‘Ain’t They Pretty’

Numa Snyder is Pennsylvania’s ultimate racing fan

By Kimberly Rinker

Numa Snyder grew up with a passion for two things—music and horses. Though he has never owned a horse, Snyder’s lifelong fascination with and love of harness racing transformed into a dedication that has been rivaled only by his musical talents.

Born in Lehighton, Pa., in 1920, Snyder was first introduced to harness racing when his father took him to the local county fair.

“I remember my dad holding my hand as we watched the races at the Lehighton fairgrounds, and I can still hear him saying-as a field of trotters came off the turn—‘Gol’darn, ain’t they pretty!’” Snyder recalled with enthusiasm.

Snyder never forgot those summer days he spent at the fairs with his father, even as he grew up, studied classical violin and piano, and obtained a Master’s degree in music from Penn State University. During his college days, he’d often sneak out in between classes to run to the nearest half-mile fair oval.

“My dad wasn’t a trained musician, but he played the violin a little bit when I was a kid, so it seemed natural for me to pick it up and pursue it,” Snyder said. “I was 8 years old when I started taking lessons. The more I played it, the more I liked it.”

Even after he married and had two sons, began serving as first-chair violinist for the Allentown and Scranton, Pa., symphonies, and was teaching music at the local schools, his passion for harness racing never waned. In the summers, while he was playing piano at Pocono resort towns, his thoughts often turned to the local trot races.

“I would go to the fair just to see the harness racing. I just always enjoyed it so much,” Snyder said. “There seems to be such a discipline to the harness racing sport that you don’t find with the galloping horses. Harness horses are trained to trot or pace, not just to gallop. The beauty of the discipline—the swaying motion of the pacer—is what is especially beautiful to me. I just admire the ability of the horse to do that, and I also admire the ability of the person who trains the horse to do that.”

Typically, Snyder could be found sitting in the grandstand of a dusty Pennsylvania fairground oval on a humid summer day, pen and notebook in hand. Many horsemen assumed Snyder was there covering the races for a local newspaper.

But Snyder wasn’t working for any news outlet. Instead, between teaching and performing classical music, he was charting the races and compiling trainer, driver and horse statistics in a detailed fashion that would rival any well-trained raceway program director. He was doing this years before the USTA began compiling these statistics.

Ralph Jones, former deputy executive secretary for the Pennsylvania Harness Racing Commission, first spotted Snyder at the Lycoming County Fair in the mid-1970s.

“Nobody seemed to know who this guy was or what he was doing,” Jones recalled. “We first thought he was a reporter, because he would sit up in the grandstands at all of these fairs and take notes. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me and I went up and talked to him.”

Jones struck up a friendship with Snyder that continues today.

“Next thing I know, I’m going to dinner with Ralph and his wife Ginger, and we’re talking and talking and talking about racing,” Snyder said. “We talked nonstop about harness racing, and we still do. I think Ralph would be interested in anyone who was interested in harness racing—he’s just that passionate about the sport.”

Snyder soon turned his attention to the barn area, becoming friends with owners, drivers and trainers. He couldn’t get enough information and inquired of all he met—from caretakers to the photo finish people.

“Numa struck up a lot of good friendships all over the backsides of these tracks, and everybody knows who he is now,” Jones said. “He’s really well liked, and is part of the harness racing family in Pennsylvania.”

“The people I met who were involved in harness racing—the owners, trainers and drivers—were more than gracious in helping me to learn about the sport,” Snyder added. “After the fairs began printing the lines of the horses in their programs, I really didn’t need to keep my own stats anymore. Everything I wanted was already in the program. When I’d go to the races, I’d focus on a particular horse, instead of watching all of the horses in a particular race. I enjoy studying one horse throughout a race.

 ”I feel like I know enough about the races to really enjoy them, even though they’re much different today than they were years ago. I was around when the horses would go three heats, and often times, they’d have three, four or even five recalls for the horses to start together. There were no starting gates in those days, and it was up to the starter to get them all lined up properly.”

The 87-year-old Snyder still visits a limited number of fairs each summer, including Gratz, Bloomsburg and Honesdale.

“I’m not as mobile as I used to be, so I tend to stick closer to home now,” Snyder said with a chuckle. “I haven’t lost interest in racing, and I still enjoy visiting with all of the horse people, and they seem to still enjoy seeing me.”

Now retired from teaching and performing, Snyder hosts his own radio show, live from Stroudsburg, every Sunday from noon until 7 p.m. on WESS. His program consists of two segments—the first three hours is dedicated to big band nostalgia, and is entitled “Down Memory Lane.” The second segment, “Concert and Classical,” offers listeners four hours of classical compositions.

“I had the advantage of playing with adults performers when I was a kid,” Snyder said. “I had a lot of opportunities that other kids didn’t have back in those days. Radio was a big deal back then, and musicians were highly regarded. Listening to the radio was just part of what we did—it was our life.

