Austrotforum

EVOLUTION OF THE SULKY (3)....COLONIAL INGENUITY..

By the time my Grandfather had called it a day at the ripe old age of 20 in 1908 the drivers had descended from their lofty perches,and were situated at approximately the level that they occupy today.However,their feet were even further forward ,now being nearly level with the horse's stifles.Two or three factors now had their impact on this situation,and it will be up to you to decide which was the prime mover to the long shafted,narrow race sulky which has served us so well for nearly the last century.Tracks in the US,Europe and New Zealand were generally wide and never shorter than 800 metres in circumference,and field sizes seldom more than 15 runners.The bulk of tracks in Australia were constructed on showgrounds owned by local government or Show Societies on Lands Department "peppercorn" leases,and,due to the space occupied by exhibits of produce and animals plus other horse events,the racetrack seldom exceeded 600m and was more likely to be 4 to 500m,and seldom more than 12m wide.This,coupled with field sizes often exceeding 20 runners,was a recipe for tight racing..

Here is also where the method of starting races and handicapping the various runners began to exert an influence on design.Early handicapping was either on distance or time.The distance method was ridiculously hard with penalties up to 800m being dished out with monotonous regularity on the basis one lifetime win.It did not last,and neither should it have.Next up was time,with seconds behind the scratch horse being the impostFor example,No1..GO..No2...3 4 5..GO..No3...8 9 10..GO etc.Not quite as hopeless as 800m behind but given to confusion and,if the starter happened to be a punter,you could guess who was going to get the fly.Melbourne tote operator,proprietary trot and pony track owner,John Wren,is credited with the introduction of the standing start with 12 yard handicapping increments that took trotting all the way to its golden age under lights.The starting mechanism of bungee and straight out cord with release pins,wire cable pulleys and start lever was the invention of one Sutton McMillan,a top class trainer who stabled two streets from Harold Park.The combination of bungee and cord was fixed to the inside or outside running rail,with the release pins and cable attached to the starting lever or pedal inside the starters platform.The attachment points were from the front,(or "scratch" as it was known) and went back at 12 yard intervals to at least 120 yards behind.I saw trotters start from 120 at Harold Park and a respectable number start and win from 108.Legal Raider was one of these.At Londonderry (Richmond) 156 yards was not able to stop Attract or Golden Moments from getting the cash and a good whack from the betting ring.For the start to be effected,the starter would call the runners up to their respective marks,and,when they were standing to his satisfaction,he would pull the lever or depress the pedal and the field would be away.The system was a simple,fair and efficient method of starting a race,and,if maintained on a meeting to meeting basis,was failure proof.The long shafts on the sulky are required here as a safety issue because many fit and keyed up horses have a tendency to rear up when required to stand for much more than a couple of seconds.With a short sulky when the horse rears the sulky moves forward and may contact the hindquarters of the horse which might continue to then go up and over backwards,and crush the driver if he has not managed to get clear.It all happens quickly..Further with the long shafts,the wheels of the sulky(which is now narrow due to the large field sizes,small tracks and tight turns) are now back behind the travel of the hind feet to prevent the horse from hitting the wheels.Wheel hitting generally panics the horse,may cause it to break gait or or grab the bit and go regardless of a sulky and driver in front of it.It's the old story,"horses for courses" or "sulkies for tracks and starting methods".We went long and narrow,the Yanks just got wider..

Bibliography..Max Agnew,Greg Brown...The bulk of it,personal observations..conversations with old blokes...