This is the fourteenth of a major series of articles concerning racetracks in the USA, continuing our review of USA racetracks with an initial look at the live racing tracks of Michigan.
Michigan –
After the closure of Hazel Park for Standardbreds reverting to thoroughbreds only and Sports Creek at the end of the same year, the only harness racing track left in Michigan was Northville Downs.
Northville Downs (NOR)
Northville Downs can trace its roots back to 1902 as a rudimentary fairgrounds horse track while a driving club was formed in 1907 to manage the land in Northville. Pari mutuel harness racing law was authorised in Michigan on 28 June 1933 while Northville Downs became the entity it is today in 1944.
The half mile track (440ft straight) is located in downtown Northville, an affluent city located in and divided by Oakland and Wayne counties, being a western suburb of Metropolitan Detroit. Northville Downs was the first track in Michigan to offer standardbred, pari mutuel betting opening for business on 4 August 1944. It hosts live harness racing in the winter (Sept – Dec) and spring (Mar – June) – in 2022 and is open seven days a week for simulcast racing around the country.
The track record attendance of 9,610 fans set on 15 June 1950 while the betting record of $935,067 was recorded on 28 March 1986. At one time, Northville Downs shared a racing circuit with neighbour Hazel Park and Sports Creek Park located near Flint.
Northville has a glass enclosed grandstand seating 5,200 and clubhouse seating 2,000 including a restaurant for over 250 patrons – Trotside Restaurant is Northville’s largest dining establishment offering casual dining in a contemporary setting with great viewing of harness racing. The stables accommodate 750 horses and there is parking for 2,500 cars.
The forty nine acre Northville Downs’s property is today seen as being more valuable for purposes other than harness racing. With the public opting to spend money at the commercial and tribal casinos throughout Michigan and with the expansion of the state lottery and online forms of gambling, eight Michigan horse tracks have closed since 1998. A decline of 81% from $22.1m bet across seven tracks in 2006 to $4.2m at two tracks in 2016, with combined live and simulcast betting in the state dropping from $281.1 million in 2006 to $103.2 million in 2016, the writing is on the wall.
The track business leased the land from the Northville Driving Club on an annual basis with the Carlo family owning some of the track’s acreage and an investment group called Northville Driving Club Corporation owning the rest with the Carlos family minority shareholders in that entity. The property at Northville Downs went up for sale for potential redevelopment and was under contract to Farmington Hills based homebuilder Hunter Pasteur Homes to redevelop the land for housing beginning in 2020 after being sold to them in 2018.
The site near Sheldon Road and Hines Drive was expected to be turned into five to six hundred apartments, townhouses and single family homes together with commercial uses (18,700 sq ft). After a review by the Northville Planning Board that rejected the site plan following concerns with the proposed project including its density, traffic impact and how public improvements would be funded, the developer pulled its site plan application.
The city considered making amendments to the Northville Downs area and the developer’s application could be entertained with certain modifications made to the site. With plans on hold Northville Downs entered into a new long term lease agreement with the property owner, Northville Driving Club Corporation, allowing the racetrack to operate through 2024 offering live racing and simulcast betting. Northville Downs’s owner Mike Carlo said the Northville Downs company plans to build a new track in an area close to its current location in Metropolitan Detroit.
Other live harness racing in Michigan today takes place at the annual County Fairs – the 2022 programme included racing at :
Track Fair Dates
Charlotte Eaton County 4-H Fair 9 July
Big Rapids Mecosta County Fair 12 – 13 July
Croswell Croswell Agric Society 14 July
Hastings Barry County Fair 16 – 17 July
Caro Tuscola County Fair 23 – 24 July
Fowlerville Fowlerville Fair 25 July
Harrison Clare County Fair 28 – 29 July
Bad Axe Huron County Fair 31 July – 1 August
Ludington Western Michigan Fair 7 – 8 August
Ironwood Gogebic County Fair 12 – 13 August
Hart Oceana County Fair 20, 22 – 23 August
Allegan Allegan County Fair 12 – 14 September
Centreville St Joseph County Fair 19 – 20 September
Charlotte
The Eaton County Fair was established in the 1900’s. Closed in 1930 the fairgrounds reopened in 1931 when Hans E. Kardel took on the job of restoring the fairgrounds for the whole community to enjoy.
Big Rapids
Two nights of harness racing – first colt’s stakes races and the second Harness Overnights including the annual Celebrities race feature at the Mecosta County Fair.
Croswell
The Croswell Fair is one of the oldest fairs in the country (over 136 years) and is unique in that it receives no funding through county millages or the 4H organization, being funded by the Croswell Agricultural Society and area sponsors.
Harness racing returned to the Croswell Fair in 2018 after being a big part of summer at the Croswell fairgrounds from as early as the nineteenth century. The Charles Coon Memorial Futurity was a major event on the Michigan county fair circuit for at least forty years at Croswell when races filled the old grandstand on the half mile track.