“I went to college to study music, but I really wanted to have my own big band. There came a time when I had to make a decision whether to teach or be a musician, and I decided to teach. Having my own radio program now, where I can introduce people to various kinds of music, kind of takes me back to those earlier days.”

Though Snyder’s passion for music and his radio program are evident in his voice, his focus soon returns to harness racing once again.

“There were certain drivers over the years that I just loved to watch,” Snyder said. “Guys such as Roger Hammer—who’s very aggressive—he’s an interesting study. Sam Beegle drove to win, but he also took care of the horse, and wasn’t really hard on one.

“I especially like horses that come from behind, as opposed to horses that lead all the way around. It makes for a much more interesting race.”
And still, after a life that has been as rich and full as Snyder’s, there’s one quote that comes to mind as he watches a field of trotters turn for home at Bloomsburg:

“Gol’ darn, ain’t they pretty!”

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*This feature was originally published in Hoof Beats, August 2007

Illinois-Bred Survives Bout with West Nile Virus

By Kimberly A. Rinker

Horsewoman Carol Longo is adamant when it comes to vaccinating her horses for the deadly West Nile vaccine—and with good reason. One of Carol’s favorite Standardbreds, the pacer Carl’s Big Mac, survived a near-fatal bout with West Nile and is now miraculously back racing.

Carol and husband trainer-driver Gerald Longo share a 25-acre farm located only three minutes from Balmoral Park in Crete, Illinois. Their farm includes a half-mile training track, an 18-stall barn, their home and various outbuildings.

The Longos originally acquired Carl’s Big Mac—an Illinois-bred son of Armbro MacKintosh out of the Genghis Khan mare Khanair—from Hampton, Minnesota owners Carl and Frances Robeson in 2001.

“The Robesons contacted us to see if we’d race Carl for them here,” Carol said. “Carl immediately became my favorite, he’s got personality plus.”

The medium sized pacer has earned $86,662 lifetime—with $62,506 and a mark of 1:50.3 earned while in Carol’s care. That first season he was third in the 2001 Dan Patch consolation on Super Night.

The Longos had every intention of racing Carl’s Big Mac the following year again in the Dan Patch on Super Night. That day, September 14, 2002, the then five-year-old gelding didn’t eat his lunch and Carol became concerned.

“He was in to go in the Dan Patch consolation that night,” Carol recalled. “He had been fine that morning, but I noticed he hadn’t cleaned up his feed tub for lunch, so I took his temperature, and it was pushing 104. Of course we had to scratch him from the race. We continued to monitor his temperature and gave him some Banamine.”

Carol went up to her house for about an hour to have some supper and returned later to check on the horse.

“When I came back he was down in the stall,” Carol said. “And I mean down. He had no heartbeat, no breath, nothing. I started jumping up and down on his rib cage and I still got no response. Then I started shaking his halter and he finally opened his eyes and looked up at me as if to say, ‘gee lady, can’t a guy even die around here in peace?’”

Carol finally was able to get the stricken pacer to stand and began walking him. She continued walking him until 3 a.m. when he collapsed again in the middle of a big paddock.

“We called Dr.Larry Leininger early the next morning and he came to the farm and told us he thought the horse had West Nile Virus. Carl’s temperature at that time was 106. The vet gave him a DMSO jug but the horse never got up.”

Dr. Leininger—a veterinarian based in Crown Point, Indiana—came routinely every day, morning and evening for the next 18 days, but still the horse never got up. His temperature hovered right around 106 degrees and a blood test confirmed that Carl’s Big Mac did indeed have West Nile Virus.

“We had to turn him over every three hours,” Carol said. “At times he would kind of sit up and ask for his dinner too. That’s one thing about Carl—throughout this ordeal his appetite never waned.”

“I treated the horse with DMSO, Banamine and some Genocine,” Dr. Leininger noted. “Carl’s Big Mac had the most severe case of West Nile disease I had ever observed in a Standardbred. I’d seen mild to moderate symptoms in other breeds of horses, but this horse was just a real trooper. It’s amazing that’s he’s made it back to the races. At the time I thought he’d be lucky just to be a nice pasture horse.”

“Nobody slept in the house at all,” Carol said. “My nephew Joey built a tent over the horse while he was in the paddock, and we had put eight inches of shavings on the ground with coolers over those. Despite all we did to make him comfortable and to give him a nice soft surface to lay on, he still got severe bed sores. His elbows were roughed up, and he had tears on his stifles and little scrapes here and there. His temperature stayed up the whole time, and all the while the vet treated him with masses of antibiotics to fight off pneumonia.”

Finally, after 18 days, Carl’s Big Mac’s temperature came down to 103 degrees.

“We really felt that he needed to stand at that point, and there were lots of horsemen that came over and helped with him,” Carol said. “Balmoral sent over their big scooper and we were able to move him into our big barn arena, that is 104 by 96 feet. Charlie Wolf sent over a sling that they use for downed cows and we were able to lift Carl up using a tractor. It took eight people to get the horse on his feet, but he made it through the use of this harness.”

“He stood up for five minutes, but was very weak and had to lay back down after that,” Carol said.

