(This story by Matt Hongoltz-Hetling was published in the Valley News on Sept. 15, 2017.)
TUNBRIDGE — Thursday marked the first day of the Tunbridge World’s Fair, and Peter Gearwar, a former McNamara Dairy worker, was sitting helmeted behind an ebony horse, the two large wheels beneath him painting clean lines in the dirt of the track as he raced by the grandstand in a quest to win a $630 prize.
Roughly 100 spectators sitting on the steeply sloped grandstand seats cheered as Doug Cater, the announcer, told them what they could already see: On the first of two half-mile laps, Gearwar’s harness racing horse, East Creek Nick, was in the lead, with two other horses — Luck E Trooper and Famous Oscar — crowding close behind. The horses aren’t allowed to break into a full gallop, but have to maintain a certain gait, covering a deceptive amount of dirt with their speedy trot.
One of the cheering spectators was an equestrian named Sarah Yarosevich, of Grafton, who said she loves coming to the fair as a rare opportunity to celebrate the state’s heritage.
“This one in particular, because it’s so agriculturally oriented. I like the history of the buildings. It’s a view into yesteryear — yester-century. I enjoy that,” she said. “It’s just one example of an interaction between a human being and an animal. A partnership. I think it’s worth seeing.”
After running by the grandstand, the horses turned the bend and disappeared into the back half of the track, where they could only be glimpsed between the cracks left by a field of recreational vehicles, trailers and food booths with large signs urging fairgoers to buy corn dogs, cotton candy, lemonade, fried dough and, in one case, “Bubba’s Bacon.”
“Just like people, animals are individuals,” Yarosevich said. “They have their own temperaments and personalities and abilities to excel in different areas of employment.”
The announcer’s voice took on an excited tone as he called the crowd’s attention back to the horses, which were coming back into view from around the bend and preparing for a final sprint to the finish line.
“It’s still East Creek Nick, Famous Oscar!” the announcer said. One of the enduring excitements of harness racing, which has been featured at the World’s Fair for more than 100 years, is that during the final moments of the race, there’s no longer any incentive for a rider to bide his time. The finish nearly always features a horse — in this case, Famous Oscar, urged on by his jockey, Nelson Haley, with an active whip — throwing itself into a last-ditch attempt for a come-from-behind victory against the lead, in this case a tenuous and shrinking one held by East Creek Nick.
“Famous Oscar I think is coming out of second on the outside,” Cater announced, “down to the stretch they go … It’s East Creek Nick! Famous Oscar, Luck E Trooper gets in for third.”
As Gearwar and the other racers headed back out of sight to take the tack off of their animals, Gearwar’s father, Robert Gearwar, leaned up against the grandstand railing and watched, holding a clipboard and a rubber-banded packet of one-sheet racing programs he was selling for a dollar. He went to his first harness race as a boy in 1960, he said, when his father-in-law told him “if you want to win and bet your money, keep your money in your pocket. You’ll be a winner.”
Harness racing is an example of what sets the Tunbridge World’s Fair apart from other regional attractions, he said.
“You know, a lot of fairs don’t have racing anymore. They’ve gone out,” he said. “I don’t think there’s as many people (who) have the resources anymore.”
Around the back of the track, Peter Gearwar was talking about the victory with East Creek Nick’s owner, Earl Kipp Jr., a retired highway department worker from Bennington who trains his horses in Rutland. East Creek Nick has had other victories in Tunbridge.
“He had a good chance. He loves it here,” said Gearwar, 52. He’s been racing horses since he was a teen. “Of all the fairs, I think he races the best here as he does anywhere. I don’t know if he gets hyped up seeing all the stuff or what.”
The Tunbridge fair was built on harness racing — literally. The first feature of the former hayfield was the 1-mile racetrack, built in the aftermath of the Civil War; the first structures were the grandstand and the judge’s stand. But over the 146 years the fair has been featuring the races, the harness racing community that once was evenly distributed throughout the region’s working farmland now is all but gone from the area. The increasing costs to compete, and the overall decline of horses in daily life, have concentrated modern-day races into larger venues, where the larger crowds lead to larger payouts — East Creek Nick took a shot at a $10,200 prize at the casino racecourse in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., last week.
“To get people to come to the fairs now is tough,” Gearwar said. “There’s not as many local people as there used to be. It used to be a lot more mom and pop. It’s gotten a lot more expensive, so it’s hard for people to do it.”
Gearwar said he’s only able to participate himself in partnership with Kipp.
“He trains them and he lets me drive them,” Gearwar said. “I get all the glory.”
In Kipp’s best year in recent memory, he took in more than $15,000, but he said he’s in it for the pleasure of the sport.
“I train them seven days a week,” Kipp said of the horses. “I drive them usually every day, about 2 to 5 miles.”
On the track, the third and final race of the day was underway. Cater, though a year older, sounded just as excited as he was last year. The crowd still strained their necks to see the horses coming around the bend, but they were just a bit less numerous than they were for the first race. And behind the grandstand, in the fair midway, people were stopping to admire the blacksmith museum exhibit, a stark reminder of what happens when a feature of the agricultural era falls out of practice altogether.
The Tunbridge World’s Fair runs through Sunday.
