Keystone Ore was an American standardbred horse, who was the son of Bye Bye Bird. He was trained and driven by Stanley Dancer, and was honored as United States Harness Horse of the Year in 1976.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
The Standardbred is an American horse breed best known for its ability in harness racing, where members of the breed compete at either a trot or pace. Developed in North America, the Standardbred is recognized worldwide, and the breed can trace its bloodlines to 18th-century England. They are solid, well-built horses with good dispositions. In addition to harness racing, the Standardbred is used for a variety of equestrian activities — including horse shows and pleasure riding — particularly in the midwestern and eastern United States, and southern Ontario.
Stanley Franklin Dancer was an American harness racing driver and trainer. He was the only horsemen to drive and train three Triple Crowns in horse racing. In total, he drove 23 Triple Crown winners. He was the first trainer to campaign a horse to $1 million in a career, Cardigan Bay in 1968 and drove the Harness Horse of the Year seven times. During his career, he won over $28 million and 3,781 races and was called by the United States Trotting Association "perhaps the best-known personality in the sport".
In 1976, Keystone Ore won the $200,000 Cane Pace held on August 21 at Yonkers Raceway, in front of a crowd of 24,458 fans, with his time of 1:57.2 in the mile distance setting the record for a 3-year-old pacer at that distance. Raven Hanover, driven by George Sholty ¾ of a length behind the lead, with Windshield Wiper 1¼ lengths behind second. [1]
The Cane Pace is a harness horse race for standardbred pacers run annually since 1955. The race was first run as the William H. Cane Futurity in 1955 at Yonkers Raceway in New York. In 1956 the race joined with the Little Brown Jug and the Messenger Stakes to become the first leg in the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers.
Yonkers Raceway, founded in 1899 as the Empire City Race Track, is a one-half-mile standardbred harness racing dirt track and slots racino located at the intersection of Central Park Avenue and Yonkers Avenue in Yonkers, New York, near the New York City border. It is owned by MGM Growth Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International.
Keystone Ore won the Little Brown Jug, the second leg of the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers, with a time of 1:57.4 in a raceoff against Armbro Ranger, who had won the first division of the race at the half-mile track at the Delaware County Fairgrounds in front of a crowd of 39,709, the second-largest attendance at the event. Keystone Ore had won the second division in a time of 1:57 for the mile, and the combined time of 3:54.4 broke a record for age, sex and gait on a half-mile track that had been set by Bret Hanover in 1965. [2]
The Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers consists of the following horse races:
- Cane Pace, held at Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey
- Little Brown Jug, held at the Delaware County Fair in Delaware, Ohio
- Messenger Stakes, held at Yonkers Raceway in Yonkers, New York
Bret Hanover was an outstanding American Standardbred racehorse. He was one of only nine pacers to win harness racing's Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers and won 62 of 68 starts. He was the first horse to be voted United States Harness Horse of the Year three times and remains the only pacer to have received that honor.
Heavily favored to win the Messenger Stakes and sweep the Triple Crown, [3] Keystone Ore fell to Windshield Wiper, who finished three-quarters of a length ahead of Keystone Ore. Both Keystone Ore and Windshield Wiper had started in the second tier of the 11-horse race and were hemmed in on the rail. On the backstretch for the second time, both horses found room to the outside around the stretch turn with Windshield Wiper pulling away in the last 50 yards. [4] Keystone Ore had beaten Windshield Wiper in 13 of their races, but lost when the two competed against each other at Freehold Raceway in a race held two weeks before the Messenger Stakes. Keystone Ore finished the season with earnings of $469,302, and a win in the Messenger would not only have earned the Triple Crown but would have put the horse just short of the single-season harness horse earnings record of $558,009 set by Albatross in 1971. [5]
The Messenger Stakes is an American harness racing event for 3-year-old pacing horses. It was organized in 1956 at Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury, New York to join with the Cane Pace and the Little Brown Jug to create the Triple Crown of Harness Racing for Pacers. The race is named in honor of Messenger (1780–1808), a horse foaled in England and later brought to the United States. As a sire, virtually all harness horses in the U.S. can be traced back to Messenger.
Freehold Raceway is a half-mile racetrack in Freehold Borough, New Jersey, and is the oldest racetrack in the United States. Horseraces have been taking place at Freehold Raceway since the 1830s. The Monmouth County Agricultural Society was formed on December 17, 1853, and in 1854 they began holding an annual fair with harness racing at Freehold Raceway
Albatross (1968–1998) was a bay Standardbred horse by Meadow Skipper. He was voted United States Harness Horse of the Year in 1971 and 1972. Albatross won 59 of 71 starts, including the Cane Pace and Messenger Stakes in 1971, earned $1,201,477. It was, however, as a sire that he really made his mark. Albatross's 2,546 sons and daughters won $130,700,280.
