Harness racing is a category of horse-racing in which the horses race each other at a precise pace. They habitually drag two-wheeled carts that are called sulkies.
Harness racing represented the most booming game in the years before the Civil War. After the management of the Thoroughbred, racing was no longer in the hands of the South. Northern horseman desired to take control, but a depressed breeding market, a lack of strong jockey clubs to regulate the sport and an absence of promoters who could put together good races, kept the track in the doldrums. Around 1850 more audiences watched strap up races than any other game and there existed about seventy tracks countrywide, seven in the New York region alone.
These harness races were limited mostly to standard bred horses. In Scandinavia or Europe cold-blooded horses, so called because they belong to a breed known for having a stable, calm temperament, are used as well as European horses which regularly have some French or even Russian ancestry. Standardbreds are so named because in the early years of the Standardbred stud book, only horses who could run or pace a mile in standard time, or whose brood could do so, were entered into the book.
Standardbreds have shorter legs than the Thoroughbreds, but they compensate with their longer bodies. They also are of more docile dispositions, as suits horses whose races engage more strategy and more acceleration than Thoroughbred races.
The founding sire of today’s Standardbred horse was called Messenger, a gray pure-bred brought to America in 1788 and purchased by Henry Astor, who was John Jacob Astor’s brother. From this particular horse descended a great-grandson, Hambletonian 10. It received extraordinary appreciation for its racing ability. Nevertheless, it is his breed line for which he is most remembered. The ancestry of practically all American Standardbred race horses comes from Hambletonian 10′s descendents.
Races can be conducted in two differing steps: trotting and pacing. The distinction is made by the trotter who moves its legs forward in crossways, striking the ground at the same time, whereas a pacer moves its legs sideways.
In Europe the races are conducted thoroughly between trotters, while in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, United States and the United Kingdom they hold races for pacers.
Pacing races represent 80% to 90% of the Harness racing conducted in North America. The pacing horses are quicker and, most importantly to the bettor, they are less likely to break stride (a horse that starts to run needs to be slowed down and taken out in anticipation of regaining the pace). One of the reasons which make pacers less likely to break their stride is that they often wear hopples. These are straps which connect the horses legs on both sides.
There is an opinion that hopples are meant to produce this type of gait. That is wrong, the hopples are merely an accessory to hold up the pace while gaining top speed.
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