Harness: A final salute to our retiring 14-year-old war horses

While winning is the ultimate goal, all Standardbred racehorses have one job when on the track - complete the mile. Taking it a step further, only a select few of the 8,000-plus foals born each year make it to the end of the road – a December start in their 14-year-old and final year of racing.

For 16 harness racing warriors, the end may be imminent but they are not quite ready to hang up their shoes and quit their day (and night) jobs. In total, they have made it to the track over 4,000 times while earning almost $4 million at tracks across North America from Truro to Cal Expo.

Here we salute these "iron horses" who ensure that tracks can fill races and show up week-in and week-out for more than a decade. There are no Dan Patch Award winners in the bunch, but they all have the heart and fortitude to overcome the odds and last the test of time.

These 14-year-olds outlined below may be at the end of the road as mandatory retirement looms on January 1 when they turn 15, but they should not be forgotten.

Typically we focus on the richest, fastest and winningest horses. Today the spotlight shines first on the horse who has already made it behind the gate an amazing 499 times – Terror Of Thetrack.

Since March 2013, Terror Of Thetrack has been under the care of trainer/driver Keith Kash Jr. and owned by his wife Melinda Kash, who initially claimed the gelded son of Western Terror out of Over The Coals from the Progressive Claiming Series at Buffalo Raceway in March 2012. The Kash's lost the horse for $4,000 in January 2013 but quickly claimed him back two starts later for the same tag.

"I think we paid $7,000 for him originally. The claiming prices changed each week in that series," said Keith Kash Jr.

Heading into the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Terror Of Thetrack had compiled nine consecutive years of 40 or more starts, including averaging 47 starts per year since moving into the Kash barn. His knack for staying sound and making it to work every week has seen the 14-year-old post 499 career starts with 40 wins, 43 seconds and 77 thirds and $198,164 in career earnings.

"The announcer at Northfield (Ayers Ratliff) is the statistician and we are friends. He told me the horse has made over 360 consecutive starts at Northfield. By the end of the year he'll have 500 career starts. I think that places him 16th all-time," said Kash, clearly proud of the horse. "He's like family. He's not the fastest or a huge money maker. He's just low key."

In addition to good genetics which have kept Terror Of Thetrack free of health issues, Kash believes that a training regimen that focuses on an equine treadmill for exercise rather than on-track work and a special friend have helped keep his 14-year-old happy and interested in his weekly job.

"He lives next to my 13-year-old daughter's miniature pony. They have a half-wall between them and are best friends like Siskel and Ebert. When one leaves the stall, the other one is hollering for them," said Kash.

Terror Of Thetrack is old enough that he took his lifetime mark of 1:52 at the now-shuttered Colonial Downs 1 1/4 mile oval. While Northfield Park has been his home since 2012, his younger days saw him compete at Batavia, Buffalo, Flamboro and other assorted Canadian tracks.

Terror Of Thetrack showed he still had some life left in his legs by storming home in the snow at 44-1 to win his most recent start in 1:57 1/5 on December 16 over the 'Flying Turns' at Northfield Park and he is in-to-go on Monday at Northfield in race 15. That race will push the racetrack regular to the 500-start plateau for his career. After that he is expected to call it a career.

"When they are 14 and have to retire, I usually keep my horses until they pass away," said Kash, who has found other plans for Terror Of Thetrack. The son of Western Terror is expected to join the Summit County (Ohio) Mounted Sheriff Department to begin his next career.

"I always tell people when I give them a horse that if they can't handle them, I'll take them back and keep them on my farm. We love the animal," said Kash.

If not for the mandatory retirement age, Kash said Terror Of Thetrack would remain on the track since he is perfectly healthy. "He has zero issues. His legs are clean. I know it is hard to believe for a horse with that many starts," said Kash. "He probably wouldn’t be able to keep racing at Northfield where they go fast every race, but he could definitely go at a cheaper track like Monticello or up in Maine."

Terror Of Thetrack is not the only Northfield regular wrapping up a long career of racing. Moreland Flash raced against his fellow 14-year-old on December 16 and finished fifth as he was boxed in the three-hole in what was his 389th career start, all for owner Andrew Coblentz of Wooster, Ohio.

"I bought him when he was a week-old colt along with his mother from a friend of mine, Henry Beachy," said Coblentz, who never entered the gelding into a claiming race during his entire career. "He was my first baby."

While Moreland Flash was never a major money-earner throughout his career, he did provide Coblentz with plenty of thrills, especially as a 2-year-old on the fair circuit in Ohio.

"When we first raced him as a 2-year-old he had problems his first few starts, but then he won his last five starts at the fairs and he got the blanket in all of them, meaning he went the fastest time," said Coblentz. "He set a track record at Dover Fair (2008) of 1:58 4/5 that year, though I don't think the record still stands today."

A son of Memphis Flash out of Carols Cliff, Moreland Flash owns a 1:51 4/5 lifetime-best time taken as a 7-year-old over the half-mile surface at Northfield Park. To date he has earned $187,199, though his recent years have seen his purse money fall off.

"He carried the load from the time he was 3 or 4 until the last few years," said Coblentz. "He's just a tough old horse. Still to this day he thinks and acts like a youngster.

"The last two years we've mainly kept him racing so Amy Wengerd (trainer) could drive him in the Lady Series. Amy is in love with the horse and has been around him since he was 2 years old."

Coblentz, who owns a 45-acre farm, said Moreland Flash will be with him until "the day he dies" and should get plenty of exercise as a riding horse.

One of just five retiring 14-year-olds of 2020 with a sub 1:50 lifetime mark is A Fool For Mark, who stopped the timer in 1:49 3/5 when he was a 7-year-old in 2013.

