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HOPPLES - ONCE SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE

The pacer, who now reigns supreme on the light harness scene, was once considered the poor relation.

In the early days of the sport in America, it was considered 'The' thing to own and drive a trotter. Pacers, while accepted, were looked down upon by the 'Gentry' who would not have one in their barn. However, in the late 1880s this began to change, as the pacer proved it could fit it with the trotter, and even go faster.

When Star Pointer became the first standardbred to break 2:00 for the mile when he recorded 1:59¼ at Readville, Massachusetts, in 1897, it set the seal on the pacer's dominance over the trotter. It was not until 1903, on the same course, that Lou Dillon was to finally equal the 2:00 mark trotting, and later that year at Memphis, Tennessee, reduce her record again. Lou Dillon's 1:58½ restored the trotter to it's former glory, be it only briefly, but the writing was on the wall and never again was the trotter to prove as fast as the pacer.

Though he was not hailed so at the time, the man largely responsible for helping to establish the ascendancy of the pacer over the trotter was an Indianna railroad man, John Browning. Browning, like many in that stronghold of harness racing, Indianna, dabbled with a horse or two. But when landed with a pacer who kept going off-stride, Browning did not throw up his hands and get rid of the horse like the others of his time, he set out to rectify the problem.

It took Browning some time to come up with the answer, a set of leg harness which kept the errant equine on stride. A few other horsemen, plagued with the same problem as Browning, tried out his idea, and found it worked. But to the established trainers of the day like Pop Geers and Lon McDonald, the hopples were poison, and these men led the movement which finally led to the banning of hopples. But like most bans against progress, this one did not work, and trainers with problem horses just kept on using them.

The horse to dispel much of the prejudice against the hopples was an Iowa stallion, Strathberry, who took a record of 2:04½ wearing the 'Indianna Pants' as they were then known. Strathberry broke several records on mile and half-mile tracks in 1895. That same year, a pacer by the name of Frank Bogash came out of Iowa to race on the Grand Curcuit, and when he lowered his mark to 2:03¾, the 'Pants' were on their way.

Prince Albert became the first pacer to break 2:00 wearing 'Pants' when he broke the mark in 1902, and from then on, it became common place to see the hopples on most pacers racing throughout the country. The mighty Dan Patch, who set the world record of 1:59 in 1903 and by 1905 had reduced it to 1:55¼, was one of the exceptions. He paced free-legged, and it is rather unusual that Billy Direct, who in 1938 reduced Dan Patch's record to 1:55 at Lexington, Kentucky, did so without hopples.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 13Dec77