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June 22, 2009

Rick Teverbaugh: Missing a perfect champion

Almost everything was positive at Hoosier Park Saturday afternoon for the Dan Patch Invitational.

The crowd was great. It appeared that the grandstand was full inside the air conditioning, but there were also a great many fans who ventured out onto The Yard to brave the heat and enjoy the sun.

The fans were treated to an extraordinary card of racing. Through seven races, seven drivers had visited the winner’s circle.

Bettors didn’t have a bad day either.

A third of the winning horses in the first nine races had double-figure payoffs. Then on Race 11, Theory’s Hero, driven by Dan Shetler, paid $93 for a $2 win ticket.

The only time any sadness crossed my mind was at Race 12, the Gregg Haston Memorial Invitational. Brad Hanners, who would later win the $200,000 Dan Patch, won the Haston behind Freddyscooter. But that wasn’t the sad part.

The sadness came because the yearly running of this race reminds me of Hoosier Park’s first winner, first driving champ and first training champ, Gregg Haston. Haston was killed in 1996 in an auto accident.

Haston was absolutely perfect as the first Hoosier Park champion. He was accessible and likable. He had time for the fans and truly enjoyed being a central character and one of the faces of Indiana’s first pari-mutuel season.

He has been missed each and every season since the accident. I will miss him each and every season down the road.

Let’s hope that the legislators in this state will make wise decisions to help the casino and the track survive some very unhealthy economic times. It seems that they are willing to make allowances to help keep Conseco Fieldhouse and the Indiana Pacers in operation.

But I contend that the pacers, not to mention the trotters and the thoroughbreds, we have racing at Hoosier Park are just as vital to us in this area as the Indiana Pacers are to Indianapolis.

Congrats to Mister Big on his win in the 16th running of the Dan Patch Invitational. His time of 1:49.2 was just one second off the track record set by 1998 Dan Patch winner Pacific Fella.

It is also, I believe, the third quickest time ever posted at the Anderson track. Green River Gorge had a time of 1:49.1 in 2008.

Race fans should also mark their schedules for July 11, the final day of standardbred racing at Hoosier Park this season. That will be the richest day of the season in terms of collective purses.

Then at the end of the racing, The Beach Boys will put on a concert on The Yard beginning at 8 p.m. It will be a great finale and will set the stage for the thoroughbreds to arrive.

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