by Brett Sturman

One week before Christmas, an upset of biblical proportions was witnessed at Saratoga Raceway.

Coincidentally, the last harness race to produce this level of an inexplicable result also came at the Saratoga Springs harness track, when the all-time great Niatross veered and fell over the hubrail in the 1980 Battle of Saratoga. But this time, in a shocking twist on Dec. 16 where the villain defeated the hero, the Grinch was able to overcome a trip where he was parked for the final three-eighths of a mile to wear down and narrowly defeat Santa Claus in the shadow of the wire.

Santa vs. the Grinch race has increased in popularity in recent years, with more tracks running the exhibition at holiday time. Just like the Globetrotters are “supposed” to beat the Generals, the same has always held true for Santa and Grinch. Not this time, however.

The race wasn’t without its share of confusion. From both the announcer and camera views, there was thought that the race would only be a half-mile distance, one lap around. But neither Santa nor Grinch got the memo – or perhaps they did but wanted to rage on with their battle for another time around – and continued with their duel as the commentary and camera resumed on the action. In the end, Santa tried to fight back but the Grinch, being high lined home would not give up the lead. Even with the deceptively-placed camera angle at the finish that drives me crazy in actual pari-mutuel races too, it was evident that Grinch had indeed won.

The question then becomes: Will there be any lasting impacts? Short term, there doesn’t appear to be any, fortunately. By all accounts, Christmas still came and those throughout the upstate New York region appeared no worse for the wear from Grinch’s victory nine days prior. Children who may have been horrified seeing their hero, Father Christmas, lose at the harness track, were likely comforted on Christmas morning knowing that Santa – just as Niatross did years before – was able to rebound and live up to his promise.

Longer term, hopefully the Grinch’s victory of Santa doesn’t produce any curses against the track. If, next year at Saratoga, we start seeing a string of 1-9-favored Mark Beckwith horses continuously losing from the rail, we’ll have a pretty good idea about the origin story. For next year’s edition of the race, obviously stronger precautions will need to be taken to ensure a more appropriate result.

That could entail taking the late-November FanDuel Championship winner from The Meadowlands as one of Santa’s reindeer against a $4,000 claimer from over at Batavia for the Grinch, or maybe it’s as simple as giving Santa a 220 TrackMaster-rated horse and giving Grinch a 40. Either of those approaches should work, and for now we can close out this year’s amusingly diabolical chapter in harness history.

PHILLY HANDLE RECORD

Speaking of harness history, the highest handle in the history of Harrah’s Philadelphia occurred on the Christmas Eve noon card when the track took in close to $١.٦ million in wagers. It came as nearly every other racing track was dark in that timeframe. Logging into a wagering platform that afternoon, Harrah’s Philly and the thoroughbred track Tampa Bay Dows were the only games in town (or in the entire world, for that matter). Thoroughbred track Parx was to race, but they canceled.

As such, Philly was able to easily beat its prior record of $1.3 million from a similar situation years prior when due to a heat wave most other competition on the U.S. east coast had canceled. The result of record handle with no competition isn’t new – that’s often when record handle for the smaller-handling tracks do occur, but it’s always interesting when the dynamic sets up that way.

I wrote a column here back in 2021 how a new record handle could have been on the line for a late-May card with massive talent that featured almost all of the sport’s best horses coming for the track’s signature stakes day of the year, but handle never seriously threatened record figures that day. Instead, it just took a decent – albeit ordinary – set of horses across 14 races to accomplish the new benchmark. I’d imagine that Philly will continue to race in the same slot next year, as they should. It’s a unique spot and with any luck maybe they even go past $2 million.

AMAZON IN A CLAIMER?

Switching gears, there has been much deserved fanfare and publicity over the past two months regarding Southwind Amazon becoming the most winningest horse in harness history. Just last week, this column relived his ten top wins. But, dishearteningly, current USTA entries show Southwind Amazon is listed in-to-go for his final career start on Tuesday in for a $5,000 claiming
price. 

I haven’t had the opportunity to speak to the horse’s connections so it wouldn’t be fair to presume motives, but, just on its face, the move to now place what’s become a cherished horse into a claimer – solely because it’s the last time that the soon-to-be 15-year-old can race outside of amateur competition, simply isn’t a good look whatsoever.

One of my first reactions was that Northfield management should have rejected the entry, but then I thought otherwise. Perhaps now it’s a claiming opportunity open to anyone else who wants to provide a deserving life after racing for a horse that’s done so much.

PAYING MY RESPECTS TO FREEHOLD

Lastly, by the time this column is published, Freehold Raceway will have officially completed its final race in the track’s long, storied history. Most of my memories at the track come from the early 2000’s when I frequented it often at a time when my family owned horses that raced there.

For the first time in many years, I visited the track in early November to pay my final respects. As almost everything today looks identical as it did then – even down to the broken escalator which has become part of its charm – it was almost like a step back into time. I know that even my first foray into Freehold was already after the track’s heyday, but it wasn’t difficult to envision the appeal that it had. It was a fun atmosphere to be able to see the horses up close that came over from the farms just miles down the road, and it will be greatly missed.