Harness racing teams are family at the fair
FRANKLIN TWP — While the harness races held as bands play and fans cheer at places like The Meadows Racetrack and Casino are more glamorous, the drivers who work the harness racing circuit say the Big Butler Fair is a whole different — and much anticipated — atmosphere.
“People are really nice,” said harness racing driver Aaron Johnston, 27, of Evans City. ”It's like a family.”
His younger brother, Shawn, 25, agrees.
“It's a family atmosphere,” Shawn said. “You don't find that stuff at other places.”
The Pennsylvania Sire Stakes harness races occur year-round, including at 20 fairs all over the state. The races are also held at casinos and racetracks that allow betting, unlike racing at county fairs.
The drivers, many of whom also train standardbred horses for harness racing, don their “colors” or brightly decorated racing jumpsuits, and hop on a sulky to speed around a dirt racetrack behind a horse that is not allowed to gallop or canter.
The races are separated by gender and horse age as well as whether the horses are trotting or pacing.
Trotting is the normal alternate-foot trotting gait, albeit much faster than a normal saddle horse. Pacing is when the horse moves the legs on each side of its body in unison.
Read more about the horses — and the people who ride them — in Sunday's Butler Eagle.
