GOSHEN — Brian Connor turns his chestnut mare around on the course, and suddenly she’s no longer trotting. She progresses into a gallop, building up to a speed of 26 miles per hour, shaking her driver’s seat and sending tiny gravel rocks flying towards his face. It’s just past 9 a.m. on July 4 and the grandstand is empty, but Connor, who has run this track so many times, is picturing it as if it’s full.
As he makes the turn for what will be the final stretch once the races of Great American Weekend begin later in the afternoon, Connor remembers his first race at Goshen Historic Track. He was 18 years old, an amateur, when his horse broke stride at the very beginning and never had a chance. As he drew closer to the crowd, the young driver was showered with soaring applause.
“They were cheering just as hard for me as they were for the winner,” Connor said. “That’s what kind of makes it special.”
Since then, Connor, 37, has gotten older, and so too has his hometown racing barracks. But through efforts to revitalize the track and energize a new generation of equine enthusiasts, Connor can always have the anticipation and wide sunglass-shaded eyes that his teenage self once felt every time he competes at Goshen.
Connor Stable, situated off the corner of the track, is a narrow corridor with 15 horses from black to dapple gray who stick their necks out over their gates to sniff their surroundings. A majority of the workers in this stable on Thursday morning hail from the same lineage. Each horse that trots out to train feels the love from more than one Connor before running.
“We pull it together as a family with a little bit of help,” said Chuck Connor, Brian’s father.
Chuck and wife Janice own the business. Brian and Chuck drive horses. Janice is the bookkeeper for the business and a caretaker of the horses. Brian’s sister, Jenn, has a full-time job but helps out when she can.
To understand why Goshen can build an entire holiday weekend from horse racing and not include gambling to lure an audience, travel back nearly two years ago. Brian was on a golf course in Warwick when he received the call.
He asked his cousin on the other end to repeat what he’d just been told.
“There’s a fire at the barn.”
Brian hopped in his Chevy 2500 extended cab and pointed it toward Goshen. Jenn had just pulled into her driveway when she answered the same phone call. From the turnpike, she saw the flames and smoke rising into the sky. She started hyperventilating. Brian took more backroads than he probably should have with such a large vehicle.
“It was pretty sickening to stand on the other side and watch 100 years of history just go up in smoke,” Brian said.
The horses were saved, in large part thanks to a community that rushed over from places like the nearby restaurant, Delancey’s, and football practice to keep the animals from burning down with the structure. The July 4 banners hung from the barn as it slowly fell apart.
There are still signs of the trauma from that day in 2017. Construction is wrapping up around the race track to replace what was lost. Even today, Brian and Jenn speak with emotion from almost losing everything. A community filled with people who cared enough to help carried them through that day. Many of those same faces will dot the rows of supporters this weekend.
Though the type of people who visit at Goshen Historic Track is not as uniform as the clientele of most other tracks around the state, Jenn is still intent on encouraging more youth to be involved. She hosts camps later this month that teach kids not only how to drive, but introduce them to every part of the equine business. Jenn said that part of the joy of watching harness racing, as opposed to the much more popularized thoroughbred racing, is in its inclusivity.
“They can see that they can do it as an amateur. They can do it as a professional. There’s no weight limit,” Jenn said.
That, of course, contrasts with becoming a jockey, a role that a swath of the U.S. population is excluded from simply by genetics.
During Thursday’s County Fair Races, on an afternoon in which the Connors were far from the only family to enjoy a day at the track, children accompanied parents and grandparents at the 38th running of an event that produces equal parts excitement and nostalgia.
Horse racing is a sport that turns kids into adults and adults into kids. Some children grow up around the majestic beasts while the older generation keeps driving around the oval to feel young again.
The Connor family was asked which horse they’d prefer to take a picture with, and Janice with child-like exuberance, said, “Winston!” The alternate name for this horse is Fun Haver, a name Jenn settled on because her other brother, Chris, used to say that when he grew up, his dream occupation was “fun haver.”
As Janice approached Winston, she rubbed his coat as if it was the first time she laid eyes on him.
“He’s so big and impressive looking,” Janice said.
“If only he had won races,” Brian quipped.
Not every horse Brian drives can be a winner, but it doesn’t mean he won’t have fun doing it.