2008 Ottawa County Fair Harness Racing Schedule

• Monday, July 21, 12 noon - MHAA Silver Circuit featuring fine 2- and 3-year old trotters and pacers.
• Tuesday July 22, 7pm - The Biggest Night of Racing in Michigan – The Wolverine Futurity races featuring the top 2 and 3 year olds in the State! Over $250,000 in purse money is on the line. The best horses and drivers Michigan has to offer. Supplemental race will feature the CKG Billings National Amateur Series Trot with many Michigan based drivers going postward.
  
• Thursday, July 24, 12 noon - MHAA Bronze Circuit will be featured.
• Friday, July 25, 12 noon - Enjoy an afternoon of ‘overnight’ races featuring many local horses and drivers.

HARNESS RACING – THE 2008 EDITION OF THE WOLVERINE FUTURITY!

Nobody presents the colorful excitement that is Harness Racing like the Ottawa County Fair!    Enjoy a seat in our covered grandstand and feel the excitement up close and personal as the best 2 and 3 year old trotters and pacers in the State race for the big money!    The finest reinsmen in the State, including Hall of Famer’s will guide their steeds in these races.   You’ll sense the difference and that ‘nobody does it like Holland’ from the time you scan our first-class racing programs – colorful and much like you’d expect at the pari-mutual racetracks and full of information…We launch the evening with a dignified Flag Raising Ceremony conducted by area Veterans and a patriotic medley of tunes….then, at 7 p.m. sharp, it’s the call to the post and we’ll be off and racing and your heart is sure to be pumping as you cheer for the talented horses and drivers as they maneuver for early position and prepare for the thunderous stretch drive to the finish line.
            The OCF in Holland has hosted the Wolverine Futurity since 1980.   The Futurity itself was first raced in 1942 when a mile was raced in a time of about 2:16 and purse money for a race was around $800.  How things have changed!   Last year, on Futurity Night (July 24, 2007), driver DARRELL WRIGHT piloted the three year-old pacer SHARK DRESSED MAN to a sensational TRACK RECORD win, in a time of 1:55.1 – the fastest mile ever at the Holland racetrack.
            Harness Racing itself has often been referred to as America’s First Great Pastime, and with good reason!   What might appear at a glance to look somewhat easy is far from it!   Imagine, controlling a 1000+ pound animal racing at full speed, in close quarters while sitting on a small seat just large enough to sit in, legs outstretched to the foot holds (stirrups) and guiding the horses every move with two leather lines in the drivers hands!   No safety belts or air bags in this dangerous sport!   Harness Racing has been immortalized in countless motion pictures over the years and we believe you’ll understand why when you witness the sounds and sights of this colorful and historically significant sport.   The setting is picture perfect…the sights and sounds of the Fair and its ‘midway’ behind you, the horses in front of you with non-stop action of warming up, racing, and the wonderful sounds of that special and magical ‘Fair Music’ from the keyboard of Madge Ladd.   In addition, at the OCF, you can walk into the barns prior to or after the races and see the horses and talk to the drivers, trainers, and other participants.  
            We have even more in store this year, as we celebrate the grand 50th Anniversary of the Ottawa County Fair – YOUR chance to win some cold hard cash by picking winner’s in each race!   Plan to arrive early to peruse the Official Racing Program and make your selections, then submit your entry.   Test your handicapping skills and make some $$!   We just love making YOU a winner too, at the Ottawa County Fair!

ADDED ATTRACTIONS – CKG BILLINGS NATIONAL AMATEUR SERIES TROT!

While Futurity Races are definitely about the HORSE, the CKG Billings Series is more about the DRIVER.    The Billings Series is named after a Chicago based businessman around 100 years ago and loved harness racing for the sheer joy of competing.  He didn’t care for wagering, was a ‘sportsman’ driver and is the namesake for a National Series that was founded by the great horseman Delvin Miller over 25 years ago.   This series features drivers that love the sport but have ‘regular jobs’ and do not make their living by driving race horses.   Amateur is often confused with ‘novice.’  In the strict sense, Amateur Drivers in this series are those that do not accept compensation for their driving – mostly they drive their own horses or borrowed horses.  Many, compete at pari-mutuel racetracks but without compensation.   It can safely be said, these ‘road warriors’ do what they do because they enjoy the competition and camaraderie that the Series offers.   Most of the drivers that will race in Holland, are from the Midwest, the majority from right here in Michigan.   Some of the drivers are horse owners, some are retirees, some may be students, we have businessmen participating, we even have Fair Board Member DALE ZAHN, the CEO of the West Michigan Lakeshore Association of REALTORS as a Billings driver and he would love to win one in front of the hometown crowd!   The Billings Series is long and grueling and takes drivers all across America and even north of the border into Canada.   It begins each year in April and ends up at the Mecca of harness racing, the Meadowlands Racetrack, in New Jersey in December.   Most of the drivers you’ll see in action this  year, experienced the exhilaration of racing at the Big M, last December.   Fair Board Member Zahn came away with a WIN there in December of 2006.   Michigander Gene Miller, a former National Champion, has won several times there.