Blast From The Past: Niatross Wins 1980 Meadowlands Pace

It was July 18, 1980, and the Meadowlands Pace was set to be the first $1 million race in horse racing history-harness or thoroughbred. All eyes were on the great Niatross, because of what happened in the eliminations. He broke stride, but stunned the crowd by recovering and finishing fourth. In this clip, we look back on the final, where Niatross did his thing in style, going right to the front and never looking back.

[@kimberlygalbraith8287]

Thank you for posting I love coming back and watching these amazing races. One year I did up 3 binders full of Cousin Clint and Niatross for my Dad Jim Galbraith he spent hours enjoying them. I am always on the look out to add more stories and photo's to add to it. Would love hearing from anyone who could help. Thank You

[@Firestone1]

He was the greatest standardbred pacer of all time. He was a once in a generation freak! Gorman's call for this race was the most exciting of his career!

[@kimberlygalbraith8287]

Yes he was such a majestic pacer he was truly magical. Gorman was a fantastic caller for sure . Niatross brought all of such joy and made our hearts race as fast as he did.

[@brianjschumer]

Mark H People forget how great this crop was..and throw in Ghengis Khan who next year matured into a beast..Aussie NZ..had their best group of horses as well, would have been fun to see..Niatross, Storm Damage, go against..Pure Steel, Satinover, koala king..etc..

[@jimrossi7708]

I like to tell you how much joy that the horse and your dad gave me ! Grew up just about 5 minutes from the Big M and was there when it first opened, it was amazing because it had the great horses of the time and many of all-time like Niatross, not to mention many other horse and driver legends !!

[@jimrossi7708]

@@brianjschumer , as a member of the USTA I remember how many truly wonderful horse of that time came from not only the US & Canada but New Zealand and Australia, I miss those heroes and times so much !!

[@jameskeeney2966]

I was there that night and he was awesome. Niatross in my opinion was to harness racing what Tiger Woods is to golf they raised the level of competition so high that if you wanted to compete you had to get and do it fast.James Keeney.

[@stephenhavenner6954]

AWESOME!

[@johnduncan9253]

We didn't get much US harness action in little old NZ in those days but my dad had visited the Bluegrass earlier that year and bought back the book on Albatross. Too my surprise we took the live feed of the MP for the first time and I sat spellound as his son sped to victory over two legit horses in Tyler B and Storm Damage. Thanks for the memories.

[@rentslave]

That was an incredibly humid night.The dew point had to be approaching 80,making it uncomfortable for those wearing their "Who shot JR?" T-shirts.

[@brianjschumer]

Every generation has a great horse, but Niatross was one for the ages, very very, strong field and crop. (Tyler B -Storm Damage-Fundamentalist-Denali) Many went on to successful stud careers, just sad ill fated Whamo died before his time. Maybe equal or just a tick slower. I bet the races with him would have pushed Niatross to even faster times !!

[@bobcuster8930]

These two are cool and funny--they look like they are dressed to read for a role in "Let It Ride "...

[@queengh7411]

This racing standardbred niatross was best my horse standardbred racing cart horse had blood lines of niatross n Albatross his bloodlines live on with my horse i have