Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Odds On Racing's

Trainer of the Month
for February 2007

Frank Ervin

Frank Ervin trained many a great horse in his day but he is perhaps best remembered for his partnership with the great pacer, Bret Hanover. But there's much more to his story....read on....

Frank Ervin was born on August 12, 1904 in Pekin, Illinois, a busy littl grain and livestock center in the heart of the Prairie State. It was where a young man by the name of Abraham Lincoln had once argued law cases.

Frank Ervin & Bret Hanover

Frank was the son of William Frank Ervin, and there was never much of a question as to how Frank would earn a living. His trandfather, father and two uncles had all preceded him in the trotting sport. Frank's grandfather, Milton Ervin, had once traveled through Kansas in a covered wagon to homestead and acquire land in that state. No sooner had he gained possession of a parcel of land than he swapped it for a farm in Rich Hill, Missouri, and was not content until he had added a racetrack to his land. Farming was their way of life, but trotters were their passion. Milton's sons, when chores were finished, had little else to do for entertainment and as such, they learned the rough and tumble harness racing game on the farm track. Soon they were taking the horses to the Illinois and Missouri county fair circuits and the Ervin clan's fate, including the generation to follow, seemed sealed for eternity.

Frank's father, known by his middle name of Frank, was the most serious student of the harness horse and became the most succesfful horsemen of the three brothers. He campaigned hores all over the United States, hooking on with the early Grand Circuit when he ahd exceptional stock and touring the Midwestern fairs when he did not. The senior Ervin, though he traveled with his stable a great deal, established a pleasant home for his family in Sedalia, Missouri, and it was in that city that young Frank Ervin began grade school, sticking with it through grade eight.

The young Frank had been walking horses for many years and it was only natural that he would join his father in the racing business. On August 12, 1920, his 16th birthday, his dream came true and he was able to drive a horse named Black Diamond at the Charleston, Illinois fairgrounds.

"I beat a field of four in straight heats, and I was one proud youngsters," Frank recalled. "Of course, it's pretty doubtful that I could've lost with Black Diamond if I'd tried. He was a fine trotter and my father, who once won 26 in a row with him, had him honed about as sharp as you could get a horse."

Frank Ervin & Bret Hanover in California

Over the next few years Frank was able to drive five or six times a year, and it wasn't until 1922 that he began to take seriously to the sulky--after a serious accident ended his father's driving career and put Frank into the sulky full-time at Aurora, Illinois that summer. Surprisingly, the purses for the fairs at the time were not far off from many of today's fair purses of $1,000.

In 1929 his father retired completely from racing, and 25-year-old Frank Ervin took over with his father's stable. During this time, on October 23, 1929, he married Elizabeth Griffth in Greensburg, Kansas, and with the onslaught of the Great Depression, Frank found himself racing for purses of $50 or less, often having to drive the same horse five heats to nab this minscule amount of dollars.

Frank managed to survived through the Great Depression and well on into the WWII years of the early 1940s. However, by 1942 he was down to just three horses, racing on the California circuit of Pomona, Gold State Raceway, Stockton and Santa Rosa. But then the bottom fell out, he lost the horses, and had to borrow train fare to return to Sedalia, Missouri, a disenchanted 38-year-old horse trainer without a horse.

In the fall of 1943 he went to work for Henry Thomas in Orlando, Florida for a short stint, then was able to pick up a small stable of trotters and pacers, relocating to Lexington, Kentucky, and eventually Northfield Park just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. It was there he formed a partnership with friend Rupert "Rupe" Parker, which was to be ever-important in Frank's career.

          Frank Ervin asks Bret Hanover to bow before a Roosevelt crowd.

What happened next was like a storyline from a movie. Parker died suddenly from uremic poisoning and Frank was given his stable of racehorses, including Adios, Scotland's Comet, The Colonel's Lady, and Honor Bright--who became a season's champion and the largest money-winning two-year-old trotting filly of 1944.

Frank managed Adios for the next three seasons, taking him through seven wins and a pair of world-record 1:58.1 identical heats at The Red Mile. In 1945 he won in 1:57.1 at DuQuoin in a blazing time trial. Adios was sold in 1946 for a paltry $15,000 to movie magnate Harry Warner, much to the dismay of Frank.

The records began with Adios and continued, and continued and continued.    Scotland's Comet was a large trotter that smashed three world records on a half-mile track with Frank at the helm. Sampson Hanover paced in 1:58.1 sans hobbles and then in 1:59.3 at Delaware, Ohio's half-mile oval--becoming the first Standardbred to beat two minutes on a half-mile track in a race. Soon came Good Time, Our Time, Martha Doyle, Old Blue Hen, Princess Rodney, Childs Hanover, Phantom Lady, Good Counsel, Yankee Lass, Record Mat, Expression, Impish, Sprite Rodney and Timely Beauty--all world record holders through 1963. Unofficially, Frank Ervin won 3,000 to 4,000 races before the USTA even began keeping such records in 1939. Only the veteran Sanders Russell is believed to have won more heats than Frank did.

Frank also won every major stake, including the Little Brown Jug three times (wiht Bret Hanover in 1965 in 1:57; with Keystoner in 1953 in 2:03.3; and with Good Time in 1949 in 2:03.2). He also won the Hambletonian three times, with Diller Hanover in 1959 (trainer), with Kerry Way in 1966 (driver & trainer) and with Speedy Streak in 1967 (driver). He also won the Fox Stake, the Goshen Cup, the American National, the Geers, The Review Futurity, the Transylvania and the Greyhound, to mention just a few.

Other great horses trained by Ervin included HIgh Test, Play Bill, Timely Beauty and of course, Bret Hanover.

"I never saw a horse lead better than Bret," Frank recalled. "He had the hobbles on, real loose and he was as nonchalant a colt as you'll ever see. He was pulling the lead pony instead of the other way around, and when he came past me his head was straight as an arrow.   When they got ready to pull up, why he'd just slow to a walk and saunter off to the barn like nothing at all could stir him up."

Bret Hanover was purchased by Frank Ervin for $50,000 at the 1963 Harrisburg Sale and the rest is history. Whatever horses came before or since for Ervin, his name will forever be etched synonymously with the great "Bum" Bret Hanover.

Frank Ervin driving Bret Hanover at Delaware, Ohio