1976 US Pacing Championship Roosevelt Raceway

TARPORT HAP sets a track record of 1:57, while beating the boys in the biggest FFA race of the era, the U.S. Pacing Championship. RAMBLING WILLIE, ANDY LOBELL, KEYSTONE ACCENT, HANDLE WITH CARE, SHIRLEYS BEAU, FLY FLY SOLLY, MOMENTUM & NICKAWAMPUS LEROY

[@comesahorseman]

Some of my pacing heroes from back when I was a kid! 👍

[@H3R1Skyline]

Yup, and Willie in his 20's is still happy in his paddock home with my best friend and her family, Bill and Norma Horn :)

[@raygordonteacheschess5501]

in 2007, Rambling Willie would have been at least 32 years old. According to Wiki, he died in 1995.

[@SteveSparx]

I was there!! AWESOME ride Jim Dennis.

[@johnucarneyPh.D.]

Thanks for this one! What a field huh!

[@markrocovich2234]

Rambling Willie and Momentum went to Scioto Downs the following week and raced in a World Record mile that was won by Pickwick Baron and Mel Turcotte in 1:56...

[@Tuddyboy11]

Wow, Tarport Hap bottomed out an all star field. Great filly/mare!

[@silver3047x]

I believe Tarport Hap race at Hawthorne in the Winter when they raced and it was like -47 below with the wind chill, it was soon after that when they started to use mask and not racing if it was that cold, I am not sure about this next statement but was told that her lungs wear black as coal and thought it came from racing on that cold night!

[@ericburton8354]

Half the field that night were World Champions at one time or another. What a great line up. Something you don't see now days.

[@barrybisceglie7847]

Mentioned Tarport Hap in my yearbook..circa 1978

[@DR57]

Momentum was part of that marvelous crop of three year olds....Nero, Tarport Hap, Silk Stockings, Whatabaron, Seatrain, Brets Champ, etc

[@BugsWisely]

I loved Jack Lee. His nicknames were kick ass.

[@raygordonteacheschess5501]

My dad came back from Meadowlands the next year to inform me that Tarport Hap had died in a race. Tragic.

[@bgardiner2000]

There was another horse in that race that became famous in the southern hemisphere years later. The great Australian Champion Village Kid retired at the age of 13. Before he retired he ran a charity time trial to see if he could better the world mark for a 13 year old on any sized track of 1:56.6 held by rambing Willie. At 13 Village Kid (whose stable name was Willie) ran an improbable 1:55 flat on a half mile track.

[@paulh2180]

Sure did! and I owned and cared for awhile his only half sister Totara Road. A classy mare you could easily love!

[@RooseveltRaceway]

Nice note - thanks

[@lloydweiss2687]

RooseveltRaceway

[@SteveSparx]

@SteveSparx ty lol mb

[@SteveSparx]

sick

[@caesarfiorini]

willie was born in 1970

[@raygordonteacheschess5501]

And died in 1995.

[@SteveSparx]

@easygoer13 GREAT horse~saw her at Roosevelt kick every horses ass GOING AWAY~SS

[@kenwillcox2368]

TARPORT HAP WON EASY SHE WAS THE BEST THIS NIGHT JOHN CHAPMAN OF TORONTO DROVER A GREAT RACE I WAS AT THIS RACE WITH JOHN FATHER IN LAW CHARLIE FELDMAN OF LITTLE VALLEY NY ONE OF MY BEST BUDDIES

[@hotredboy84]

how did she die? also do u know if anyone has some old Sportsmans park harness racing video to post? thanks

[@taxisteve929]

hotredboy84 at the time and I assume it has been confirmed, everyone assumed it was a heart attack. She died while racing at the Meadowlands. Real freak thing. You just don't see harness horses die like that. Standardbred horses are very rugged, therefore when you see accidents, they are usually very minor injuries, a couple of cuts and bruises. Not like the Thoroughbreds with the extremely thin legs. But I remember it was a very depressing night when the horse van had to come out and take her off the track because she just went from racing to lying motionless. She was a tremendous mare.

[@raygordonteacheschess5501]

She dropped dead of a heart attack while rounding the clubhouse turn in a race at the Meadowlands in early 1977.

[@sbrydson]

What a great field and winner!

[@spikeri812]

war admiral 2- wide the whole way.... you do the math how much EXTRA distance will an outside horse have to run !?!?!

[@raygordonteacheschess5501]

I did the math with a friend who was a physics major. He said a horse on the rail going a 2:00 mile on a half-mile track is running 31 ft/sec. around the turn, while a horse parked two-wide has to run 37 ft/sec. to keep pace, but only while on the turn. Ideal du Gazeau won the 1983 Roosevelt International Trot at age NINE while parked all five turns, with a final quarter in :30.

[@geoffreycoleman3346]

@@raygordonteacheschess5501 It's more complicated now because they bank the turns very steeply. Ask your physics guy about that. I'm serious. I'd be very interested to know what the answer is.

