory, still struggling over the surface, was seventh. When the great filly Armbro Flight beat Egyptian Candor to win the third heat (Noble Victory was third) the race was forced to a fourth heat for just the fifth time in its history. Cameron asked Dancer to take over and drive Egyptian Candor in the three-horse race-off, but Dancer told him "it's your race to win or lose." Del Cameron won his second Hambletonian in near darkness, a little before 8:00 p.m. The photographer's flashes illuminated a narrow win for Egyptian Candor over Armbro Flight. A homebred form the Dancer's Egyptain Acres Stable, Egyptian Candor was the fourth sond of 1950 runner-up Star's Pride to win the classic.

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Champions |1960-1969

A Filly Winner

  • august 31, 1966

  • DuQuoin, IL

  • DuQuoin State Fair

  • Purse $122,540

For the third year in a row, a son our daughter of Star's Pride was a Hambletonian winner. Kerry Way, a filly bred by John Gaines of Lexington, Kentucky, and owned by Gainesway Farm, set a world record for two heats by a trotting filly. Kerry Way was the eleventh filly to win the great race. Polaris was second in both heats of the 1966 race with the miles trotted in 1:58.4 and 1:59.3. Frank Ervin trained and drove Kerry Way, a beautifully gaited filly who gave Ervin some anxious moments after the fire mile when it was discovered that she had struck herself on a knee. Between heats of the Hambletonian, trainer Ervin decided to add equipment. The outcome could have been disastrous if the filly had rejected her new equipment, a pair of knee boots. With the boots in place, however, she roared into the lead at the three-quarters and under strong driving, held off the rally of Polaris. It was the second Hambletonian victory for Frank Ervin, but his first as both trainer and driver. He had driven the 1959 winner, Diller Hanover, who was trained by Ralph Baldwin.

In an extraordinary equipment change between heats, Kerry Way won the final wearing knee boots for the first time in her career. Kerry Way was the first filly Two-year-old Trotter of the Year (1965) to win the Hambletonian. There was not a separate filly division until 1968. Continentalvictory was the only other Two-year-old filly champion (1995) to win the Hambletonian. The homebred Kerry Way was a half sister to Pillow Talk, the dam of 1972 winner Super Bowl. Star's Pride, second in the 1950 classic, sired the Hambletonian winner for the third consecutive year. In fact, the first three money winners of 1966 were all by Star's Pride. Kerry Way's breeder, John Gaines, later founded the Breeders' Cup in Thoroughbred racing. Kerry Was was the Three-year-old Trotter of the Year. 

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Champions |1960-1969

Cameron Wins 3rd hambletonian

  • august 30, 1967

  • DuQuoin, IL

  • DuQuoin State Fair

  • Purse $122,650

Del Cameron joined select company in 1967 as he won his third Hambletonian stake with the sore-footed Speedy Streak. Speedy Streak was the most expensive yearling (he cost $113,000) ever to grace the Hambletonian winner’s enclosure and he was a full brother to 1963 winner, Speedy Scot. Speedy Streak was trained by Frank Ervin, who also trained 1966 winner Kerry Way. But because of illness, Ervin was unable to drive Speedy Streak and asked Cameron, one of the craftiest drivers of the time, to handle Speedy Streak. Speedy Streak had soundness problems in that he was bothered by sore hooves, which robbed him of speed. Furthermore, it complicated the intense training needed to prepare for the Hambletonian. It is one of the crowning achievements of Frank Ervin’s career that he was able to direct the training of the Speed-ster colt to overcome the soundness problems and yet reach a competitive peak at just the right time. Keystone Probe was second and third in the two heats, while Speedy Streak’s stablemate, Speed Model, was second in the final heat.

A full brother to the 1963 winner Speedy Scot, Speedy Streak was the most expensive yearling of 1965, hammered down at $113,000 ($589, 752 in 1999 dollars). Speedy Scot and Speedy Streak's dam, Scotch Love, is by Victory Song, runner-up in the 1946 race. Father and son owners Clarence and John Gaines, and trainer Frank Ervin won back-to-back Hambletonians. Ervin had been hospitalized for surgery, so the responsibilities of the day fell to his assistant Art Hult. Hult not only oversaw the preparation of the winner, but drove the stable's other entry, the filly Speed Model, to a second place finish in the final and third money overall.

