He’s won 7,238 races and more than $78 million in purses during his 25-year career, and driver Chris Page says his mother wanted him to be…a veterinarian. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
At the rate he’s going, if driver Chris Page was in the sulky behind Mister Ed he most likely would be the favorite and probably odds-on. And he might actually win.
Columbus, OH — The new paddock at Scioto Downs is a palatial estate for 160 horses, an impressive edifice as clean as the Winchester Cathedral.
It seemingly covers the distance of the stretch outside on the five-eighths mile Scioto track. The $16 million structure is the envy of every racing gentry from other tracks.
And inside this equine kingdom there roams one of the monarchs of standardbred racing.
His name is Chris Page and when race results are read his name leaps off the page as one of harness racing’s superstars.
Hall of fame writer Hal McCoy covers the UD Flyers and OHHA racing for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Just by chatting with the affable native of Delaware, Ohio, one would never know that Page has won 7,238 races and more than $78 million in purses during his 25-year career, 15 years as a full-time professional.
And if he isn’t winning, look for him in the place position, 5,656 times finishing second, something he doesn’t particularly like.
He is self-assured, yes, but he is also humble, as personable as Black Beauty and carries an often-displayed smile as wide as a starting gate.
And he is as sought-after by trainers as the Hope Diamond. When you are the best, the trainers want the best.
On a night this week at Scioto Downs, during a 16-race program, he won eight races, including four in a row. And it could have been nine wins.
After winning the first race with Hard Cold Cash, Page steered the second race favorite, Flash of Fame, into the lead turning into the stretch.
It looked like a sure-thing Chris Page Daily Double. But the horse broke stride and he finished seventh.
It happens and it happens to the best, which is where Page is right now and has been for years. If Page was in the sulky behind Mister Ed he most likely would be the favorite and probably odds-on.
And he might actually win.
Chris Page guides one of his 7,238 winners to the finish line last week at Scioto Downs.
As a few of us stood behind a fence halfway through the first turn for Page’s first race of the night, the sound of the horse’s hooves pounding the track’s surface sounded like Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich and Ringo Starr all hammering their drums at the same time.
“There is nothing better than the sound of hoofbeats pounding down the stretch,” said Frank Fraas, executive director of the Ohio Harness Horseman’s Association (OHHA).”
That pounding in a race for Page began in 2000 and his first win was on August 5, 2001. He didn’t sink while driving Titanic Fella at the Urbana Fair.
“I drove my first race in 2000 when I was in high school, then I went to Ohio State as an equine science major,” he said. “My mother and myself thought I might be a veterinarian.”
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Instead of medicating horses, he decided to sit behind them and seek the wire first. But it was tough in the beginning, “Because we didn’t have the slot machines (casinos) and it was tough to make a living.”
So how did it all start?
“My uncles were hobbies horsemen, which means they had a real job,” he said. “They had some horses on the side that they played around with. That’s where I got my original start, cleaning stalls, picking up manure.”
From there, as Page says, “It all spiraled and I fell in love with the sport. I had a favorite driver back in the day, John Campbell.”
He’s won the Little Brown Jug, once, in 2022, a milestone in most drivers’ careers. “After I won it I said…let’s win it again.” – Chris Page
Campbell, a Canadian, is as legendary as legends get, inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, the U.S. Harness Racing Hall of Fame, and the Little Brown Jug Hall of Fame.
Ah, the Little Brown Jug.
“As a family, we always went to the Little Brown Jug,” said Page. “It was always the third Thursday in September. My mom would let me miss school. We’d all get up at the crack of dawn to get over to Delaware to get the good seats.”
And not only did Page eventually race in the Little Brown Jug, he won it in 2022 driving Bythemissal, “A Ferrari among Fords,” said Page.
“You have 50,000 people there and that’s really putting icing on the cake as far as drivers go,” he said. “I had my dream come true moment, y’know?
“It is one of those things where the feelings are indescribable,” he said. “Then you reflect back from where I started, where I was at and how did I get there.”
As they say about how one gets to Carnegie Hall…practice, practice, practice. It’s the same behind a horse.
“After winning that, I asked myself, ‘Where do I want to go from here?’ As they say, when you get your dream, what’s next?”
That’s an easy one for Page.
“That’s to win the Little Brown Jug again,” he said matter-of-factly. “Win it twice, yeah.”
Page has come a long, long way, many furlongs, and said he was fortunate to get into it in the early 2000s.
“I got in here at the right time when a lot of the good drivers, or your better drivers, had to go back east to make a living,” he said. “So I got to get right in and get some seat time because there were not a lot of guys left.”
It isn’t all fun and games. It might look easy, but danger lurks on every turn. The sulky is not a chariot and Spartacus is not flipping a whip.
As Page said, “Number one rule, safety first. I want to get home. I have a couple of small kids and a beautiful wife, so I gotta get home.”
Nevertheless, he has taken his falls. Last year he swallowed more track dirt than he liked by taking five spills, three at Scioto, and missed a month with broken ribs, “That takes forever to heal, and the pain lingers.”
So what is it like surrounded by flying horse feet and spinning wheels, all crunched together barreling toward the wire.
“Every dog has his day in any sport, in anything,” he said. “When winning doesn’t get fun, well, there is nothing more exciting than turning past this paddock to the winner’s circle.
“And I’m a people pleaser,” he added. “A lot of people work those horses and I like doing good for people.”
Doing good? How about doing sensational?
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