The home stretch…railbirds at a county fair can experience the competition and drama of the stretch run for the finish line. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
People at the Shelby County Fair shared their passion for horses and racing Wednesday…excitement, closeness, personal, and price. “I can’t afford to go anywhere else to watch racing,” said a patron. “I go to the fair.”
Sidney, OH – Outside the gates between the barn and the backstretch of the Shelby County Fair track Wednesday, a woman stood for an hour of the second night’s racing card just to say she got her money’s worth.
“I love to watch the horses run,” she said (Mary, I think, but I lost my notes, with apologies). “I love any kind of racing. But the fair is the only place I get to come and watch, because I can’t afford to go anywhere else and watch. And you know what? They only have it for two nights and I hate that. I wish they had it every night ’cause I’d be here.”
She might have been the happiest person I saw in two night’s worth of action at this year’s Sidney fair, and I invited her inside the fence to sit with me and watch the third and fourth race, offering to get her a folding chair. Box seats at the World Series couldn’t have pleased her more.
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“I love the animals,” she added. “When I was younger I would come with friends and we’d walk through the barns and pet the horses. I liked to watch them get ready to race. The drivers were always friendly. I still have an autograph that someone gave me when I was fourteen, I think,” she said with a laugh. “The fair was a lot of fun.
“The grandstand was beautiful back then, and it was full of people because the bands would come and play on the track. They don’t do that anymore, I don’t think. I’m not sure schools have bands now, but I know there aren’t as many as there used to be. It was so much fun.”
She was interesting, and she was knowledgeable about the difference in fair racing and the pari-mutuel raceways like Scioto Downs.
The county fair tracks are more cozy than the big raceway tracks. When they make the turn for the home stretch they’re literally running right at you.
“You’re so much closer to the track and the action at the fair,” she smiled. “You can hear the sounds of the horses and the drivers. I never knew that horses scream behind the starting gate the way they do. At least, I think I heard one of them scream.”
She asked lots of questions…good questions…and it reminded me of a conversation I had with Greenville owner and trainer Greg Luther last year at the Darke County Fair.
“We need to market racing better than we do,” said Luther. “We need people to come to the barns and experience the horses and the drivers. Better get to know what racing is all about. Racing can, and should be a more personal experience. And if more people could experience it that way they would come and watch. It’s not about betting on the race, you know. It’s about being entertained by the experience of racing that matters most. That’s what brings people back.”
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He might have been talking about Mary, and Luther, himself, was at the Sidney track Wednesday watching one of his horses run in the fifth race. I pointed him out to her, and shared his words from the story written about racing at the Great Darke County Fair. She smiled at the notion that someone with that much stake in the sport could share an opinion with her.
Photo finish…you can hear the sounds of the track, and you can experience the closeness of the action. That’s why people love fair racing.
I got up to pack and leave after the fifth race, and when I left trackside she left, too. But I could tell…that her hour sitting twenty five feet from the horses on the track was an hour that she would not soon forget. And to her points about the fair then, and the fair now…racing then and racing now…things were bound to have changed from the days of county fairs being a more significant community attraction.
“But they’re working hard, the fair board, to make racing here as good as it can be,” said veteran starting gate driver, Mike Woebkenberg, doing the duties for both nights of competition at this year’s fair. “I’m sure no one volunteers to help because no one volunteers to do anything, anymore. So if there’s complaints about the racing, or the condition of the track, there’s about twenty fair board members who work really hard to make improvements on their own. And they do it for what? Two days of racing for the entire year. I think more people should appreciate it.”
People who love horses will follow them. They love the racing. The love the action…the aroma…the sounds…and relationship of horse and driver.
But Mike, I ran into others, like Mary, that do appreciate racing and wish there was more than just those two nights.
“There aren’t as many people for racing as there used to be,” said a man in a golf cart outside the grandstand. “But it’s exciting, it’s different, and it’s something besides demolition derby. And I think more, different people would come to see racing than cars crashing into one another. There’s something neat about the horses and the skill of the drivers. I like it.”
Inside the main barn I met Phil Groves, Botkins High School basketball coach, and a veteran owner of horses for many years. He had three entries competing on Wednesday’s racing card, and his wife and children were with him, helping with the horses as he hurried to get ready. There was no talk about pressure defense or boxing out under the boards. Groves, like when he coaches, was all business. “It would be nice to win one,” he said, acknowledging the competition.
A handler peers through the dust and traffic to see who got to the finish line first.
Handlers, with a lifetime devoted to horses, and the scars to prove it, went through the process of putting the harness on, warming up the horses, and washing them to cool the animal after they’d raced. Like Mary, a group of kids stood mesmerized as they watched a 1,200 pound horse get a bath.
And as quickly as they raced, they were loaded back into comfortable custom vans when it was over and driven home…or to the next fair for more racing. Next week is Auglaize County. The following week is Champaign.
It’s the fair circuit, and people who love horses will follow them. They love the racing. The love the action…the aroma…the sounds…and relationship of horse and driver. And top drivers, like Jeff Nisonger, Ronnie Gillespie, and Austin Hanners.
They, too, would like to have more than two nights a year. They remember what it used to be like – and oh, that it could be that way again.
For sure, there’s more than one Mary.
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