Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Personality of the Month
for February 2006

Dick Buxton

Horseman Dick Buxton is probably best remembered for his partnership with the mighty trotter Senator Frost--a horse not widely know to many harness racing fans today--but one which helped to establish Buxton as a trotting master half a century ago.

The Mount Vernon, Ohio native is also widely know for having an intregal piece of harness racing equipment named after him--the "buxton" or breastplate.

Born December 13, 1928, Dick Buxton had a lifetime of harness racing experience, and in fact, apprenticed under the watchful eye of legendary horseman Curly Smart.

Dick Buxton

Once on his own, Buxton trained for four decades at the Champaign County Fairgrounds in Urbana, Ohio, but competed at racetracks throughout North America. He went on to drive 1,563 winners to over $4.1 million in purses, piloting some of the best including Bret Hanover and Killbuck Mary.

Buxton drove in his first Little Brown Jug in 1951 at age 23, finishing in the back of the pack with Repeat Direct, against the mighty Tar Heel, who scored a work-record winning effort that afternoon. Twenty-two years later Buxton scored a Jug heat victory behind Faraway Bay, a son of Race Time.

The Buxton Martingale
An avid fan of fox hunts as a boy, Buxton admired the hunter's breastplates, which attached to the girth between the front legs of the horse and ran around each shoulder, hooking to the saddle. Years later, in 1956, Buxton had a ornry filly named La Belle, who was given Dick problems while he was trying to break her. Up until that time, breastplates ran across the chest of the horse, attaching to the harness near the middle of the horse's flank, with a supporting strap across his withers (shoulders).

"I went to a harness maker named Frank Riley in Richwood, Ohio and told him I wanted him to make me one like the fox hunters wore," Buxton remembered. "This breastcollar not only holds the harness in place, but it also does not impede the shoulder action of the horse, especially a trotter."

A few years later, a trainer at a Pompano Park tack shop asked the owner for a "Buxton martingale," and the man didn't know what he was talking about.

"Aime Choquette, Delvin Miller's second trainer was in there and he said, 'I know what this is,' and he showed them," Buxton said. "Supposedly there was a guy in there from Walsh Harness and he took the design back and soon Walsh began producing it. I never made a dime off the Buxton martingale, but I do think it is better for a horse--trotter or pacer."

SenatorFrost

Dick Buxton with the trotter Senator Frost

A Conditioning Master
Buxton was a firm believer in solid conditioning and often voiced his opinion that most horses were "undertrained."

"The biggest problem we have today is with horses bleeding," Buxton said in a 1990 interview. "I think they bleed because their stamina is not built up wih adequate conditioning. I may be all wrong, but when horses were trained four, five and six heats years ago, we didn't have problems with bleeding."

Buxton went on to say that in 42 years of training horses he only had two bleeders.

"I think too many trainers use Lasix as a crutch," Buxton noted. "When I worked for Curly Smart we had a 2:00 pacer by Volomite named Bud Mite. He was stopping on the end of hsi miles so Curly had me work him two trips on the morning of the day he was to race. He was trained two trips in the morning, warmed upf our trips that night and still won. Horses don't get enough jog miles today. We see human athletes who jog five or ten miles a day and then there are racehorses who get joged three miles and put away. My horses jogged five miles a day once they made it to the races."

On Shoeing
"One of the most important things you can do is see how a horse is wearing his shoes," Buxton noted. "If you have a horse shod on Monday and by Thursday he's got the nail heads on one side of the shoe worn off, then the horse isn't landing properly. The horse will get sore or bad-gaited. Or, if you have a horse's hind shoe that is wearing thin the toe but not on the side of the shoe, you might have a hock problem or you might haave a horse whose hind angle is too high."

"I start my colts in a flat shoe behind and don't use swedges until we're around 2:20, depending on the horse. I have the blacksmith grind down the swedges a bit so that their stopping action isn't as severe on a young horse's bones and ligaments behind.

NikeHanover

Dick Buxton with Nike Hanover

On Training
"Trial and error is part of training horses," Buxton said. "You have to try things to see what works. Curly Smat used to tell me that if a horse is going wrong, don't go another trip with him until you make a change. That is, you change the bridle or the bit or you take him to the blacksmith shop before you train him again. Make an immediate change. It doesn't do any good to train a horse three trips knowing the horse isn't right."

