Racing in Goshen...

Racing in Goshen.... . It traces to the 1770s when local citizens raced their horse down the village's broad Main Street. The increasing popularity of this informal competition created the need for race tracks, the first of which was Fiddler's Green, readied in 1781 for running horses., In 1838 however, trotting race's under saddle were conducted down a straightaway that later would become the homestretch of Historic Track. , In addition to being America's oldest active trotting track, Historic Track was the first half-miler to become part of the prestigious Grand Circuit and the first half-mile track to host a sub-two-minute mile. It also has the distinction of being the only sporting facility in the nation to be designated a Registered National Historic Landmark. , This entrance is referred to as the Hall of Fame Gate because of its proximity to the Trotting Horse Museum/Hall of Fame of the Trotter. Constructed as a stable in 1913 by J. Howard Ford, owner of Stony Ford Farm, it was sold in 1919 to William H. Cane, who named it the Good Time Stable. Cane was responsible for bringing the world famous trotting race, The Hambletonian Stake, to Goshen's mile track, Good Time Park (near the site of Fiddler's Green)., In 1929, Walter Cox, the trainer for Cane, had won the $60,000 Hambletonian Stake in Lexington, Kentucky. The victory inspired Cane to successfully bid to move the Hambletonian to “the cradle of the trotter” where it remained a Goshen tradition from 1930-1956., The Good Time Stable building was purchased by a group of Standardbred owners and breeders, led by E. Roland Harriman, who in 1951 established the Trotting Horse Museum as a tribute to the international sport of harness racing and the Standardbred.