Baby matinees held at Crawford County Fairgrounds

The Crawford County Fairgrounds hosted its 7th annual matinee this past Sunday (June 4th) and over 30 harness racing youngsters came out to strut their stuff for the very first time in front of a grandstand.

Each contest was a “Time Bar” where the trotters and pacers were gauged for a certain time such as 2:15 or 2:10. And there were some pretty impressive performances that would make their pappies (sires standing in Ohio) such as Long Tom, Fear The Dragon, Triumphant Caviar, Well Said, and Dancin’ Yankee proud with many in the group besting the 2:10 mark.

Bucyrus – pronounced Bu-sigh-rus – is city of 13,000 located along the Ohio Ridge that runs east to west. Half the rivers flow south to the Ohio River while the others flow north into Lake Erie. It was named for the old city of Busirus in the middle of the upper delta in ancient Egypt and was quite the spot with a few Speakeasies during Prohibition from 1919-1930. It was also home to Walter Michael’s Pickwick Farms (Gene Abbe, Baron Hanover etc.) from 1950 until 1980.

The Matinee is the final warm up to the upcoming Ohio County Fair Season starting next week at Paulding on June 10th. That will be the first of 64 County Fairs with Harness Racing and each one is fiercely loyal and proud of “Our” Fair as every town has their own tale to tell.

It is the journey that begins with a few baby steps for the youngsters that hopefully – and several have done it before – culminates into a walk into the dream called the Breeders Crown Winners Circle.

by Thom Pye, for Harnesslink