Harness Park Hits the Starting Gate
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Harness racing park, Forest Lake. (Photo courtesy of LeeAnn Heikkla)
The Running Aces Harness Park, near Forest Lake on the northern edge of the Twin Cities metro area, will open for its first season April 11. Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race in a specified gait, pacing or trotting, pulling a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, where the driver sits. Running Aces will be the only professional harness park in Minnesota, though there are almost 50 throughout the U.S.; the only other horse track in the state is Canterbury Downs in Shakopee.
Running Aces has a 5/8 mile oval track, an 1800-seat grandstand, a restaurant overlooking the track, and four barns with 300 stalls; a card room will open sometime in July. For 2008, the racing season runs from April 11 through July 6, with races on Fridays through Mondays. There will be eight races a day, with a 3 p.m start on Sundays, and 6 p.m. start on the other days.
Harness racing is not new to Minnesota, however. In fact, the state was home to the most famous harness horse of all time, Dan Patch, who raced in the early 1900s. He never lost a race. At the 1906 Minnesota State Fair, racing only against time, he set a new world record for pacers, and the crowd of 90,000 went wild. That record still stands today. Dan Patch lived on a farm near Savage, which was renamed by its residents in honor of the horse’s owner.
A hundred years later, Running Aces puts harness racing back in the spotlight in the home state of this legendary race horse. The track is located off Lake Drive in the town of Columbus, just west of I-35 at the Highway 97 exit. For more information on the park, harness racing, and area hotels, go to:
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Posted on Mar 18 2008 | Tagged as: Feature Articles, Spring/Summer