HONESDALE, PA — The 160th annual Wayne County Fair, which took place this year from August 5 through 13, featured a full card of harness racing. It held racing on four days during the ever-popular local fair, which dates from 1862.

Even from its earliest days, the fair featured harness races during the action-packed week.

One hundred and sixty years ago, the Wayne County Agricultural Society became a chartered organization, and laid the groundwork for the modern-day Wayne County Fair, first held on 22 acres along the Dyberry River. The grounds included a half-mile-long track.

Time progressed into the next century. By 1902, the fair had outgrown the original speed-trial track and relocated to a larger grandstands.

And in 1931 the wooden grandstands expanded again to accommodate 2,000 visitors. They were now in a position to watch harness racing, along with numerous other events, at the center of the fairgrounds, next to the midway attractions.

Jeff Firmstone, vice-president of the fair and the harness-track secretary/announcer, comes to the fair with a lot of family history, as do other long-standing members of the organization.

“Like a lot of us, I was born into it,” he said. “My father, my grandfather and great-uncle were all part of it. I’ve been in it all my life.”

Firmstone’s great-uncle, Dr. William Perkins, was involved with the fair going on three decades, and today his memory lives on with the Dr. W.J. Perkins Memorial, a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes race for two-year fillies.

“He was somewhat of a legend in the river valley, because he worked at the Callicoon Hospital (NY) for many, many years in the late 1940s and ‘70s”, said Firmstone of his relative.

His grandfather, Cy Perkins, was “on the racing end of the fair, a professional race caller,” while his father John “was involved up to his eyeballs in the whole thing.”

Asked about the importance and evolution of harness racing at the Wayne County Fair, Firmstone replied, “One hundred and sixty years ago, the fair was started on a piece of ground that was unique in that it was flat, and in those days the primary means of transportation was horse and buggy… so a lot of times, guys would like to see if their horses were faster than the other guy’s at the next farm.”

All harness racing at the Wayne County Fair is sponsored by the United States Trotting Association (USTA). Learn more at www.ustrotting.com.

Notable races on August 10:

In the third race, Todd Schadel drove Action Shot, a two-year colt trotter, to the winner’s circle by posting 2:02.0, tying the overall trotting record at the fairgrounds in the $7,725-purse Russ Dunn Memorial (two-year-old colts and geldings, group A); the other record was set by Vivid Photo in 2010. 

In the eighth race, Cody Schadel piloted Terry A. Hanover to victory at 1:57.1, posting the second-fastest mile in the history of the fair in a Dirlam Brothers Daily Double.

In the ninth race, 76-year old Art Jones competed on the one-mile track against Adam Moeykens, a 19-year-old driver, in the second Dirlam Brothers Lumber Daily Double, causing track announcer Jeff Firmstone to remark on the respective age difference of 57 years between the veteran and up-and-coming driver from their hometown of Honesdale.

The 2022 racing officials were David Fisher (presiding judge), Keith Hamilton (starter), Mary Martin (starting gate driver), Jack Gumpper (associate judge and timer), Jeff Firmstone (secretary and announcer), Lisa Martin (clerk of course), Dave Flederbach, Dave Getall and Bob Smith (timers), Gretchen Linscott (photo finish), and Sarah Hiller (stall superintendent).

Winner’s circle photography was provided by Curtis Salonick. He can be reached at 570/824-5145 or visit www.salonick.com.

The business of harness racing at the fair is by no means limited to the annual fair, as it is a year-round operation maintaining a training center for 25 to 45 horses; they are routinely featured at Monticello Raceway, Pocono Downs “or if they are are really good ones” they race at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, NJ or NYC’s Yonkers Raceway.

Firmstone’s take on the future of harness racing?

“It became very, very big in the 1940s and ‘60s, because it was one of the first things people were allowed to gamble on, so it exploded in those years, like the Monticello Raceway was in the ‘70s,” he said.

What about harness racing at rural county fairs?

“This type of racing will be around for a long time,” replied Firmstone, who noted that with the “pay-one-admission-price” policy at the Wayne County Fair, folks can watch the harness races in addition to the midway attractions and other grandstand shows.

As Firmstone announced the races, he informed the grandstand harness racing spectators that as Action Shot hoofed it down in the third race, posting a track record-tying time of 2:02.0 with Vivid Photo’s win in 2010, the horse from 12 years ago was world-famous as the winner of the Hambletonian at the Meadowlands on August 6, 2005 for a purse of $1.5 million.

Reflecting on Vivid Photo’s harness-racing career during an illuminating conversation with this horse-senseless sports scribbler, Firmstone said that after the big win, as the horse aged it was raced by “two guys who traveled the fair circuit… two little guys winning it in the biggest way… As this horse became older, they used to race him as a gelding, and that record stood the test of time, until yesterday when Action Shot tied him.”