Sold for $65,000 in Harrisburg in 2007 to Ted Gewertz, Martha Frank, Val D'Or Farms and breeder Roll The Dice Stable, A Fool For Mark never raced for the initial ownership group and made his debut as a 4-year-old for owner Ashley Page. After a few starts with Dustin Ingraham in the bike, he purchased the son of Western Ideal-I'm No Fool on October 10, 2010, beginning a long on and off relationship with the horse that he'll see to completion, since he became A Fool For Mark's final owner once again on June 1 of this year, his seventh time owning the horse.

"One of the first times I drove him he won in 1:53 1/5 and I bought him the next day," said Ingraham. "He's been really good to me, made me a lot of money and won a lot of races. He's part of the family now.

"My parents had the horse. I had lost him a couple of times through claims and my mom (Kelly Case) has always had a soft spot for him too, so she claimed him back and has had him for a couple of years. She wanted me to be able to finish out his career, so that's why he's back in my barn."

A Fool For Mark has compiled a 419-81-39-68 career record. In addition to the quick lifetime mark, his 81 wins rank first among retiring 14-year-olds this year. Currently competing in Florida at Pompano Park, Ingraham will likely have at least one more chance to get in the sulky behind A Fool For Mark before he retires. On December 16 he finished eighth after getting interfered with early in the mile at Pompano Park.

"He was racing well before he got interfered with in Virginia (Oct. 2) and his leg got a little sore," said Ingraham. "We'll probably look to race him one or two more times. If we do race him near the end of the year, I'll probably try to drive him myself his last start. If he is not up to it, then he won't race.

"We have a couple of places lined up," continued Ingraham on retirement options. "We've ridden him some, so he'll probably have a riding career or maybe do some Standardbred shows. He likes his job, so we'll find something for him to do."

Co-owner and trainer Richard Bertrand claimed Best Dream Seeker for $5,000 at Running Aces on August 13, 2017 and he has been a steady performer for the conditioner ever since.

"It was a great claim," said Bertrand. "I claimed him for a new owner and I remember telling him that he won't be the best horse but he tries hard and is a check-getter. That's exactly what he's been.'

The third foal from Dream Seeker by sire Cambest, Best Dream Seeker was a $75,000 yearling purchase at the Lexington Selected Sale in 2007 by Aaron Waxman and Alan Alber. He saw good success as a 2-year-old, setting a career mark of 1:51 4/5 when winning a division of the Bluegrass series at The Red Mile.

Despite the initial Grand Circuit success, Best Dream Seeker's career stunted quickly and he became a mid-level conditioned and claiming horse through most of his life before settling in as a $3,000 to $6,000 claimer during his time with Bertrand. Along the way Best Dream Seeker even competed against Foiled Again, perhaps the greatest older campaigner in history. Foiled Again beat him by almost nine lengths that day at the Woodstock Fair in Virginia back in 2018.

Most recently, Best Dream Seeker has found new life as a 14-year-old, winning a career-high seven races and posting his highest yearly earnings (despite missing nearly three months due to COVID-19) since 2015.

"I claimed him off Tim Maier originally. He joked with me this summer about whether 'Dreamer' found the Fountain of Youth in California this year, but I didn't change one thing to this horse. I guess he just decided to go out with a bang. I think he really likes the Cal Expo dirt track. It is a little different than some other tracks," said Bertrand.

Bertrand expects Best Dream Seeker to make one or two more starts in 2020 before calling it a career on December 26, the final racing date at Cal Expo for the year. The trainer said the horse is certainly sound enough to continue racing through the winter if it was permitted and that he was even contacted by someone in Michigan asking if he would sell him to race on the Ohio fair circuit next year, but the co-owner said the horse likely has other plans.

"A few people reached out to me about using him as a riding horse and one of my owners who really loves the horse wants to keep him as a pet and is looking at bigger properties so she can keep him," said Bertrand. "I'll keep him for now. He can't race, but he can still jog and is allowed to pony a horse on the side on the main track. He'll hang around here until we find the right place for him."

The four horses outlined above are just a sampling of the 61 horses (59 made pari-mutuel starts) who stepped out on the track at some point in 2020. Each of them have stories, like Ideal Candidate, who was claimed by Hunter Oakes on October 15 of this year. That's right, he was claimed two months before retirement, reportedly the result of an on-track feud. Now in the Robert Lounsbury barn since shipping from Wilkes Barre to Monticello wasn't feasible, the 75-time career winner will soon need a new home.

"We'll do what is best and try to see that he gets a good home," said Lounsbury, who was given the go-ahead by Oakes to do what he sees fit with Ideal Candidate. "Maybe when all is said and done I'll just give him back to Bo Sowers (former trainer). Maybe that is the best ending for him."

One of Ideal Candidate's recent competitors is Dirty Devil, a one-time Open performer at Dover Downs who just recently passed $590,000 in career earnings. On the trotting side is Rompaway Beau, a $547K earner who was a regular Invitational and Open-caliber horse in Indiana, Ohio and New York.

It's A Good Thing is the winningest horse from the retiring class of 2020. He has 11 wins from 30 starts and has earned $37,765 this year. As of Dec. 17, he was about $75,000 behind the richest lifetime earner among 14-year-olds Doubleshotascotch, who last raced in August and made $807K in his career.

Lastly, we honor the rest of the under 1:50 club from this year’s retiring crop: Pence Hanover (1:49 2/5); Dr C's Z Tam (1:49 3/5); Mr Coolie (1:49 3/5); Or (1:49 4/5).

While we can't tell each story individually, we owe each of these veteran performers, especially the 16 who made it to the end a "thank you" for their service to the sport we love.

Enjoy Retirement!