Harness racing refers to a type of horse-racing where horses chase each other at a specified pace. They habitually drag two-wheeled carts that are called sulkies.
Harness racing represented the most booming game in the years before the Civil War. After the management of the Thoroughbred, racing was no longer in the hands of the South. Northern horseman desired to take control, but a depressed breeding market, a lack of strong jockey clubs to regulate the sport and an absence of promoters who could put together good races, kept the track in the doldrums. Around 1850 more audiences watched strap up races than any other game and there existed about seventy tracks countrywide, seven in the New York region alone.
These harness races were limited mostly to standard bred horses. In Scandinavia or Europe cold-blooded horses, so called because they belong to a breed known for having a stable, calm temperament, are used as well as European horses which regularly have some French or even Russian ancestry. Standardbreds are so named because in the early years of the Standardbred stud book, only horses who could run or pace a mile in standard time, or whose brood could do so, were entered into the book.
Standardbreds have shorter legs than the Thoroughbreds, but they compensate with their longer bodies. They also are of more docile dispositions, as suits horses whose races engage more strategy and more acceleration than Thoroughbred races.
Messenger was the name of Standardbred horse’s founding member. It was brought in 1788 to America and bought by Henry Astor, brother of John Jacob Astor. From this particular horse descended a great-grandson, Hambletonian 10. It received extraordinary appreciation for its racing ability. Nevertheless, it is his breed line for which he is most remembered. The lineage of almost every American Standardbred horses can be followed from his sons.
The races can take place by trotting or pacing, two different steps. The distinction is made by the trotter who moves its legs forward in crossways, striking the ground at the same time, whereas a pacer moves its legs sideways.
In continental Europe races are conducted entirely between trotters, whereas in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States races are also held for pacers.
Pacing races represent 80% to 90% of the Harness racing conducted in North America. The pacing horses are quicker and, most importantly to the bettor, they are less likely to break stride (a horse that starts to run needs to be slowed down and taken out in anticipation of regaining the pace). An explanation for pacers being less likely to break stride is that they regularly wear hopples or hobbles, which are straps that fix the legs to the horse’s sides.
The idea that hopples are used to create this gait is misconceived; the gait is natural, the hopples are simply an accessory to support the pace when gaining top speed.