RAISE A COLT
INTRODUCTION
ORIGIN AND HISTORY
The standardbred breed dates back to the1860s when the first North American studbook was compiled and published by JohnWallace. It contained the pedigrees of over three thousand horses that met hisdefinition of a standardbred horse –basically any horse that could trot a milein 2:30 or had produced one with the samerecord. Most of the early breeding anddevelopment of the standardbred took place in Kentucky and New York and thelight harness breed that evolved quicklyfound its way into the Maritimes.Harness racing has a rich history onPrince Edward Island. A Guardianaccount in 1879 records that on June 19
th
a large crowd of 5,000 attended the Uptontrack to witness a best of five heatexhibition match between StephenMacNeill’s French Sporter and A NLarge’s mare Fairy for a purse of $400.The first recorded race event was a matchrace held at the Summerside Raceway onJuly 1
st
, 1886 where 7,000 people attendedto witness the race between the importedspeedster Hernando and the Island bredBlack Pilot, won by Pilot in the “blazing”time of 2:35 ½. The match was to berepeated two years later with the sameoutcome, with Black Pilot shaving threeseconds off his previous winning time.In the same year, 1888, the newCharlottetown Driving Park staged its firstraces with two classes in a best of fiveheat format. Before the Hernando-Black Pilot race you can be sure there weremany similar match races on the countryroads of PEI that pitted neighbour againstneighbour to prove who had the fasterhorse. Such was the starting point for theevolution of Colt Stakes racing on PrinceEdward Island.A dispute between two prominent horseowners, attending the ice races onSummerside harbor in the spring of 1933,led to a “flurry of wagers” according tothe newspaper accounts of the day. Thetwo gentlemen involved were GordonDawson of Summerside and WilburMacArthur of Kensington, and they choseto disagree on who had the best colt intraining that year. One thing led to anotherand the result was a challenge to provewhich was the better horse. Lacking avenue they came up with an idea for aracing event for young horses and ColtStakes racing was born.
Summerside races in 1953
Up until that time racing was conductedprimarily with older horses. The reasonwas simple. The start of races in the earlydays was done by a method called openscoring in which all horses attempted toapproach the starting line together.Invariably someone would try to get anedge on the competition and the starterwould announce a recall to try again. Onoccasion it took several attempts to get allhorses away on an equal footing and sincemost contests required three or more heatsto settle the winner, it could get ratherwearing on the horses and the spectatorsalike. The problem was worse whendealing with young horses. The upshotwas that few race promoters were willingto risk the dissatisfaction of their patronsby programming many races for young,inexperienced horses. As a consequencethere was little market for the sale of young unproven horses.
1930’s Pacer
RAISE A COLT
Dawson and MacArthur found others whowere in sympathy with their cause toprovide more racing opportunity foryoung horses and after several informalmeetings and discussions they formed aplan to create an organization, the PrinceEdward Island Harness Racing Club,through which they could organize suchan annual event.There were nine men involved in the earlyplanning and they found a willing leaderin George Callbeck, then a principal in theCanadian Silver Fox Breeders Associationheadquartered in Summerside. The firstformal meeting, at which the executivewas elected, was in fact held in the officesof the Silver Fox Breeders on Water Streetin Summerside on May 15
th
, 1934. Therewere around forty horsemen present atthat historic meeting and George Callbeck was elected President of what was to bethe first stakes organization in Canada.The first Colt Stakes races took place thatfall in Charlottetown, on September 20
th
,with two races contested for total pursesof $655. The winner of the two-year-oldrace was Bud Aubrey owned by GordonDawson. His horse won two of the threeheats, losing one heat to his fellow ColtStakes founder, Wilbur MacArthur, thussettling their argument, at least for thatyear, as to whose colt was the better.
This 1960 Guardian photo shows the PEI Harness RacingClub executive making plans for the annual meeting. Left toright are Bill Gillespie, Charlie Willis, Earle MacDonald andPresident Jack Annear
.
There have been nineteen Presidentsthrough the years with our currentPresident, John Clarey, holding that officesince 2004. The day-to-day business of running the organization has beenmanaged primarily by three individualswith current managing director NormanHall having served for the past twenty-sixyears in that position. With nine directorsserving for three-year terms there havebeen over 150 individuals who haveserved in that capacity, some for severalterms, including current directors AllieCarr and Ralph Annear. They, in fact, aretwo of the earliest living members having joined the PEI Harness Racing Club in1953 and 1957 respectively, precededonly by Doug Hill, the oldest livingmember, who joined in 1951.The oldest living past participant in theColt Stakes races as a driver is Jack McGuigan of Montague who drove hisown horse to a stakes win in 1948 at theage of sixteen. At the time he was also theyoungest person to ever win a stakes raceanywhere in North America.Members of the PEI Harness Racing Clubwere instrumental in introducing severalinnovations in the 1950s. The first make-shift mobile starting gate in Canada wasput together by Willard Kelly and the nextyear in 1957, a more dependable one wasprovided by Colt stakes director RankinMcLaine. It was in use for twenty years.
Canada’s first starting gate is still running and is still usedfor ceremonial occasions.
Night racing under the lights was anotherinnovation introduced for the first time inCanada at the Northam track, and the firstphoto finish took place in Montague.In a sport dominated by men, there havebeen some significant contributions fromthe fairer sex as well. Mrs James “Ma”Poulton was the first woman to breed andown a Futurity winner and she did it twoyears in a row with different horses.Ladies such as Norah Longworth, an avidhorsewoman, and Ida (Yeo) Sudsbury, thelong time clerk of the course inCharlottetown, were staunch supporters of
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