Exhibition helps prepare the track for the Oxford County Fair in September.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

OXFORD – The bugle sound of post time knifed through the gray, cool day at the Oxford County Fairgrounds Saturday.

Horses and drivers answered the call, for the first time since 1964.

The call to post was actually an electronic representation of a bugle piped through a public address system, but that didn’t seem to matter to the more than 400 people that were there.

There was a track and an exhibition card of eight horse races in Oxford Hills, something that horsemen and harness racing aficionados have been missing for a long time.

There was excitement among the crowd as those associated with the fair had let it be known that the new racetrack was built for speed.

“There are banked, sweeping turns at 12 degrees. The straightaway dips in over one and one-half feet from the outside rail to the inside pylons,” said promotions director Caldwell Jackson.

Willie Run, driven Don Richards, set the track record in the first race, finishing a mile in 2:14.01.

That record only lasted for 22 minutes as Chucky Cam, driven by Brian Pike, won the second race in 2:09.4

The best mark of the day came in the fifth race when Desperado Don, driven by Richards, won in 2:09.03.

Longtime Maine rider and trainer Freeman Parker said he liked what he saw at the track.

“It’s going to be nice, the way that’s it’s built,” Parker said. “For the time they had to get it ready, I’d say it’s in excellent shape. By fair time, it’ll be hard.”

Parker was talking about the Oxford Fair scheduled for Sept. 10-13.

“The track is deep, but it’s going to be fast,” said driver Mark Athearn, who has driven at Scarborough, Plainridge, Mass., and Pompenau, N.Y. “It just needs some horses to go over it for awhile.”

Phil Jackson, director of racing at the fair track, said horses were cuffing a bit of dirt up and throwing it back, but he was sure that would not be the case by fair time.

“When this track matures, we’ll see a 1:57,” he said.

Maine Director of Live Harness Racing Ralph Canney and State Steward Dennis May were on hand for the exhibition.

“It’s invigorating and refreshing to see a group of people come forth after 39 years of not having racing,” May said. “I think it’s exciting to restore the tradition of harness racing.”

Canney agreed and said that members of the U.S. Trotters Association would be in Oxford during the fair to recognize the fair association.

The second race was named the Robert “Doc” Hobbs Memorial in tribute of the well-known man in the horse industry. He wrote the morning line for the horses at the Gorham Raceway for many years and was the state candlepin bowling champion at one time.

Another well-known person in the Oxford Hills area made an appearance on the track when Brewster Burns, head of the English Department at the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School, rode Demo, the winner in the sixth race.

Cari Medd, his wife, said he had not driven for about 15 years.

“But that’s OK,” Medd said from the winner’s circle after the race. “The kids think he’s a hero.”