Timmy, Dixie, Wilson, and Sonny
by Bob Heyden
As we approach the first Saturday in May, we take a look back at an incredible year almost 20 years ago for Tim Tetrick, marvel at the speed of Dixie Cheer, acknowledge how the Woodrow Wilson crushed the Kentucky Derby, and say goodbye to Sonny Patterson.
TIMMY AS IN TETRICK
With many drivers dominating the news in 2026 you rarely heard Timmy Tetrick’s name, but it’s still early in the year.
Dave Miller just hit 15,000 career wins, and it was easy to forget Tetrick is just 211 victories back and at 44, is 17 years younger than Miller.
With Aaron Merriman adding yet another dash-winning title to his bio in 2025 it was easy to forget it was Tetrick who set the bar not yet approached since 2007 with 1,189 wins and $18,350,047. The earnings number hiked to just under $20 million in 2008.
Here’s a closer look at his breakthrough season of 2007, 19 years ago:
• He led in both wins and $$ at just 26 years old at years end.
• He won his first two million $ drives — both with Southwind Lynx — capturing the Rooney and the Meadowlands Pace.
• He won in nine different states or provinces.
• He won 13 times with Southwind Tempo, his high watermark.
• He won at 19 different tracks.
• He won 24 six-figure races.
• He won an incredible 120 races for Carmine Fusco alone more than any other single trainer.
• His fewest wins in a month, 73, came in September.
• His most wins in any single month, 121, came in November.
• He won 372 races at Dover Downs alone.
SPEEDY DIXIE CHEER
Dixie Cheer is still the only harness horse ever to post a :24 flat quarter. It was on July 24, 1997 so the 30th anniversary is coming up next year. I caught up with Greg Merton who was the victorious driver in that lighting quick quarter mile dash held at Vernon Downs in New York.
“My best memories with Dixie Cheer are actually from the weeks before that race where he won in :24 flat,” Merton said. “We actually went :25 flat [in another quarter-mile dash on July 3] and then gave him a week or so off. He could leave in :26 on a half-mile track so we knew it was in him. He came back well and [owner/trainer] Jess Sebolsky and I knew what we had and decided to give him a shot. This was the week we were going to come out of the shoot guns blazing. He was just unbelievable in there going :24 flat. Right after the race the starter told me he had forgotten it was a quarter mile dash or he would have gotten out of there quicker. We probably would have gone :23 and a piece. We had heard a while back that Vernon was having a series of these dashes and we decided to give it a good shot. It worked out.”
Note: The fastest quarters recorded since are :24.2 by Tune Town at Colonial (first quarter) and a finishing quarter also in :24.2 by Coach Stefanos in his 2023 Breeders Crown elimination at Hoosier Park.
WILSON OVER DERBY
Some think there is no bigger event than the Kentucky Derby in racing, and you might not believe it, but 40-45 years ago harness racing had the Wilson, the Woodrow Wilson, and from 1980-87 those purses dwarfed those of the Derby.
Here’s a comparison of the purses of the Wilson and Derby, respectively:
• 1980 — $2,011,000 to $339,400
• 1981 — $1,760,000 to $413,450
• 1982 — $1,957,500 to $550,100
• 1983 — $1,700,000 to $531,000
• 1984 — $2,161,000 to $712,400
• 1985 — $1,344,000 to $581,800
• 1986 — $1,561,000 to $784,400
• 1987 — $1,422,500 to $793,600
• Composite — $13,917,000 to $4,706,050 (a near 3-1 ratio)
Sadly, the last Wilson was held in 2012 fittingly won by a star in stakes record time, Captaintreacherous (1:49.2).
SO LONG SONNY
Last week, John “Sonny” Patterson, Jr. from Dalton, GA, passed away at 81. Patterson, Jr. was a friend since the late 1980s. Two months shy of his 82nd birthday he was tending to his horses on his Georgia farm right to the end. He was his high school’s class president and he graduated from Mackenzie Business School in Tennessee. His father was a legendary figure and they both seemed to do their best work with trotters. Patterson, Jr. won 200 plus races seven straight years from 1982-88. Some of his headliners included Caramore, Jersey Blizzard, My Bill Forwood, Division Street, Whip It Wood, and Sokys Atom. He won the 1994 Breeders Crown and 1995 Hambletonian Oaks with Lookout Victory as well as the 1992 Peter Haughton with Giant Chill and the 1993 Cashman with Giant Chill. He moved to New York full time late in 1979 and stayed for the 1980s, before doing some of his best work at The Meadowlands the first half of the 1990s. Ron Gurfein teamed with Patterson, Jr. to be second in the 1991 Hambletonian with M B Felty. A quiet but confident man and most important, a gentleman.
