Harness Racing World Records Data (Videos of Races)
Time (TT – Time Trial)/ Horse/ Racetrack – Date
Trotting on a Mile Track
All Ages
1:50 2/5/ Tom Ridge/ DuQuoin – 9/4/04
1:50 4/5/ Victory Tilly/ The Meadowlands – 8/3/02
1:51 4/5/ Beat the Wheel/ The Meadowlands – 7/8/94
1.51 4/5/ Peaceful Way/ The Meadowlands – 7/23/05
2-Year-Olds
1:54 2/5/ Possess The Magic/ The Red Mile – 10/4/06
1:54 4/5/ Chocolatier/ The Red Mile – 10/6/05
1:55 3/5/ Kennans Max/ Springfield, Il – 8/14/03
3-Year-Olds
1:50 2/5/ Tom Ridge/ DuQuoin – 9/4/04
1:51 2/5/ Vivid Photo/ DuQuoin – 9/3/05
1:52/ Queen Serene/ The Red Mile – 10/6/06
4-Year-Olds
TT1:51/ Pine Chip,h/ The Red Mile – 10/1/94
1:51 3/5/ Corleone Kosmos/ The Meadowlands/ 7/22/06
1:51 4/5/ Beat the Wheel,m/ The Meadowlands – 7/8/94
1.51 4/5/ Peaceful Way/ The Meadowlands – 7/23/05
5-Year-Olds and Up
1:50 4/5/ Victory Tilly/ The Meadowlands – 8/3/02
1:51 1/5/ Varenne/ The Meadowlands – 7/28/01
1:52 1/5/ Moni Maker/ The Meadowlands – 8/5/00
1:52 1/5/ Peaceful Way/ The Red Mile – 10/7/06
Pacing on a Mile Track Records
All Age
TT1:46 1/5/ Cambest/ Springfield, IL – 8/16/93
1:48 / Color Me Best/ The Meadowlands – 7/3/99
1:48 / Life Source/ The Meadowlands – 7/3/04
1:48 / Eaton Road Kill/ The Meadowlands – 7/3/04
2-Year-Olds
1:49 4/5/ Rocknroll Hanover/ Woodbine – 9/4/04
1:50 1/5/ Home Bed Advantage/ Balmoral Park – 9/09/06
1:51/ Cabrini Hanover/ Woodbine – 9/4/04
3-Year-Olds
1:47 4/5/ American Ideal/ The Red Mile – 10/01/05
1:47 4/5/ My Boy David/ Springfield, Il – 8/12/06
1:49 2/5/ Incredible Tillie/ Springfield, Il – 8/17/00
1:49 2/5/ Rainbow Blue/ Woodbine – 8/21/04
4-Year-Olds
1:47 3/5/ Jeanna’s Beach Boy/Meadowlands – 1996
1:47 3/5/ Lis Mara/ The Meadowslands – 7/29/06
1:48 / Color Me Best/ The Meadowlands – 7/3/99
5-Year-Old and Up
TT1:46 1/5/ Cambest/ Springfield, IL – 8/16/93
1:46 4/5/ Holborn Hanover/ The Meadowlands – 8/5/06
1:48 4/5/ Frightening P/ The Meadowlands -6/21/02
MORE HARNESS RACING WORLD RECORDS
Some Harness Raising Speed and Track World Records May Never be Beaten
For as much as speed in harness racing has increased through the times, all-time speed barriers on both the pacing and trotting gaits have proven stubborn in recent years. All of that changed this past year when Always B Miki set a world record for pacers and three years ago when Sebastian K set a similarly improbable new record for trotters. While obliterating previous established records, both horses might have made it impossibly difficult for their own records to ever be beat.
Decades ago, the sign of a top pacer was if it could break the 2:00 mark. As time went on, and the sport became faster, 1:55 was the new standard and to be considered a top pacer today you probably would need to be able to go a mile in a sub-1:50 time. Much like when Roger Bannister broke the 4 minute mile in 1954, teenage girls are doing it today.
In recent years, as track records are broken seemingly daily and pacing a mile in 1:48 is no longer unheard of, horses have coalesced around what seemed to be the fastest physically possible times pacers and trotters were capable of. By breaking through the 1:46.4 log jam on the pacing side and 1:50 on the trotting side (on a two-turn track), Always B Miki and Sebastian K solidified themselves not only as superior against the clock, but against their competitors of the time.
Comparing the world records set by Always B Miki and Sebastian K to the other fastest race miles of all-time is easy. But to illustrate the sheer dominance of these two records, we can compare their record times against the other top miles set by horses in those racing years using a statistical measure called a standardized score. ( Also known as Z-Score)
The Z-Score measures each performance (or record time) relative to all other top times from a given period. In doing so, z-scores are comprised of not only a single metric (race time, in this case), but also by assessing that race time against others. Not to get too nerby, but you can think of z-scores in terms of a traditional bell curve, where 99 per cent of the scores will fall between values of 3.00 and -3.00, with those values representing complete opposite ends of the curve.
When Always B Miki paced his mile in 1:46 this past October at Red Mile, he rated an “off the charts” z-score of 3.02 when compared against the 20 fastest miles paced that year. Always B Miki was so dominant based on his 1:46 win that the next closest time of 1:47 was by Mel Mara and he was assigned a z-score of just 1.36; only slightly better than average when compared to all other top miles that year.
The conclusion we can come to from all of this is that times continue be as fast as ever (the average time by year of the fastest 20 races from 2013 through 2016 was always roughly 1:47.4), Always B Miki was able to establish himself with a lifetime mark that demonstrates an unquestionable superiority to any other pacing record holder; a truly unique animal.
As dominant as the Always B Miki world record is, the findings are even more profound on the trotting side.
Prior to Sebastian K, no trotter in history had ever broken the 1:50 barrier (excluding Enough Talk’s 1:49.3 mile that occurred on the one-turn track Colonial Downs). Even today’s super sire Muscle Hill could do no better than 1:50.1 in 2009.
But when Sebastian K shattered the 1:50 mark by his sensational 1:49 world record clocking at Pocono Downs in what would be the fastest night in harness racing history, he earned a z-score of 3.27. That z-score even exceeded that of his pacing record holding counterpart, Always B Miki.
The z-score of 3.27 was accomplished while being compared relative to the other fastest trotting times of that year, including a 1:50.2 mile from Father Patrick accomplished during the same race card as Sebastian K’s mile. For his 1:50.2 lifetime mark, Father Patrick rated only at a 0.69 z-score in the 2014 season, tied with Market Share and Cee Bee Yes. Archangel rated second best that year with a 1:50 mile.
The former mystical 1:50 trotting mark was broken the following year in 2015 although not with the dominance and authority that Sebastian K did it with. JL Cruze won in 1:49.4 good for z-score of 2.66; but still not close to the z-score of Sebastian K.
In 2016, Homicide Hunter earned a 2.75 z-score with a 1:50.1 seasonal mark, but that is largely attributed to a year in which only three trotters managed to go even sub 1:51.
More and more horses will be able to pace in 1:47 and trot in 1:50 as speed in harness racing continues to evolve, but the data suggests that it would take a horse of an all-time great caliber to eclipse these what seem to be unbreakable records. It might never happen.
Data in this column was used with the permission of, and is sourced from, the United States Trotting Association.
