Harness the Thrill
EVANS CITY — For Gary Johnston, harness racing at the Big Butler Fair meshes two family traditions.
“I grew up in the sport,” said Johnston, 52, of Evans City. “My dad, William, and uncles, John and Andy, got involved with harness racing, and I just followed them. I was 7 or 8 years old when I started to take bandages off horses and clean the stalls.
“My family raced down at The Meadows in Washington County, and we started competing at the Big Butler Fair 35 years ago.”
The other tradition is that the fair is his own track. He boards and trains his horses there.
The fair is one of 15 venues in the state that features harness racing as part of the Pennsylvania Fair Stakes. Points standings are kept and champions are crowned in eight divisions at the end of the season, which runs from June to early autumn.
The eight divisions include 2-year-old colts and fillies and 3-year-old colts and fillies that are all entered as either trotters or pacers.
Trotting is the diagonal gait of the horse in which the right front leg extends along with the left hind leg.
Pacing is the lateral gait in which both legs on the same side of the horse's body extend at the same time.
Between Gary Johnston and his two sons, Aaron and Shawn, the trio owns 11 horses that will be competing today and Friday at the Big Butler Fair.
The Johnstons do their best to make every one of the races included on the state fair circuit and the ones at the Big Butler Fair, which offers them a reprieve from long road trips. Two weekends ago, they were in Bloomsburg, nearly 250 miles away.
“It's nice when we race here,” said Aaron Johnston of the 1/2 mile oval track at Butler. “We walk out of the barn where we keep our horses and the track is right there.”
While harness racing has remained with the Johnstons over the years, Aaron admits he needed some time to warm up to the sport.“I used to hate going to the fairgrounds,” said Aaron, 24. “But the more I went, I got more involved and started to enjoy it when I was about 14 years old.”Aaron and Shawn not only own their own horses, they also help train them and compete as drivers. Deciding who gets into the two-wheeled cart, called a sulky, comes down to common sense, according to Gary.“Whoever gets along better with the horse,” he said with a chuckle.“You have to be smart about it,” said Shawn, 22. “If one of us is not getting the right response out of a horse, the other will be the driver. Some drivers are just able to get more ability out of a particular horse.“Obviously, if you are the driver of a horse and it wins, there's some bragging rights there,” he added, “but I still get satisfaction from training a horse and seeing it win.”Winning is not a fleeting action in harness racing. Rather, it is a process that begins for the Johnstons when they travel to Harrisburg or Lexington, Ky., each autumn to pick out a few new horses.“We usually buy 7 to 10 every year between one and one and a half years old,” Gary said. “We look at the breeding, but luck has a lot to do with it.“The average price of a horse is between $5,000 and $10,000, but I've seen people spend $100,000 on a horse that never wins. I've also seen people spend $500 on a horse that turns out to be a winner.”To be eligible to compete in the Pennsylvania Fair Stakes, each horse has to have been fathered by a stallion from Pennsylvania. Many of these horses end up in Kentucky, which is why the Johnston's make the annual trek to the Bluegrass State.Once back in Evans City, the Johnstons turn their focus to breaking each horse.“That involves breaking the horse into the equipment, including the harness,” Shawn said. “From there, it's just about teaching it to race.”To help with that, the Johnstons use an exerciser, a machine which leads the horse in a circular path and can reach a speed of 25 mph.“Once you start to train a horse, you have to keep at it,” said Gary. “Even between competitions at fairs, you have to treat them like athletes, get them out and work with them.”A horse's diet is also important. The Johnstons feed their horses a combination of alfalfa hay and sweet feed, which includes molasses, oats and corn.Even with all of the preparation and time commitment, something can go wrong during a race.“Accidents do happen,” said Aaron. “The horse can fall down or equipment can fail. Sometimes, it comes down to human error, putting something on wrong.”Fortunately, in all of their years involved in the sport, the Johnstons have never had a horse seriously injured in a race.A horse that wins the Pennsylvania Fair Stakes can bring its owner more than $20,000. The prize for winning one individual race depends on each fair. In 2014, the total purse at the Big Butler Fair reached $96,000.Talking about his family's involvement in the sport, Gary said, “The greatest satisfaction I've received from harness racing has been watching my sons grow up and get into it, then seeing them win for the first time.”But a number of other county residents will to compete this week. Trish Adams, Big Butler Fair harness race secretary, estimates that 25 percent of the people involved — owners, trainers, drivers — live in the county.“It's the excitement of winning that keeps people involved,” said Adams, who has previously owned horses that competed here. “You have to have a passion for horses and for the competition.”Adams said she couldn't guess at how many people attend the two-day event.Today 71 horses are to run in 13 races, she said. On Friday, 82 horses will compete in 16 races.Each of the contests lasts about two minutes, Adams said, and horses run in races based on traits like gender, age and gait.The classes also are separated based on where a horse was sired. The majority of horses running at fair are classed in the Sire Stakes, which means their sires were bred in Pennsylvania.The event's other class, the Quaker Stakes, has horses whose sires could have been born elsewhere, but are owned by Pennsylvania residents.The Big Butler Fair is the Pennsylvania Fair Sire Stakes Circuit's first fair-based stop of the season, Adams said, and its fourth event overall.Because it's a sanctioned event, the racing commission dispatches officials — including a veterinarian, a presiding judge, a starting official and an announcer — to oversee the races.Drug testing is done on the animals, Adams said. An ambulance and additional veterinarians are on-hand in case horses are hurt.She said this year is the special appearance of race announcer Roger Huston, who calls races at The Meadows in Washington, Pa., and has called more than 160,000 races in more than 40 years.Adams said Huston's appearance is an opportunity for visitors to interact with an announcing legend.“He's a great educator as well, and a great promoter of harness racing,” she said.For information on harness racing, log onto www.bigbutlerfair.com.
WHAT: The Big Butler FairWHEN: Opens Friday and runs through July 11. Gates open at 9 a.m. daily. Harness racing started today at 10 a.m.WHERE: Route 422 west of ButlerADMISSION: Cost per person to enter the fair is $7 before 4 p.m. and $9 after that time with children younger than 2 free. Carnival rides have an additional cost.
