Fairgrounds racetrack has long and storied history

Though the early winter frost covers the grassy infield, the same pounding of hooves on the rock-dust track that has been heard for over 100 years at the Athens County Fairgrounds jolts through the brisk morning air. With the temperature barely reaching 20 degrees Fahrenheit, Charlie Schoonover sits in a cart whizzing around the track behind one of his horses, just as he has for the last 20 years.

On a map of Athens dated 1875, the Athens County Fairgrounds and racetrack sit on West Union Street in the same spot they do today. The fair itself celebrated its 158th anniversary this year, and the fair's horse-racing has been a featured event held right before the fair begins for as long as all living Athenians can remember. While the track itself has not changed dramatically over the years, that's not the case with the horse-racing industry and the fans who flock to the grandstands in August to watch the races.

Gussie Barnhart, 79, has called the racetrack at the Fairgrounds home for the better half of the last century. In 1945, Barnhart began coming to the fairgrounds to take care of her pony, when she was one of the only women in the local horse business. She became one of the first women harness drivers in the area, and trained her horses mainly out of the county fairgrounds. In 1950, she started racing 2- and 3-year-old trotting and pacing horses, training every morning through the heat and the cold at the racetrack, just as Schoonover does today.

"It always has been about the best track in the (Southern Valley Colt) Circuit, or at least that's what other horsemen say," Barnhart said.

The Southern Valley Colt Circuit is a summer series of races at 11 fairgrounds across southern Ohio, according to the organization's Web site.

Throughout the early part of her career, Barnhart remembers the crowds of people packing the grandstands to catch a glimpse of the horses and their drivers decked out in their stables' bright colors.

"Our grandstands were full and running over," Barnhart remembered.

But as times have changed, so have the crowds at the fairgrounds. While neighboring states West Virginia and Pennsylvania have legalized gambling at their racetracks, the Ohio horse-racing industry has suffered, according to Ross Bateman, 92, who has had horses racing at the fairgrounds since 1960.

"There's a certain number of people that want to gamble," Bateman said. "If we had a place to gamble, people would stay here to watch the races."

Gambling has affected more than just the crowds, though. Without gambling, the amount of the purses offered for the winning horses is much less than in other states, Bateman said. Many would-be racers now take their horses to Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Indiana for breeding and racing, dropping the number of entries in the local races.

"In the early 1990s, we were racing for more money than now," Schoonover recalled. He holds the record for the fastest finish at the Athens County Fairgrounds, which he set in 1993. "Then, we were racing for $3,500. Now, it's $2,000," he added.

With less money to be made racing and the price of grain, hay and veterinary care skyrocketing, fewer and fewer horses call the Athens County Fairgrounds barns home. When Barnhart started racing in 1950, stall rent at the fairgrounds was $5 per horse per month, and horses filled the various barns at the Fairgrounds. Today, stall rent is $30 per horse per month. While this $30 cost is still far cheaper than any other boarding facility in the area, fewer than 10 horses are kept on the grounds during the winter, Barnhart said. In the hey-day of the fair's horse racing, 12 horses and drivers entered each race. Recently, though, numbers have dropped, and only seven or eight horses compete in each of the various divisions.

Still, the horses that are racing in the Southern Valley Colt Circuit are much faster than in the early years of the fair.

"These horses are faster and come to 2-year-old speed pretty early," Schoonover said. Early on in his career, he recalled that he would struggle to get a pacer to finish a race in under two minutes, but today drivers look to finish in 1:55.

Doping has also entered the sport of horse racing on a local level, Barnhart confirmed.

"They have quite the escapade out there," she said. While those who stall their horses at the track year-round do not use drugs to speed up their horses, Barnhart said, others who come in to race during the fair do.