The Longos and friends and family repeated this process for the next three months, and it wasn’t until December 15 that Carol returned to the comfort of her own bed for the first time since Super Night in mid-September.

“I had slept in the barn with this horse every night since he had gotten sick,” Carol said. “This horse is such an intelligent animal, and there was no way that I was going to leave him out there all alone. I wanted him to know that we were all pulling for him.”

Little by little, the amount of time that Carl’s Big Mac was able to stand was increased and by March of 2003 he began jogging again.

“I took things very slow with him,” Carol recalled. “We just took baby steps in everything we did. By September of 2003 he began training again, wearing the hobbles. And this Spring he qualified at Balmoral with Brent Holland.”

The April 14 qualifier at the Crete oval was an emotional moment for all who had been connected or close to Carl’s Big Mac, as he paced to a 1:59.2 clocking.

“Just to see him out there really tugged at my heart,” Carol said. “There weren’t too many dry eyes around us. We were all crying and laughing at the same time. To know what this horse had been through and to see him out there on the track again was just too much.”

“He really is an amazing animal,” Dr. Leininger added. “The biggest problem is not with the disease as much as it is that the horse was down for such a long time. The muscle tone just goes, and the horse’s coordination goes right along with it. There have been some West Nile horses who have continued to be good eaters throughout their bouts with the disease, but they had no will to get up or even try to stand or want to do anything the way this horse did. I don’t believe that there’s ever been another case of horse having this severe a case of West Nile Virus and surviving. Let alone to come back and be a competitive race horse.”

Carl’s Big Mack returned to the races on July 18 at Hawthorne, and while he failed to grab a check, paced in 1:55.4 with Andy Miller at the lines.

“Andy told me that he was just tickled pink with the horse’s performance,” Carol said. “He’s the type of horse that needs to get raced into shape, so we were quite happy with his effort in his first start back.”

“The horse is very fortunate to have such a strong support team and people who love him,” Dr. Leininger concluded. “His owners couldn’t have been more terrific. They were very patient, and very supportive of all of his lengthy treatments. In this day and age where racing is such a business, they deserve a lot of credit for seeing the horse through this.”

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*This story was originally published in the Aug.11, 2004 edition of Horsemen & Fair World Magazine*

Feb. 28, 2008

Tim Tetrick–Illinois’ favorite son–has come home. 

For two nights, at least.  Tetrick was in town this evening at lovely Maywood Park to meet fans, sign autographs and give away 1,000 bobblehead dolls. 

These yellow and green-clad dolls appeared to be a fan favorite, and are slated to be given out again on Saturday night, March 1, at Balmoral Park in Crete, Ill., the big sister  to Maywood’s half-mile oval.  Located just 35 miles south of Chicago, alongside highway 394, is where you’ll find the one-mile sprawl, located out in the wilds of the Prairie State, just about a 40-minute drive south of the Windy City, depending on the traffic.

The somewhat shy yet affable Tetrick offered this to fans:  “It’s great to be back home,” he said. “I was very lucky to have a great year in 2007, and I’m really flattered by all the folks who’ve come out here tonight.  I have to drive some horses Friday night at The Meadowlands (in New Jersey), but then I’ll be back to see you all again on Saturday, at Balmoral.”

 Tetrick, just 26, is known in global harness racing circles as the Prairie State’s Boy Wonder.  In 2007, this Geff, Ill. native set the racing world on fire, breaking records in both driving wins and earnings.

The sandy-haired lad won an average of 3.25 races per daily at 18 tracks from New York to Illinois and finished up 2007 with an all-time record of 1,188 wins and $18,342,367 in purse earnings.  He boasted a UDR of .388 last season as the leading driver at Chester, Pocono and Dover Downs, and was the youngest driver ever to score 3,000 wins (at Harrington on May 28).

Tetrick also became the youngest driver ever to win not one, but two, million dollar races–both with Southwind Lynx–the Art Rooney Pace at Yonkers on June 2 and The Meadowlands Pace on July 14.  He also set the record for the most wins in a single month, when he steered 121 winners to first place prizes in November.

Tim was spotlighted in Sports Illustrated, USA Today and New York Times features in 2007, bringing attention and accolades to himself and to harness racing.

Despite his success, Tim hasn’t changed. He grew up around the dusty bullring ovals of the Illinois county fair circuit, following his parents, Tom and Mary Alice Tetrick as they raced trotters and pacers during the hot summers.  

Tim wasn’t pampered and he didn’t have it easy–he carried water buckets, mucked stalls and bathed horses–just like other kids who grew up in harness racing families.  Early on, Tim’s folks established a strong work ethic and dedication to the Standardbred that has stuck with him, and that has carried him to some of the highest accomplishments bestowed upon a lucky few in harness racing.

Our sport could certainly use more young drivers like Tim Tetrick.  On a chilly and snowy Chicago night, he sat amicably signing autographs and handing out bobblehead dolls–miniature likenesses of himself that danced in the hands of fans and gamblers. 

More proof that when harness racing has heroes, the fans will come.