by Brett Sturman

Today marks one year, nearly to the exact date, in which Pompano Park played host to its final race card. Demolition is formally underway on the Pompano Park grandstand. For Hall of Famer and all-time great Wally Hennessey, this past winter was an unfamiliar looking one.

“I knew heading back down in the middle of November that it was going to be rough, to not be competing, to not have Pompano,” said Hennessey. “I mean, I knew it was over, I realized it, but I don’t know if it’s something I’ll ever get over. Here we are a year later and it’s just not something that you accept easily.”

Though not competing this winter, Hennessey has still kept busy in south Florida.

“What helped me kind of get through that part was that I had gotten some babies to work with,” said Hennessey. “Trond Smedshammer had sent me down eight baby trotters for the winter, so that’s kind of what I’ve been doing all winter here at Sunshine Meadows, training some babies.”

Far from missing only the racing aspect of Pompano, Hennessey’s feelings run deeper.

“I’ve always considered Pompano my home after the first year or two starting here in the 1980s,” said Hennessey. “We’ve had friendships not just inside the business but outside the business. My wife and daughter teach in school, so this is where we’ve kind of planted our garden, you could say. It’s still going to be the winter place for us, and I think, even if I had stayed up north this year or raced a little longer, it still wouldn’t have been the same as the years that I’ve spent down here.

“For me and many other people who were here for a long time, it’s about all these friendships and camaraderie that were formed. The owners, trainers, drivers, the backstretch, everything. The businesses around here, everybody knew your name, it was a family type of feeling.”

One year after fittingly closing out Pompano Park with a win in the last race ever at the track, what Hennessey describes is a far different picture than most tracks today. Though Pompano hasn’t been family operated since its Van Lennep and Castleton Farm days, the track managed to maintain a different, more personal feel, than the commercially owned racino tracks of today.

“One of the major reasons for that, is that we continued to have our own stabling area,” Hennessey said. “For the most part, for the last 10 to 20 years, better than 50 per cent of the stable area were the same individuals year in and year out. And there were many others that came and tried, believe me. But better than 50 per cent of the backstretch has remained the same over that time. The same outfits, same colony of drivers, it was truly a big family, and we had a great thing going.

“I’d also be remiss if I didn’t say something about Gabe (Prewitt). What he and his entire team had done for Pompano was next to a miracle. He took us from the bottom floor to the penthouse, and his whole team sent Pompano out as gracefully as it could have possibly gone out.”

Not surprisingly, this upcoming week’s Northfield vs. Pompano two-day Drivers Challenge hosted at Northfield Park on Tuesday (April 11) and Wednesday (April 12) was Prewitt’s idea. And following a winter without racing for the first time in his career, Hennessey can’t wait to get back at it this upcoming week in the challenge.

“I’m really looking forward to the Drivers Challenge, to represent Pompano for another time, and I’m anxious to get back going. It’s for a good cause, and win, lose or draw we’re hoping for some fun and safe trips,” said Hennessey. “I haven’t been racing, but I’m going to get a little warmup (Friday) because we have some qualifiers at Sunshine Meadows. So I’m going to get my feet wet a little.”

Since we spoke, Hennessey won three of his six qualifiers that morning at Sunshine Meadows in advance of his trek to Northfield Park.

A winner of 11,454 career races, only a sparse number of those have come from Northfield Park. Hennessey has been in Ohio prior, but in the distant past.

“I can’t tell you the exact year I was there last, but it was many moons ago,” said Hennessey. “Generally, I was a Pompano man in the wintertime half the year, and when I did go up north, I was kind of an East Coast guy, mainly New York and Pennsylvania. But I was fortunate enough there one time though when I won that big race there, The Battle of Lake Erie way back in the ‘90s with Cambest.”

The 1993 performance was a then track record of 1:52.3.

Joining Hennessey on Team Pompano will be Dave Miller, Peter Wrenn and Joseph Chindano, Jr. They will square off against Team Northfield, consisting of Aaron Merriman, Ronnie Wrenn Jr., Chris Lems and Billy Davis, Jr.