How about some justice for Canadian Nat Ray?

I love the grand history of our grand sport of harness racing.

From the Narragansett Pacers of the 1700’s to Messenger’s arrival in 1788 to Yankee’s first record 3:00 mile in 1806 to Conqueror’s epic world record in 1853 for 100 miles to last night’s final race at 11:58 p.m. at sometracksomewhere, I am enamored with our history.

Every day…every minute…every second…history is added to our being in all phases of the world. It’s an indelible marking that can never be erased.

But, in harness racing, there are, indeed, instances when history is erased…and it pains me deeply.

Believe me, I am not near the historian that the late Stan Bergstein and Phil Pines were…and the same goes for Hollywood Heyden and Dean Hoffman, who could run circles around me with their historical knowledge. But, nevertheless, my love of the history of our sport will stay with me until…well, you know!

When the Nat Ray was renamed a couple of years ago, it hurt.

I’m always for new stakes events, but to erase the name of the first driver to win the Hambletonian just wasn’t right.

Want to have a new stake race? Great! But don’t do it at the expense of history.

We should be adding to history, not erasing it!

For those of you who have never heard of Nat Ray…or just don’t even care about Nat Ray, he was, indeed, a legend in all phases of the equine industry and, by ALL phases, we’re talking as a jockey, steeplechase rider and harness racing trainer and driver who won the inaugural Hambletonian in 1926 with Guy McKinney. (By the way, owner Henry B. Rea wrote out a check to Ray for about 10% of the winner’s share of the $73,526.42 purse, which was $45,868.43. It was also rumored that Ray won another $20,000 from betting on Guy McKinney in the winter book at 40 to 1 odds!)

Nathanial Daniel Ray was born in Whitby, Ontario, Canada in 1876 and made his debut with Queen Mary, a pony, at the Whitby Fairgrounds at the age of six.

His career then spanned over the next six decades with his vibrant green colors and members of the press labeled him “the man with the brilliant green jacket.”

He exited Canada in around 1896 and came to the United States and began his career as a jockey in Latonia, Kentucky and with success spreading to Cincinnati, as well.

He switched to Steeplechase Racing and rode four American Grand National Steeplechase winners with scribes describing him as “probably the most accomplished…rider that ever sat in a saddle on this continent.”

Ray then traveled to England with the hope of riding steeplechasers and in the Grand National. His first mount was upon a “bad actor” named Aero, who had started several races but never finished one! Nat Ray was able to settle him down and won, with the horse acting “as kind as a kitten,” with him…so much so that many English riders were imitating his riding style.

Riding for racing’s elite stables—James D. Widener being one—he captured many top steeplechase stakes events, one of which was with one of the greatest steeplechase horses, Good and Plenty.

He won that event four times in a five-year span and, when racing was “blacked out in 1911, Ray returned home to Old Woodbine and, in somewhat of a “shocking” move, gave up steeplechase riding for the Standardbred horse in 1911.

With headquarters in North Randall, Ohio, Nat Ray competed on the Grand Circuit and at Dufferin Park, many say Canada’s “winter capital of harness racing.”

Of course, Guy McKinney etched Ray’s name in history seemingly forever when he drove Guy McKinney to a straight heat win in the first Hambletonian, but Ray also was associated with many others such as Peter The Brewer and Juno, Tarzan Grattan and even a daughter of Billy Direct, Royal Blood.

In the early 1950’s, he was still competing in New York and was considered a legend among his peers.

For years, The Meadowlands honored this great horseman with the “Nat Ray” for four and five-year-old trotters before the erasure to re-name it.

One final, by the way…Nat Ray was inducted into TWO Halls of Fame, the first being our Trotting Museum and Hall of Fame in Goshen, N.Y. in 1978 and, in 1981, The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

Won’t sometracksomewhere reincarnate his legendary status as a great horseman and name a stakes race again in his honor?

by John Berry, for Harnesslink