I just saw 2 drivers throw their helmets at another driver after they pushed each other round the track with their cars. Now THAT is what we need in harness racing to get some freaking fans and interest . I grew up with the old timers carrying horses out in the turns, or holding someone in a hole by setting beside them forever. I saw more and heard more arguments between drivers after a race when I was 20 than I have heard in the 20 years. The races today are just plain boring.
Henry Thomas and Lee Smith were idly chatting while jogging horses on the main track at Lexington in the late thirties. Thomas was regaling Smith with stories of the rough tactics drivers used in races in the Midwest in the early teens. In fact, Thomas told Smith, a driver would often just flip another reinsman right out of the sulky.
"Aw, c'mon," countered the cocky southerner. "I'd like to see some s.o.b. try to do that to me."
Whereupon Thomas, a man of Hurculean strength, reached down and grabbed the wheel brace of Smith's jog cart, jerked it three feet off the ground, abruptly and unceremoniously dumping Smith onto the track.
And Henry Thomas just laughed like hell.
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But even the best horses can use a little edge at times and Henry was one driver who made his own opportunities.
Listen to what the late Curly Smart had to say.
"When I drove on the Grand Circuit, I found out how tough Henry Thomas was. You know what he would do? He'd be riding right alongside you with his wheel next to yours and make a little hitch sideways. He'd bump you with his wheel and I'll guarantee you'd leave your seat about five inches. It'd just about unjoint you."
Dick Thomas laughs at Smart's description.
"It took a lot of strength and know-how to do that. But if dad was hemmed in, he'd give the guy outside of him one of those bumps and push the other horse right out. That would give dad enough room to nose his horse and away he'd go."
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One of the classic Henry Thomas stories emanates from a $50,000 two-mile trot at Roosevelt in the late forties. By then, Dick Thomas was driving horses, too, and the father-son team had an entry in the race. Henry was steering the '46 Hambletonian winner Chestertown while Dick was guiding the longshot Dutch Harbor who was saddled with post 14.
When the gate snapped, Dick simply ducked for the rail with Dutch Harbor and watched everyone jockey around for a mile and a half.
"In that last half-mile, everyone started pulling out and I just steered Dutch Harbor up along the rail. He had lots of trot left. With a quarter to go, Del Miller was in front with Reyland, Proximity was lapped on him, and Chestertown and dad were third on the outside. I was boxed fourth at the rail."
Around the last turn, Dick says that his horse was "just full of trot" and he desperately wanted out.
He yelled over to his father, "Dad, it's me! Let me out! Dad, it's me!"
Thirty years later, Dick says, "You know, he acted as if he didn't even know I was there. Never moved! He sat right there. Just ignored me."
