Harness: Tarport Hap's maternal family has faded away over time

It is hard to win an argument about who is the greatest horse of all time. When the parameters of the debate tend to fall in the lines of how many years one has been following the sport, it is easy to understand why some focus on the last 10 years and others look further in time. The standards for which we measure the caliber of horses have changed over time, just as the surfaces, the equipment, and the physical appearance of our horses.

For me, it is necessary to go back nearly 50 years, not just to identify the greatest of all time, but to recall two spectacular fillies that debuted in 1974. They separated themselves from the rest and expectations were that they would to change the course of harness racing going forward. From the first crop of Most Happy Fella came Tarport Hap and Silk Stockings. Despite the many years of history to be written, I can't think of any two fillies by the same sire in the same year that had such an impact on the sport.

Where the pair stood in history is up for debate, but looking back from 2020, I would have expected Tarport Hap's immediate maternal family to have branched out over the years and given the sport numerous horses that were at least up to their level and beyond.

Tarport Hap’s dam, Tarport Cheer, has to rank up there with the greatest broodmares of all time. The daughter of Tar Heel had a long career and produced 10 fillies of her own, yet to my surprise, only her first foal by Meadow Skipper, named Tarport Mary Lou, was able to cultivate a family worth remembering. Her daughter, Rain Proof, by Abercrombie, would be mated with Storm Damage (a son of Bret Hanover who earned a reputation for being second to Niatross on numerous occasions) to produce the colt Call For Rain, a $22,000 yearling that would make history.

While nearly everyone would put trainer/driver Clint Galbraith's Niatross at the top of the GOAT argument, it seems few remember the accolades of Call For Rain, who was a giant of a horse in his own right.

A New York Sire Stakes performer predominantly during his juvenile season in 1986, Call For Rain would go on to capture the Breeders Crown for 3-year-olds in 1987 over pacesetter Run The Table and then would follow up that effort as a 4-year-old taking down pacesetting Jaguar Spur in the Aged Crown event. What is captivating about Call For Rain, looking back, was an incredible tenacity he showed while racing in what we would consider today compromised positions. One can argue that Clint Galbraith, who drove Call For Rain to both Crown victories as a driver/trainer, was at a disadvantage when competing against Hall of Famer John Campbell and Run The Table in the 1987 sophomore championship held at Pompano. Tactically, Campbell did everything right on that night and put Run The Table in position to win. But Call For Rain and Galbraith made up a significant amount of ground late to wear down the pacesetter.

In the 1988 Crown, Galbraith again had Call For Rain off the pace and this time Jaguar Spur and Richard Stillings would back the half down to a very soft 58 fraction. This left Call For Rain tracking dull cover as the pace picked up for the final half. While Call For Rain rallied wide on the backstretch, he still didn’t look to have a shot of victory with Jaguar Spur accelerating. Call For Rain and Galbraith looked beaten in the late stages, but still refused to lose. In both Crown victories, Call For Rain rallied into faster final halves for the victory and wore down horses that were clearly best-in-class caliber at the time.

Call For Rain was one of only three horses by Storm Damage to earn $1 million during their careers and was the fastest, taking a 1:49 3/5 record at The Red Mile.

It's that 1:49 3/5 record that sticks out since it was taken in 1988. The 1:50 barrier continues to be shattered in this day and age, but in 1988 it meant something and was clearly special as well for Galbraith, who authored the first sub-1:50 performer in Niatross some eight years earlier.

It's hard to believe looking back some 32 years that few from this maternal family would ever get close to breaking that barrier. Only in recent years have a few with maternal roots, dating back to Tarport Cheer, reached prominence on a grand scale.

Looking at Tarport Cheer's production, and more specifically at her first two daughters by Most Happy Fella, Tarport Hap and Tarport Crystal, it could be easier to understand what happened. Tarport Hap died tragically before ever becoming a broodmare and Tarport Crystal had but one foal to her credit.

That would leave the task of carrying on the line to perhaps less accomplished racehorses with quality bloodlines. That Laugh A Day, a full sister to Tarport Hap, would arrive 10 years later and sell for a $625,000 record price tag in 1983, had to give those expecting further greatness from this mare hope for the future.

It did not.

Three years later, Tarport Cheer produced a filly in her second mating with Albatross that proved to be her richest foal in the $869K-winning Cheery Hello. In 1989, Cheery Hello swept the field to capture the Breeders Crown 3-year-old filly pace, giving the maternal family its third straight year of glory. Once a broodmare, Cheery Hello was unable to produce a foal that would match or exceed her talent.

It was clear in the late 80's, when races weren’t going at the speeds we see today, that Tarport Cheer’s family had the grit and determination to overcome obstacles, as all three of those Crown victories suggest. At the same time, the group as a whole did not seem to evolve to the level of today’s Standardbred at the extreme nature of racing four fast quarters in succession.

A year after Cheery Hello, Tarport Cheer's connections appeared to take a stab towards the future and skip a couple of generations to get there. By breeding the mare to Nihilator, they theoretically bred an older mare to a horse that had transitioned the Albatross line dramatically, at least on the racetrack. While Cheerful Earful proved an unsuccessful racehorse, her seventh foal and first filly by Artsplace would prove to be the only extension that would drive this family near the 1:50 plateau. Advantest has produced 1:50 speed, with Kenneth J at $1.5 million her top earner and Percy Blue Chip, the 2018 3-year-old filly Breeders Crown upsetter, to her credit.

It is a family rich in history, while at the same time mired in its inability to pass on the characteristics needed to prosper in an era that requires a different type of horse.