The 2022 edition of the Croswell Agricultural Society Fair was held at the Croswell Fairgrounds on 13 – 16 July with harness racing events run on Thursday 14 July.
Hastings
Established in 1853, the 2022 Barry County Fair and Youth Exposition was held on 18 – 23 July with the fair’s harness racing programme taking place on Saturday and Sunday 16/17 July.
Caro
The Tuscola County Fair was organized on 11 March 1882, initially as the Caro District Agricultural Society who on 19 – 22 September the same year hosted its first agricultural, industrial and recreational exhibition. After a decade’s absence since 2012, harness racing returned at the 141st fair held at Caro on 23 – 30 July 2022. Harness racing at the Tuscola County Fair took place at 5.30pm on both Saturday and Sunday 23/24 July with stakes of $72,000 distributed for overnights and colt races.
Fowlerville
The Fairgrounds are owned by the Fowlerville Agricultural Society.
Harrison
The 136th annual Clare County Fair was held in July 2022 after being cancelled in 2020 due to COVID 19. One of the oldest fairs in Michigan and features a full week of Grandstand entertainment and midway events every single day. Harness Racing took place at 6pm Monday 25 July. The fairgrounds are owned by the Clare County Agricultural Society.
Bad Axe
Bad Axe is home to the Huron County (Community) Fair normally held annually in July/August. In 2022, the 154th Huron County Fair was held on 31 July/6 August with harness racing kicking off before a full grandstand on Sunday 31 July and again on Monday 1 August.
Fairs in Mason County can be traced back to the 1870s. The fair was discontinued for five years during the height of the Great Depression. In 1935 the county board of supervisors authorized the purchase of Charles G. Wings 185 acre farm at a cost of $5,000. This was in response to a promise by the Michigan Bureau of Aeronautics that an aviation field would be constructed by the state and WPA (Works Progress Administration) if the county furnished the site. The Wing farm located two miles east of Ludington was the perfect spot to build an airport and fairgrounds side by side.
The Western Michigan Fair Association was formed in 1936, the year the fair moved to its present location. Held every year since with the exception of during WW II. Restrictions on travel, probable lack of agriculture exhibits and uncertainties of satisfactory entertainment caused the fair board to recommend that no fair be held in 1945.
Harness racing had returned to the Western Michigan Fair for the first time in nine years in 2017 drawing a crowd of about two hundred people to the grandstand. The fair was modified in 2020 due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 virus scaling back to just livestock competitions and the auction. 2022 marked the 84th annual Western Michigan Fair.
Ironwood
Harness racing was the event that started and still is a highlight of the annual Gogebic County Fair. An old white wooden grandstand overlooks a red clay half mile racetrack at the remote fairgrounds where every summer for the past one hundred and twenty seven year’s fans have viewed harness racing.
The Curry family gave the land to Gogebic County in the late 1890’s with the hope that harness
racing would always be a mainstay of the fair. Allowing for depression, world wars and other times of hardship, harness racing continues it’s following with the people of northern Michigan each year.
The track was once a year-round training facility for a handful of northern racing stables hosting multiple Michigan Sire Stakes events.
Hart
The Oceana County Fair Days is an annual five day event held at the Oceana County Fairgrounds in Hart featuring food, fun and exciting events. Owned and organized by the Oceana County Agricultural Society it is the longest running county fair in Michigan celebrating its 151st anniversary in 2022. The county fair included three days of harness racing.
Hart was home to one of the biggest harness racing aficionados, Samuel Brown, a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln’s who settled in Muskegon. He built the railroad to Pentwater and plotted the village of Shelby. Owning a home west of Hart, in the 1890’s Brown raced harness horses throughout the USA with national success.
Allegan
The Allegan County Fair features three days of harness racing together with rodeo, off road derby, tractor pulls, demolition derby and parade. The fairgrounds 110 acres includes the racetrack allowing for five wide racing, a horse complex, 38,000 sq. ft. indoor exhibit hall complex, livestock barns and arenas, fully-covered grandstand, the Allegan County Pioneer Village and a campground area. The annual fair starts the first Friday after Labour Day running for nine days.
Centreville
The St Joseph County Fair was first held on 11 October 1841. By 1916 there was a sod race track that had not been used for several years meaning only four horses raced that year. The sod racetrack has long since been replaced by the todays clay track.
The Fair has had a number of venues while in 1927 the 4H Fair was established. In 1946 the Fair was moved to Playland Park which was ideal with permanent buildings that could be used for exhibits, a race track and permanent rides. An addition was made to the grandstand and a roof grandstand constructed along with a new stage in 1991. The facility is privately owned and included two days harness racing on its 2022 programme.
Next ArtIcle : Michigan closed tracks
Peter Craig
9 November 2022
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
