Behind the Gate 1 answered, “Airborne AJ. because he gave me a lot of thrills. Driving him was just like driving a Cadillac. His owners, the Parkdale Stable, were so good to me. My uncle, Jack was his trainer and my uncle Joe helped to develop him. He

was such a tremendous horse with so many sentimental connections."

The fastest dead—heat in Atlantic provinces history took place in 1999 in the $59,000 Provincial Cup at the Saint John Exhibition Raceway. The two victo— rious combatants were Order To Go and Raleigh Fingers and the time was 1254.4 which was one fifth of a second from the track record. Kenny Arsenault would never forget that race because he was the driver of Order To Go and it was his most memorable race. Trainer Ian Reid asked Kenny to substitute for the absent John Holmes and he was honored to answer in the affirmative. When the gate left, Bill Sharpe had Raleigh Fingers on the engine followed by El Perfeclo and Order To Go. Kenny was seven lengths behind the leader when he moved first over; howev- er, from the top of the lane to the wire, they raced as a pair and a second print of the photofinish revealed a dead heat. It was also Kenny’s fastest Win until he won in 1:54 with the great Astronomical at the Charlottetown Driving Park.

There have been many changes, some positive and some negative, in the har— ness racing industry in the past three decades. Kenny suggested that pylons, the quick—hitch and simulcasting were

Kenny, fisenault

three of the major changes in his time; however, he strongly believed that the absence of young people at the racetrack was, unfortunately, the biggest change. The next time you go to the track, look around and estimate the average age of the people present and you will under— stand his point. He believed that unless the industry did something positive soon to reverse this trend it could spell the end of live racing in this region.

One aspect of the industry that this train— er—driver did not want changed in this region was the size of the racetrack. Today. there is a trend to build new tracks larger than the half-mile variety. Most new tracks are of the seven—eights or one mile variety. The reason for this trend is the emphasis on speed. Kenny disagreed with this philosophy and he emphatically stated, “I don't want them to change the half—mile racetracks. The best drivers will win 85 per cent of the time on a small track. This is not the case on the larger track where it is mostly speed In addition, the fans are much closer to the action at the half— mile tracks.“

and less strategy.

Professional drivers have different rou- tines on a day that they are racing. Kenny normally drove in from five to ten races per night at the COP. and most of these were catch—drives. spend a lot of time reading the race pro- gram to plan their possible strategy for each race. Kenny explained, “I don’t spend hours on the race program but I

Some drivers

171