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I On the Trot By MORRIE KURLANSKY Burright Guides Four Winners Trot Trainer is Hard Worker Outwits Rivals With Slow Pace j jI I MAYWOOD PARK Maywood 111 May 18 Harry Burright 42yearold native of Good Hope 111 and known around the nation s harness tracks as one of the most skillful and daring drivers for the second time at the current Majwood Park meet ¬ ing all but monop ¬ olized the winners cir ¬ cle bringing home four of his eight mounts on the tenrace card Harry who led the national driver stand ¬ ings in 1949 and in other seasons has been invariably high on the list of the race winning reinsmen is also one of the busiest drivers in the coun ¬ try If there were an extensive check made of the number of mounts all drivers that raced for at least ten years Burright doubtless would top them all allIt It has to be realized however that Harry is somewhat uique at least on the Chicago circuit in that he predominant ¬ ly drives horses trained by someone else even if he does maintain a fairsized public stable An advocate of the idea that some men are just naturally better drivers than others which in no way is a reflection on their ability as a trainer of trotters and pacers Harry during the last ten years has more and more tended to catchdrive rather than concentrate on training as the majority of harness horsemen still do doCompared Compared to a trainer of thoroughbreds the conditioner of trotters andpacers has at least twice the work every single day of the season The harness trainers day begins in the morning at 6 oclock with the workouts Where the running horse trainer has his exercise boys our harness man gets up in the sulky himself although he might leave the jogging to his helpers Depending on the size of a public or pri ¬ vate stable the trotting horseman is busy right up to noon Between workouts while the horses are rested between heats or readied for the next trip our man probr ably has to put in an appearance at the racing secretarys office to enter his horses Vhere the running horse carries little or no equipment apart from blinkers or maybe a special bit and the thorough ¬ breds shoeing is only a minor problem if at all the harness trainer often has to experiment with a lot of equipment items and has an increasing chore with the proper shoeing and balancing his charges chargesAll All this is time consuming to say the least The morning work done the harness trainer most likely has to attend to ad ¬ ministrative details in the afternoon and get a wink or two of sleep because at night he has to drive in the races Where the thoroughbred man will watch the race from a grandstand or clubhouse box after saddling his charges our man has to go several warmup trips with his charges A man like Harry Burright for instance on a night like the one yesterday when he had eight engagements in addition of the eight race miles he will have driven 24 more miles in warming up his horses horsesIt It has to be admitted that public stables in harness racing usually dont have as many horses as public stables at a running meet might have because it is virtually im ¬ possible for one man to race effectively more than twenty horses Even in the case where a man has 15 to 20 horses he is most likely to have one or two assistant trainers that help with workouts and race driving However the majority of harness horse trainers still prefer to face their charges themselves In the last few years some trainers although accomplished driv ¬ ers themselves but getting on in years have been delegating this part of their jobs to socalled catchdrivers catchdriversHarry Harry Burrights win percentage for the past few seasons hasnt been spec ¬ tacular for the fact that he is not choosy in what kind of a horse he drives But you can be assured that dozens of other drivers racing the same horses as many times as Harry would hardly approach his number of wins The mejflium sized but very strong Illinois horseman is a great strategist which combined with his overall skill and his courage enables him to win races where a lesser reinsman would fail Last night Harry twice out ¬ witted his rival drivers with his go slow for the first threequarters tactics In the third race he drove Lucky Schaf one of the few horses he trains himself to a 208 Vs victory How did he do it Harry used the stallions early speed to get the lead and then set a relatively slow pace with fractions of 322 1054 and 1382 to come home with a final quarter in 302 seconds which was simply too much for Lucky Schafs seven C class rivals rivalsIn In the tenth race another C class pace Harry repeated this performance with Chief Jim a notorious front racec that used to chuck it at the quarter pole Not so with Harry Burright at the reins Under Harrys stout restraint the Joe Nerotrained gelding went the first quarter in 314 the half in 1064 and the three quarters in 138 to have all his speed left for a 301 final panel