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Champions |1960-1969

It Really was No contest

  • august 25, 1968

  • DuQuoin, IL

  • DuQuoin State Fair

  • Purse $116,190

It was a foregone conclusion that Nevele Pride would win the 1968 Hambletonian. There was little suspense to it, the exact figures as to how fast he would trot and how much he would win by were the sub-jects of discussion. It turned into that kind of rout, but it was an important victory for Stanley Dancer, the ultrasuccessful trainer and driver of trotting’s wonder horse. Dancer had been bitterly disappointed in 1965 when he trained the favorite for that race, the brilliant Noble Victory. But Noble Victory had an off day over an off track and Dancer was set upon getting his first Hambletonian silver with Nevele Pride. It was pure and simple vindication for Dancer. It was not that Nevele Pride set the trotting world on its ear. He merely mowed down the field with perfunctory ease and so dominated the race that at no point in either heat did another horse get in front of him. Dancer set him rolling in high gear for the lead in the first heat and never looked back. He also never asked Pride to really trot in the 1:593 and 1:592 miles, which were nearly a full second slower than he had trotted a year earlier over the same DuQuoin track as a two-year-old. Nevele Pride would go on to win the trotting Triple Crown. Pride’s arch-rival Snow Speed was off form on this day and fin-ished 9-7 for Ralph Baldwin. Keystone Spartan, Dart Hanover, Larengo Hanover and Master Yankee trailed the winner in identical order in both trips.

Nevele Pride became the fourth horse to win the Triple Crown of Trotting. In addition he captured two other stakes, the Colonial and Dexter Cup, which constituted the "Big Five" trotting races at the time. His margin of victory of five and a half lengths possibly equaled the Hambletonian record of Peter Astra in 1939, which was before the days of charting and the photo finish. Stanley Dancer drove his first Hambletonian winner, 15 years after driving in his first Hambletonian (Newport Champ in 1953). Keystone Spartan and Dart Hanover, who finished second and third respectively in both heats, were both exported and became stars in Europe. Voted Horse of the Year in 1968, Nevele Pride was also honored the previous year at two, and repeated again as a 4-year-old. He is the only trotter ever to be voted Horse of the Year in three straight years.

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Champions |1960-1969

Howard Beissinger with Pride

  • august 27, 1969

  • DuQuoin, IL

  • DuQuoin State Fair

  • Purse $124,910

For the seventh time in eleven years, the Hambletonian winner was sired by Star’s Pride, this time, named Lindy’s Pride. It was a debut win in harness racing’s greatest race for trainer-driver Howard Beissinger. Lindy’s Pride was bred by Hanover Shoe Farms and was owned by Lindy Farm, Inc. He recorded miles of 1:573 and 1:582 in annexing the 1969 Hambletonian. The Prophet was favored, sent off at odds of 2-3 for Harold Dancer, Sr., while Smoky Morn trotted a big second heat to be second for Ned Bower. This field also included the brilliant but erratic Dayan, third in the opening mile and second in the final, but placed fourth for interference.

Lindy's Pride became the fifth horse to win the Triple Crown of Trotting. It was also the second year in a row that a sophmore trotter captured the "Big Five." (Hambletonian, Yonkers Trot, Kentucky Futurity, Colonial and Dexter Cup). Nevele Pride and Lindy's Pride are the only two to accomplish the feat. Trainer/driver Howard Beissinger won in his first attempt at the Hambletonian. Lindy's Pride's caretaker Osvaldo Formia would later win another Hambletonian as the groom on Speedy Somolli (1978) and two more as the trainer for both Probe (1989) and Harmonious (1990). Lindy's Pride was voted the 3-year-old Trotting Colt of the Year.

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Champions |1960-1969

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