Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

There have been thousands of followers, but Adios Boy was certainly leader.

In 1953, 23-year-old Howard Camden climbed into the sulky as a gifted colt attempted to do what no 2-year-old pacer had ever done: pace in 2:00 or faster. No freshman pacer had ever beaten 2:03-3/4 on a half mile track or 2:00.2 on a mile track. That year Adios Boy smashed both records and carved his niche in harness racing history.

Delvin Miller had purchased Adios in 1948 and stood him at a $300 fee. Cindy M.Jr. was 23 years old, but she'd been a fast mare on the track and had produced a good pacer. Miller thought she'd be fine for Adios, but he wasn't interested in a mare called Carrie Castle. She didn't have a record, and neither did her first four dams. He turned Carrie Castle down, but then relented at the owners request.

Both mares got in foal. Carrie Castle produced a colt while Cindy M.Jr. produced a filly. In the fall of 1952, they were yearlings ready to be broken, and Camden went to work breaking the yearling at the fairgrounds in Keller, Va. The colt, named Adios Boy, wasn't hard to break, but he was hard to get gaited.

"He would single-foot, rack and run sideways," recalled Camden. "I screwed his hobbles as tight as I could get them without chopping his legs off, but he didn't hit the pace until the first part of January."

When Adios Boy finally decided to pace, Camden could see immediately that he had a beautiful gait. But the colt got a bit too smart for his own good, and began pulling up near a drawgate in the first turn. Camden had two men stand there with brooms and swat the colt upside the head if he tried to duck out the gate.

"I'd seen Stanley Dancer do the same thing," said Camden. "After a couple times, Adios Boy smartened up and got the message."

The colt's gait was deceptive. Camden would intend to work a mile in 2:40 and find that his stopwatch read 2:30--"That's how easy he got over the ground."

Adios Boy had limited engagements as a 2-year-old. But Camden thought he had something special when he took him to Roosevelt Raceway in the spring. Someone else thought so, too.

"One day I'd worked Adios Boy in 2:08, and a guy came up to me afterwards and asked me what horse I just trained," said Camden. "I told him the colt's name and that he was a 2-year-old."

"Does J.S. Turner own him?" the man asked. When Camden nodded, the man said, "Well, he's a champion colt." Camden was intrigued. "I don't know you. What's your name?"

"Del Miller." Camden was stunned. He knew the name, but he'd never met the sport's hottest star. Miller had driven both the Hambletonian and Jug winners in 1950, and his stable was one of most powerful on the Grand Circuit.

All Camden could say was, "Well, I hope you're right, Mr. Miller."

Miller asked Camden if could sit behind Adios Boy when he trained again, and Camden happily agreed. Miller worked him in 2:15 and liked him even more. As Camden was leading the colt back to the barn, he overhead Miller tell his fellow horseman John Simpson that Adios Boy was a champion in the making.

The champion got off to a slow start. He jumped in his first race, then got sick, just enough so that Camden had to back off in his training. In his second start, the colt paced in 2:09 in finishing third. His next start came on June 30. Before the race, Camden told his wife, "We've got $10 between us. Put it on his nose."

Camden sent Adios Boy to the front and never looked back. He had six lengths on the field as they turned into the stretch, and Camden started grabbing leather, taking his colt back. He still won easily, and Camden was "electrified" when the time was announced as a track record 2:04.2. At that time the fastest mile ever by a 2-year-old pacer on a half-mile track was 2:03-3/4, and that was set by Adios at Carthage, Ohio, in 1942.

"I couldn't believe it," said Camden. "People said it was a fluke. I heard it all over the track." But Adios Boy proved it wasn't a fluke when he came back two weeks later and won in 2:04.2 again.

Delvin Miller then approached Camden and asked, "Do you think he can set a world record?" Camden said, "Sure. I'm sitting on a second or two."

So he let the colt's hobbles out a bit for his next start in late July. Adios Boy ripped past the three-quarters in 1:32.2.

"I had plenty of horse left, and I was already counting my world record apples," recalled Camden. "It sure taught me a lesson. As we moved around the final turn, he started reaching for his hobbles, and they weren't there."

Camden felt it coming. Adios Boy went offstride. He recovered, lit back pacing, and hit the wire in 2:04.2 once again.

"For as fast as he was, Adios Boy wore a very tight hobble," said Camden. "I seem to recall that they were around 53 inches."

There were no mistakes in the next mile. Adios Boy was facing the unbeaten Red Flame, who parked him past the quarter, but was ultimately no match. The son of Adios hit the wire 8-1/2 ahead in 2:03. He was now the fastest juvenile in history on a half-miler. And it was only early August. Two weeks later Adios Boy proved that his mile was also no fluke as he won again in 2:03 despite a rough trip from the second tier.

Was there no stopping this colt? The only thing colt that could stop Adios Boy was Adios Boy himself. He got so rambunctious playing in his stall one day that he injured a hind ankle and missed his next start. Camden wanted to race him badly, but he erred on the side of caution. The colt was laid up for three weeks and came out of his first work mile absolutely sound. His first start back came against hardened older horses, and Adios Boy dispatched them with a 2:03.1 mile. He had now paced three miles faster than the world record, which had lasted a decade.

