No, not the 1937 Marx Brothers film. No, not Queen’s 1976 studio album of the same name (an homage to that film).
The notable day at the races for harness racing trainer and driver Will Fraser was May 18, 1946, at Santa Anita Park, in Arcadia, California.
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| Advertisement for the five-week 1946 Santa Anita meet. [1] |
Harness Racing
As Wikpedia [2] explains, harness racing is a unique form of horse racing. Drivers (not “jockeys”) sit in two-wheeled sulkies and horses must maintain either the specified trot or pace. These gaits are very different. “A trotter moves its legs forward in diagonal pairs (right front and left hind, then left front and right hind striking the ground simultaneously), whereas a pacer moves its legs laterally (right front and right hind together, then left front and left hind.)”
In North America, only standardbred horses are used in harness racing. They have shorter legs, longer bodies, and are generally calmer than thoroughbreds. Virtually all standardbreds can be traced back to four sons of famed horse Hambletonian 10, a great-grandson of Messenger, the founding sire brought to America in 1788 by Henry Astor.
Typically, harness races in North America are one mile (1,609m) in length, and almost always feature pacers. Pacing is faster and horses are less likely to break stride. Hobbles that connect the legs on each side of the horse can be used to help maintain this unnatural gait.
1938 Santa Anita Park Opening Day (3:08 min)
“The Meeting of the Century” – Santa Anita, 1946
In Santa Anita, the lure of big money across 24 Stakes events brought 800 horses by opening day. Especially notable were two of the largest Stakes races ever seen: “The Golden West Pace” and “The Golden West Trot,” each with a purse of $50,000.
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| Canadians were well represented at Santa Anita. L-R: “J. Guyette with Moonbeam 2:09-1/2, Dean Dempsey (Carberry, Man.), Wilbur Apthorpe (Chatham, Ont.), J.J. Brady, Harry Elliot, J. MacMillan, Wm. Fraser (Ridgetown, Ont.), Herve LaChappelle, Omar. St. Amand, Denis LaRochelle, Honorat LaRochelle, Phil Dussault, Chas. Trimble, Ted Ketcham (Track Sup't.) Geo. Tracey (Regina, Sask.), and Albert Thibault with the horse Adage 2:02.” [1] |
Over 100 nominations were received for the 1946 Pace. The field was narrowed to 20, and it was Canadian-owned Blue Again who won. Trained by Will Fraser, Blue Again was owned by Warren Leatherdale of Windsor, Ontario, and driven by Jimmy Cruise. Cruise was available after the horse he was expecting to ride, Lusty B (owned by his father-in-law Earl Daugherty) broke a bone and had to be destroyed.
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| “Blue Again Wins $50,000 Golden West Pace: On closing day of the famous Santa Anita “Meeting Of The Century” the Canadian-owned horse Blue Again made racing history as he won the Golden West Pace driven by Jimmy Cruise. Mr. Leatherdale the owner is at the front of the group. Trainer Will Fraser is partially obscured standing at the horse’s head. [Harness Horse]” [1] |
Blue Again led all money winners at the meet. As the Standardbred Canada website recalls:
His owner accompanied by his trainer Will Fraser at Ridgetown, Ont., who at that time was advanced in years [67], drove a car towing a small one horse trailer all across the U.S. The journey took several days and along the way they “bunked” in with various farmers and ranchers who boarded the men and stabled the horse.
It was a pretty profitable trip as the $21,650 that Blue Again earned as the top money winning horse would be worth approximately $264,387 in today’s [2016] dollars. To put this in some perspective, at that time a 100-acre farm could be purchased for around $10,000 back where Mr. Leatherdale lived. [1]
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| “Blue Again and driver Jimmy Cruise lead a field of 20 to the wire in winning the $50,000 Golden West Pace at Santa Anita. The time of 2:32-1/2 for the longer distance of 1-1/4 miles set a new world’s record. Blue Again was owned by a Canadian R.W. Leatherdale who at the time resided in Windsor, Ont. The longshot paid $28.00 for a two dollar win ticket. [Harness Horse]” [1] |
Jimmy Cruise was given a bonus of $500 from the Western Harness Group and another $400 from Leatherdale, “known to be notoriously frugal.” It was a nice nest egg for Cruise and his new bride, Joan Daugherty.
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| Well-known driver Jimmy Cruise with horse Earl Laird after winning the 1968 Maple Leaf Trot in Toronto [3] |
The 1946 meet in Santa Anita was a great success, and broke other records at the time:
In total, 300,926 people attended the month long meeting with the closing day crowd the largest counted at 22,156 (a world record). The mutuel handle was $11,435,395 with a top single day handle of $883,469 on the final afternoon also a world record. [1]
Will Fraser, “quite a horseman in his day,” was already a well-known trainer, driver and owner back in Ontario. In 1934 Will had driven his own horse, Billy Hugo, to a new Canadian record for the mile at the Toronto Exhibition.
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| Will Fraser with an unnamed horse. Perhaps it is Billy Hugo, although the text on the trailer suggests he’s at the Warren Leatherdale property in Windsor, Ontario. [4] |
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| Will Fraser with another unnamed horse. The one white foot suggests this is our star, Blue Again. [4] |
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| Lucky horseshoe, indeed! This shoe worn by Blue Again in the 1946 Pace was later chrome-plated as a unique trophy for Will Fraser. [4] |
Santa Anita Park – Then and Now (1:06 min)
Santa Anita Park, opened on Christmas Day in 1934, has a rich history. It is well known for its setting, architecture, Hollywood connections, famous horses like Seabiscuit, and the 1984 Olympics. For seven months in 1942, however, it was used as a detention facility for Japanese Americans, and in recent years Santa Anita was investigated for a distressing number of racing injuries and euthanized horses.
1940 Big ’Cap Santa Anita Park (3:56 min) featuring Seabiscuit.
Horses were important to Fraser brothers Will, Gordon, John, and Grandpa Pete, but held no allure for Murray Fraser. Enjoying dinner at the races at Assiniboia Downs some years ago, I asked Dad what to look for in a good racehorse. Muscled haunches? A keen energy?
“Speed,” he said.
SOURCES (all retrieved June 23, 2022)
- Standardbred Canada, “SC Rewind: Meet Of The Century,” May 21, 2016, https://standardbredcanada.ca/news/5-21-16/sc-rewind-meet-century.html
- “Harness Racing,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harness_racing
- Standardbred Canada, “SC Rewind: The Maple Leaf Trot,” September 9, 2017 https://standardbredcanada.ca/news/9-9-17/sc-rewind-maple-leaf-trot.html
- Murray Fraser family archives
YouTube Videos:
Santa Anita Park – Then and Now (1:06 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsnmpa1MFT0&t=7s
1938 Santa Anita Park Opening Day (3:08 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFTUhlCapAE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt58Ku535QI