"I remember when Rodney was going for a time trial for Big Shively years ago. Bi took him to the blacksmith's shop after each of his three warm-up trips. Rodney trotted in 1:57.2, making him the second-fastest trotting stallion in history behind Spencer Scott, who had trotted in 1:57.1. Shively had told me 'there's no trick to shoeing. Just keep trying different things until the horse sounds right to you on the track.' I often like to have someone else jog or train a horse, because then I get a different perspective than if I was sitting behind him. That can be valuable."

"When I trained at Delaware with Curly Smart we would jog the horses five miles, then bring them in and the grooms would towel them off and turn them loose in their stalls and gradually water them out. Curly told me he had less problems if he let the horse dry out naturally, because ifa horse jogs fivemiles in the winter time he really isn't hot on the inside. Turning them loose was much better than having a horse stand in crossties with two or three blankets on him and all that steam trapped under the blankets. Then you'd wind up with a wet blanket and a cold horse. It's much more important to water the horse out properly--giving him five or six swallows of water every 10 to 15 minutes until he shows no interest in drinking."

On Horses

"I trained Senator Frost to 2:20 as a two-year-old and he sored up. Wayne Galvin and Ray Foster owned him, and Galvin believed that any colt who didn't make it at two was automatically a gelding for the next year. When he was castrated, they found that his testicle cords were all black and maybe that's what caused him to be sore, but I knew the next spring that he would be a top horse. One day I was training at Urbana and I yelled to some guys: 'be at Lexington this fall and watch me win the Kentucky Futurity with this one.' We almost got the job done, too. In the first heat, I made the top juts past the halfand went to trot in 1:59.1 after leaving from the seven-hole. He got beat the second and third trips by Emily's Pride--he just got tired."

"The next year I won the final of the American Trotting Classic at Hollywood Park. Charming Barbara was the only other horse in the field. I sent Senator Frost down the pike that day and Billy Haugton told me afterwards: 'When we got to the half in :58.4, I thought you were cutting out a great mile for Charming Barbara.' But Senator Frost won in 1:57.3, and I know he could have easily beaten Greyhound's 1:57.1 race record for geldings if I had gotten after him."

"Sophia Hanover (dam of Steve Lobell) probably had the worse feet of any horse I ever trained, but she was game! She had quarter cracks and would often warm-up on the run but would be all trot behind the gate."

"Killbuck Mary was another very game mare," Buxton said. "I put egg-bar shoes on her behind because she was sickle-hocked, and that shoe gave her more support. We had some great races against Delmonica Hanover and beat her on numerous occasions. They raced against each other in stakes at two and three, and when the were both aged mares they raced against each other in Italy."

On People & Horses
"In 1950, Johnny Simpson had Quilla Hanover at Delaware, and wantved to get a race in her on a half-mile track before the Jug. She was entered in a free for all pace at Marysville, Ohio and I was named to drive her. I was only 21 and she was a big, snaky-going mare. She'd bear in on the turns and hit the hub-rail and bear out in the stretches and just about hit the outside fence. But I won all three heats with her, and Johnny went on to be 4-2-3 in the Jug with her."

"In 1951 Harry Pownall came to me during the Grand Circuit meeting at Toledo and asked if I would drive Florican. He told me not to let the horse get his head under the starting gate. Sure enough, we went behind the gate and Florican had his head so low that the overcheck was under his mane. But that night we beat Star's Pride, Demon Hanover, Silver Riddle, Lord Steward and other top trotters."

"In 1964 I was stabled at the old Fred Egan barn in the first turn at Lexington and Frank Ervin was warming up Bret Hanover, who was two. There was a band on the outside fo the traack and Frank thought the colt could go past it without a problem. But Bret shied to the left and went over the hub rail. Frank got dumped and Bret ran through the centerfield to where I was standing and I caught him. Twenty minutes later Tom Eaton came over and said, 'Frank wants to see you.' Frank was pretty banged up and said, 'I want you to drive this colt.' To which I replied, 'you don't want to start him after that, do you?' 'sure, he's all right,' Frank said. 'just take it easy with him.' I think I was more nervous than Bret behind the gate because I knew he was something special. But he won easy in 2:04.2, with his last quarter in :29.2, just jiggy-jogging. The next week Frank asked me to drive Bret again and he won again with a last quarter in :29. He was just tons the best. When I saw Curly Smart soon after the race I told him that I had just driven the greatest horse ever to look through a bridle. 'what are you talking about, boy?' he growled at me. But Curly and everyone else would soon know all about Bret Hanover."

2006 Personality Archives
January: Walter Paisley