"He was just so phenomenal," marveled Camden. "He just drew away from them by several lengths." None of his exploits had escaped the notice of Delvin Miller, of course, and now the owner of Adios set his sights on seeing that Adios Boy became the first 2:00 2-year-old ever. He spoke to Camden about taking the youngster to Lexington, but Camden deferred to the owner's wishes. Miller offered to pay all of the expenses to take Adios Boy to Lexington and to pay for Camden to come to Lexington to drive him in the time trial. J.S.

In mid-September, Camden shipped the horse to Miller, who trained Adios Boy a perfunctory trip at Delaware, Ohio. He then sent him south to Lexington. Now Miller was ready to give Adios Boy the prep he felt was necessary to go where no 2-year-old pacer had ever gone before. Miller sent Adios Boy through a mile in 2:01.1, final half in 57.2. It was an astonishing mile, but Miller had something on his mind.

After that workout, he called Camden and asked, "How about if we put full swedges on the colt and let his hobbles out? I think it will help him, Howard. And I brushed him pretty good and I think we can take off his knee and tendon boots."

Camden finally said, "I'm gonna go with you because you're a smarter man than I am, but I'm a bit hesitant about taking off the knee boots."

Miller understood, but felt that Adios Boy wouldn't need knee boots on a mile track. He told Camden the colt was ready and he should get on a plane.

"Del paid for the airfare for my wife and I to fly from Newark to Lexington, and he paid for my room at the Campbell House in Lexington," said Camden.

Adios Boy's date with destiny came on Saturday, Oct. 3. He was programmed to beat his record of 2:03, but everyone knew what the real goal was. Knight Dream had paced in 2:00.2 in 1947, and Jimmy Creed had paced in 2:00-1/4 three years earlier. Now Adios Boy was trying to pace right into 2:00 territory.

"I'll admit that I was nervous," said Camden, "but I looked over and saw that I had Del Miller driving a prompter. How much more talent did a rookie like me need? I was worried about the short score, because I didn't think Adios Boy would pick up enough speed, but, as usual, Del was right."

Adios Boy picked up speed quickly and got to the quarter in 30 seconds. He whirled down to the half in 59 seconds. Camden took a hold of his colt during the third quarter. That panel was covered in 29.3.

"Go on with him!" Miller shouted from his cart behind the prompter. "I was being conservative," admitted Camden. "I was just hoping to beat 2:00."

Adios Boy seemed to falter a bit in the stretch. As they passed the tunnel, a famous landmark some 150 yards before the wire, Camden said,

"I reached up and nailed Adios Boy about three times with the whip. He was came on like a real champion. He was phenomenal from there to the wire. He was pacing fastest of all that last 100 yards."

Adios Boy hit the wire in 1:58.3, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Camden was mobbed by horsemen offering congratulations. The biggest names in the sport were happy to shake the hand of the 23-year-old kid from Virginia. Before the time trial, Camden thought that a mile in the 1:59 to 2:00 range was the most he could hope for, but he believes now that if he had driven Adios Boy more aggressively, he might have paced in 1:57 and a tick.

Camden took the conquering hero back to Yonkers where he made a break in the first turn. Camden chuckled and admitted, "I blame myself for that. I forgot to take the hobbles back up after we'd let them out at Lexington."

That was the end of Adios Boy's record-breaking season.

As a 3-year-old, Adios Boy was unstaked, and he often had to fight it out in against the best free-for-allers in the country. This was virtually taboo with a young horse in that era, but Adios Boy wasn't just another horse. He may not have been a free-for-all lion, but he was lionhearted and more than held his own. In his third start, he was just nosed out finishing second in the National Pacing Derby at Roosevelt. The winner, Prince Adios, and the third-place horse, Philip Scott, were both 6-year-olds.

Adios Harry won the Jug that year, while Adios Boy had to sit it out, because he wasn't eligible. Whenever the two sons of Adios met on the track, Adios Boy got home first. At the end of the year, Adios Boy was voted the champion 3-year-old pacer.

Camden was returned Adios Boy to the races as a 5-year-old in 1956, and trained him one morning in 2:08 at Roosevelt. By the time the horse got back to the barn, Adios Boy couldn't walk.

Camden quickly summoned the track veterinarian. He looked at Camden and said, "I hate to tell you this, Howard, but I think the horse is done." When Adios Boy cooled out, however, he seemed sound. But when he was jogged, once again he went lame. The problem was a blood clot in his left hind leg. Surgery later at the University of Pennsylvania proved unsuccessful.

Once he retired with earnings of $129,859 Adios Boy didn't bred many mares and, thus, never had any lasting impact as a stallion. His highest-profile horse was Country Don, the third-best pacer of his class in 1963 behind Overtrick and Meadow Skipper. Adios Boy's best daughter was Laker, a winner of a quarter-million back in the 1970s for the late Eldon Harner. She is the granddam of Trump Casino p,4,1:49.1 ($557,712).

Adios Boy also sired the dam of the '79 Jug heat winner Tijuana Taxi. After Adios Boy, Camden campaigned the free-for-all trotter Silver Song, and in the 1980s he trained the $1.1 million winner Caramore.