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Show Page 14 Thursday, December 11, 1980 The Newspaper Bern Mm Is Alive and Well ie Heber Va Hey Story and Photos by David Hampshire "And it's a beautiful day for racing here at Wasatch Downs. A little muddy, maybe . A little muddy? That's got to be the understatement under-statement of the racing season. There's a huge puddle halfway down the track, lying in wait for the team that has the misfortune misfor-tune of running on the south side of the course. "And they're nearing the gates. Clear the track please." The announcer is Keith Bailey, a Heber area resident resi-dent who spends just about every Saturday afternoon during the winter months perched in a wooden booth, high over the Wasatch County Coun-ty Fairgrounds. Like his rodeo counterparts during the summer months, Bailey provides the color and coordination co-ordination for the races. He notifies the drivers to prepare pre-pare their teams, calls the races, and promotes the concession stand on the side. "And it looks like we've got a horse race." The second race on this blustery afternoon finds Brett Sabey of Heber pitted against Gary Kirkham of Francis. Both teams break cleanly from the gate, but then something goes wrong. Sabey's chariot starts careening wildly from side to side. Sabey bravely tries to hang on, but not for long. He gets tossed into the mud, and the two-horse team charges on without him. "It looks like the tongue broke on that chariot, ladies and gentlemen. The tongue broke on that chariot." The tongue is a metal bar which runs from the chariot to a yoke around the necks of the horses, Without the tongue, the only thing connecting con-necting horse and chariot is a series of flimsy reins. Broken tongue or not, Sabey's horses flash across the finish line in first place. But Bailey reminds the crowd that the team must include a driver to be legal. ; "That race will automatically auto-matically go to the Kirkham Brothers." Sabey, unhurt, pulls himself him-self out of the mud and charges off after the horses. After completing the race, the riderless team makes a beeline for the parking lot where other contestants are preparing their teams. The broken tongue drags in the dirt. Obviously unnerved by the number of people who have taken up the pursuit, the horses try to force their way between a pick-up truck and a horse trailer hooked up to the truck's bumper. There isn't enough room for one horse, never mind two. They stop dead, wedged between truck and trailer. One of the horses has been cut on the back of the leg by the broken tongue. Fortunately, For-tunately, the tendon is not damaged. After the excitement, the attention returns to the track for the third race. This time, everything goes flawlessly. The teams dash down the quarter-mile track side by side. "And it looks like a close one . . . It is a close one . . . It's a photo finish." There is a pause while the Polaroid film is retrieved from the automatic camera at the finish line.. "The race goes to the Custom Trailers Number One team with a time of 28 and 14 hundredths seconds. " During the first three races, the drivers have managed to avoid the puddle on the south side of the track. But in the fourth race, Heber's Lynn Sulser isn't quite so fortunate. He plows straight through the middle of the hazard, spraying mud and water in all directions. "Sulser hit the middle of that puddle of water over there, and I bet he is muddy." mud-dy." Most of the drivers have come prepared for the sloppy slop-py conditions. They are dressed in plastic raingear and goggles to help fend off the flying muck kicked up by the horses. The dean of the local chariot racers is 77-year-old Ray Hawkins of Pleasant Grove. Hawkins' team competes com-petes in the eleventh race and finishes out of the money by only a fraction of a second. "What fools we mortals be," he is heard to murmur, mud-splattered but smiling, as he guides the horses back to the parking lot. Actually, finishing out of the money is the rule rather than the exception. As often as not, there are no prizes awarded, even to the winning win-ning team. Chariot racing isn't a money-maker, even for the best of the competitors. competi-tors. Chariot racing caught on in the Heber Valley about 1964. In the absence of a straight track anywhere else, the first races were held along the shoulder of the runway at the county airport. air-port. The Heber-Kamas Cutter Cut-ter Association was formed. About 1968, the races were moved from the airport to what is now the Wasatch County Fairgrounds'. Almost $20,000 was raised to build a quarter-mile straight track at the fairgrounds, according accord-ing to Rodney Wade, current , president of the association. "A lot of the money that is in the fairgrounds itself came from the association," he " says. Wade says the association's associa-tion's membership peaked in 1972, when there were more than 60 teams in competition. competi-tion. One group cariie within a hair of winning the; nationals hefd in Pocatello, " Idaho. Then, suddenly, interest: waned. The owners of some of the best teams dropped out of competition. "The cutter association just about died out," Wade recalls. "There were only 12 teams four years ago." Now, the pendulum is swinging back. Wade says membership currently stands at about 40 to 45 members racing on 25 teams. Another 10 teams are expected late in December when the two- and three-year -old colts start their racing season. Cutter racing looks like a cross between harness racing rac-ing and drag racing. It involves a team of two horses dragging a man in a flimsy chariot down a quarter-mile straight-away. . On a fast track, the race is usually over in a little more than 20 seconds. "I don't know what you'd compare it to, really," Wade says. "It's just a lot of people with a competitive spirit." And a lot 'of money. As Wade points out, owning a team of quarter horses ain't cheap. "You've got to figure about $5,000 for a good team. For your chariot, harnesses and blankets, it's about $1,500. Stalls are about $1,000 apiece. Then you add about $600 to feed each horse from September to March. And that doesn't count your trailer, your truck, your gas..." Of course, the horses also can be put to other uses. Two of Wade's animals are used in the "off-season" for team roping, another for bulldog-ging. bulldog-ging. Most of the animals used in cutter racing are registered quarter horses. Mixed in are a few thoroughbreds and a few appaloosas. The chariots, or cutters, don't seem to have changed much, since the days of Ben Hur. They consist of little more than a set of wheels supporting a contraption which looks a little like a bathtub Standing on end. The driver stands inside the "tub," controlling the team with a set of reins. Outside of the Kamas area, cutter racing has never gained much of a following in Summit County. "We have tried off and on to talk Park City into getting a track. over there," Wade says. "I think it could be a crowd-pleasing thing." He argues that the cutter races held in Heber, and particularly those which involve in-volve other associations, are a steady source of revenue for the merchants during the winter months. Races will be held at 1 p.m. in Heber every Saturday between now and February, unless the Heber-Kamas Association accepts an invitation in-vitation to compete elsewhere. else-where. The nationals will be held in March in Elko, Nevada. ..,.,. 4 ? -- . ' ; . - " ' - ' rX r-" n mmii,mii.w wv. ' -, , ' 1 ' ! 4 " "r- - in A. -: 7, '; " ' "T"m ' "L "" - :. . . , ,, ....... " i . . . -..:ia. A v'A - 2r Jf -i Jx na&iojHWiw - i - . - "mm . .-Ad? A" SZ?Tr? Mmy ;i ?if j 4 . -,'V ftm& 0 " 1 .1 I s. ' LA Af .. -Hit p V I 7 f ' V |