[@impressstager]

HANDLE WITH CARE ONE BEST MARE OF CANADA COULD NOT TARPORT HAP WHE WAS BROKE BY HERB YOUNG OF ONTARO .HANDLE WITH CARE WAS OWNED BY THE ARMSTRONG BROTHER OF ONTARIO I BET BOTH HORS SO I COME HOME WITH A LITTLE CHANGE

[@markrocovich2234]

Delta Daniel HWC was NOT OWNED BY THE ARMSTRONG BROTHERS...Irving Liverman of Quebec owned her for her entire career and Stoner Creek Stud of Ky. bought an interest in her when she became a broodmare..

[@markrocovich2234]

I would like to put this debate about Tarport Hap and Silk Stockings to rest with ONE QUESTION::Where are the tapes of SS beating FFA horses the way Hap did?? WHY...because they dont exist..SS was a talent, but Hap's efforts against LEGITIMATE FFA stock embarasses Silk...FEEL FREE TO DISAGREE...

[@geoffreycoleman3346]

Overall in 1976 Tarport Hap was right on top of the FFA division. For at least the whole first half of the racing season she was I think at the very top. Week in and week out. Silk Stockings that year was not as consistent and didn't seem to race as much. She didn't start rounding into really top form until August-September. But for a short stretch that fall, she was every bit as good as Hap and all the rest. Unfortunately the only tape I can find with SS racing that season was in an open handicap at RR over the summer that HWC won. You can find this on you tube. SS had post 7 and took back off the gate and made a furious rush in the stretch to finish second, from dead last. WHAT YOU SHOULD NOTE, however, is that SS was the EVEN MONEY FAVORITE in that race---with post 7. If that doesn't tell you she was in great form then, then nothing will. I also believe SS subsequently went to the Meadowlands in mid-to-late September and won an open race or two with horses like Young Quinn and Nero in them. But again, no tapes!

[@markrocovich2234]

Geoffrey Coleman What the price on SS was is that she came into that race with 2 wins back to back from Wolverine Raceway (TR 155.2) and Brandywine in 155.4 a TR also..not to disparage her accomplishments, but overall HWC and Hap were the better overall horses..Then, if you want to discuss their breeding careers..SS AND HWC were abject failures..We have no room to reference Hap due to her untimely demise..

[@geoffreycoleman3346]

Mark Rocovich you're the information guy. Can you find out if indeed SS won an FFA over the first month or two of the Meadowlands first meet in Fall of '76? I believe she did. And speaking of fillies, do you know anything about Happy Lady? I recall that in '78 she was one tough filly----better than Courageous Lady, who regularly took on the top colts. I thought at the time that she was going to end up being in the class of HWC and TH----and I was wondering what happened to her.

[@markrocovich2234]

Geoffrey Coleman Happy Lady met an untimely death in a barn fire at Castleton Farm in Ky..she never got a chance to produce anything..Jim Rankin her driver and trainer died a few years later in a car wreck near Pompano Park...Ill start digging on that SS info for you...

[@markrocovich2234]

Geoffrey Coleman Jeff to be perfectly honest Silk Stockings only one eight races in 1976 and she Bank less than 90,000 a few of her free-for-all winds came before the meat of the free-for-all season in mid-summer she did win a New York sires four-year-old event at Monticello but when she went to Syracuse later that summer she got drilled by momentum yes she did win a free for all of them at The Meadowlands six weeks into the meet but there were a few mares in that race along with some of the second line free for all horses of the day.. Whata Baron and Mirror Image were two of the also-rans in that race but Handle With Care Hap..Young Quinn and Nero were absent as they were racing up in Toronto in the Mohawk Gold Cup .. to be fair and balanced in the calendar year 1976 .Meadow Blue Chip had a better resume than SS..WINNING 17 OF 4O STARTS FOR ALMOST 195K...

[@markrocovich2234]

Brian..you amaze me at how CLUELESS you are about our history...Hap was much better at the FFA level than SS..overall Hap consistently beat better horses as aged than SS...Her untimely death at the M halted what could have been one of the best FFA campaigns in history...

[@markrocovich2234]

brianjschumer Brian..using your flawed logic...i imagine that Cam Fella, Niatross, Adios Vic, Albatross and many others would have gone to greater exploits if they were not handled by mediocre horsemen...taking stock of your comments, it is obvious you never once sat behind horses for a living...so I understand your viewpoint...

[@raygordonteacheschess5501]

Silk Stockings won a ton of money for some disabled school upstate. Tarport Hap was younger and obviously more promising but she died at Meadowlands not long after this (my Dad was there and came home to tell me).

[@markrocovich2234]

@@raygordonteacheschess5501 Ray..SS AND HAP were both of the same age..they raced in the NYSS at 2 and 3..SS had her earnings support the AU CLAIR school for autistic children in Bear Delaware..It was run by Ken and Claire Mazik who owned Silk Stockings..FYI...Tarport Hap was buried ENTIRE next to the Main Paddock at the M..it was a tradition that the winners blanket of flowers for the Tarport Hap always were placed on her Headstone..a poignant image every year..