Joe Wideman: a career best, the final chapter

A young upstart once said (to Joe O’Brien, no less) that his harness racing colt was “as smooth as warm water being emptied out of a bucket… we just don’t know how much water is in the bucket yet.”

Gentleman Joe smiled and nodded knowingly.

And Joe Wideman would agree you never know until you get there.

Albatross took on all comers and was having a stellar 3-year-old season in September of 1971 and handily win in the mud the week before the Little Brown Jug. While he did win his elimination in the Jug he was not his usual dominant self. When he lost the 2nd heat the only thing Stanley quietly said to Wideman was “We’re in trouble, Joe.”

Nansemond took the race off which cost Albert the Triple Crown. Although he ended the year with earnings of $556,000 and a record of 22 wins in 26 starts and numerous accolades, that loss was a sting.

Albert came back strong as a four-year-old and during July he rattled off world records in a row with miles in 1:54.3f at Sportsman’s Park, 1:57.4h at Buffalo and 157.2h at Saratoga, despite being parked the first quarter in each of them. At Brandywine he was stretched the opening panel again but took a seat instead of cutting the mile.

When he made his patented move down the backside, they wouldn’t let him go and Herve had Nansemond right on his helmet. The Ollie Mumford-trainee would draw off and win by 5 as Albert suffered the only off-the-board loss of his career.

To watch the four-heat 1971 Little Brown Jug, click here.

When you compete at that level against the best horses and the top-notch drivers, they will find a crack in your armor. And that day they did.

Joe would say years later “there was nothing wrong with Albert, it was just that race and coming off those big miles. There was nothing wrong with him.”

But the syndicate was up in arms and wanted to make a change. The used car salesman wanted to be bought out for “a million dollars… cash.”

Joe laughed as he recounted the tale. “And John Simpson over at Hanover quipped `do they want that in small bills?’”

Thus, a new syndicate named “The Amicable Stable” came into being and Albert continued his winning ways and go on to a stellar career in the breeding shed becoming the all-time leading sire of any breed with earnings of over $130 million dollars.

Joe took pride when one of Albert’s offspring would set records such as Future Fame, Niatross, and I’m sure he was beaming when Fan Hanover became the only filly ever to win the Little Brown Jug, one of five Jug winners that he would sire.

He often asked about his fellow caretakers on the circuit such as Shaky Louie (Try Scotch etcetera), Odell Short (Abercrombie, Fan Hanover etcetera), Dave Willoughby (Bret Hanover) as he missed the competition and camaraderie but not the travel and he’d tell me tales about where they’d go, do, and what they’d seen.

“I heard,” I offered, “that there was a guy in the grandstand who followed Albert to every track and, when he wasn’t barred from wagering, would bet $10,000 to show on him every start.”

“Yes,” said Joe, “I heard that too. I don’t know who he was, but he only lost that one time.”

“Do you bet Joe,” I asked him one day.

“I have,” he admitted, “but that was years ago. I did the whole gamut when I was younger and kept up with the best of them but then it gets to the point that you don’t want to jinx your horses.”

“One year,” he added, “the horses had shipped ahead of us and Clint Hodgkin and I were driving down south for the winter. We stopped over in a small town in Tennessee. It was a quiet little place, a “dry town” too, not much to it and after we had dinner Clint said he had to call the owners and asked what I was going to do.

“They got a movie theater downtown,” I said. “I think I’ll catch the 6:00 o’clock show. Well, I was walking down Main Street and there’s this little hotel I pass by that seemed to have more babes and booze than I could ever imagine. Naturally I stopped in… and so much for the movie.

Seven o’clock the next morning there’s Clint with a Tennessee State Trooper banging on the front door. “You got a Joe Wideman in there?” he barks. They carried me downstairs still drunker than a hoot howl,” Joe chuckled, “but geez, what a time I had.” Laughing as he recollected, he added “I never thought I’d live to be this old,” (fifty-three)

The years went by, people moved on, Joe sold his property and went home to what was left of his family. He didn’t have anything to do with the horses in his later years which was a loss for the sport. He was good.

Joe passed in 1996 in Wilkes-Barre of natural causes at the (relatively young) age of 71. His short obituary in the local paper mentioned his Navy service and stated he “had been a horse groomer at Roosevelt Raceway.” With all the great horses and Hall of Fame people and the celebrities he rubbed elbows with THAT is quite the understatement. Probably the best note I would add was that he “was a good man with a horse… one of the best” and that too is quite the understatement. A tip of the cap to you Joe Wideman for a job well done.

I think he’d nod in appreciation and just say “but geez, what a time I had.”

by Thom Pye, for Harnesslink

To read Part 1 of the Joe Widerman Series, click here.

To read Part 2 of the Joe Widerman Series, click here.