Rambling Willie (April 18, 1970 - August 24, 1995) was a

harness racing Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). They usually pull a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, spider, or chariot occupied by a driver. In Europe, and less frequently in Australia ...

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

, more specifically a bay

pacing Pacing may refer to: In sport * Pacing, an athletic technique of spreading one's effort out over longer-distance track and field races (also in swimming) * Pacing (horse gait), a horse gait used in standardbred horse races * Motor-paced racing ...

gelding A gelding (Help:IPA/English, /ˈɡɛldɪŋ/) is a castration, castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. The term is also used with certain other animals and livestock, such as domesticated Camelidae, camels. By compa ...

sired by Rambling Fury and out of Meadow Belle by Meadow Gold. Rambling Willie was born on a farm in

Monroeville, Indiana Monroeville is a town in Monroe Township, Allen County, Indiana, United States. The population was 1,294 as of the 2020 census. History Monroeville was platted in 1851. It was named from Monroe Township. A post office was established at Monroe ...

. He did not race at age two and as three-year-old was purchased by driver/trainer Robert Farrington for $15,000 who later gifted 50% of the horse to his wife Vivian and sold the other half to Paul Siebert.Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame bio for Rambling Willie
Retrieved October 21, 2016 He won 128 races in 305 starts, both records, and won the

U. S. Pacing Championship U, or u, is the twenty-first letter of the English alphabet. U may also refer to: Science Mathematics * \cup, union (set theory) * U-set, a set of uniqueness * U, the unitary group Chemistry * Uranium, symbol U, a chemical element * u, the Da ...

in 1976. At the 1975

Canadian Pacing Derby The Canadian Pacing Derby is a race for three-year-old Standardbred Free For All pacers run at a distance of one mile at Woodbine Mohawk Park in Campbellville, Ontario. Historical race events The Canadian Pacing Derby was first run on August 1 ...

he tied for first in a

dead heat A dead heat is a rare situation in various racing sports in which the performances of competitors are judged to be so close that no difference between them can be resolved. The result is declared a tie and the competitors are awarded a joint ra ...

with Pickwick Baron, and won outright in 1976 and 1977, setting a best time for the mile of 1:54.3, a world record at the time. Rambling Willie was "put down" in 1995 because of

laminitis Laminitis is a disease of the feet of ungulates, found mostly in horses and cattle involving inflammation of the laminae. Clinical signs include foot tenderness progressing to inability to walk, increased digital pulses, and increased temperatur ...

(an often fatal hoof disease) and was buried in the

Kentucky Horse Park Kentucky Horse Park is a working horse farm, international equestrian competition venue, and an educational theme park opened in 1978 in Lexington, Kentucky. It is located off Kentucky State Highway 1973 (Iron Works Pike) and Interstate 75, at ...

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...

where he had resided, on permanent exhibition, in the Park's "Hall of Champions", representing the Standardbred breed.

Awards and recognition

He was voted North American aged pacer of the year in 1975, 1976, and 1977, and he retired in 1983 as the leading Standardbred money winner of all time, earning over $2 million. Most of his earnings came from "overnight" invitational races and "late closer" events that carried only a fraction of the dollar amounts of the traditional two- and three-year-old stakes events that make up the vast majority of the earnings of virtually every other record money-winning racehorse. To this day, considering inflation, his earnings from age 4 and up have not been surpassed in North America. Rambling Willie sustained "bowed tendons" in both front legs early in his ten-plus-year racing career, as well as other nagging injuries expected in a racehorse competing for so long a period. While racing at

Hollywood Park Racetrack Hollywood Park was a thoroughbred horse racing, race course located in Inglewood, California, about 3 miles (5 km) from Los Angeles International Airport and adjacent to The Forum (Inglewood, California), the Forum indoor arena. In 1994, t ...

in California, he suffered such a severe bout of

colic Colic or cholic () is a form of pain that starts and stops abruptly. It occurs due to muscular contractions of a hollow tube (small and large intestine, gall bladder, ureter, etc.) in an attempt to relieve an obstruction by forcing content ou ...

that he was operated on in a last effort to save him, euthanasia being the only alternative. Hollywood Park was inundated with letters and calls from his fans for weeks afterward, and the track released frequent bulletins as his condition progressed. The horse recovered and months later won at long odds. Rambling Willie was inducted into the United States Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 1997 and into the Indiana Standardbred Hall of Fame in 2003. Upon the horse's death, Bob Farrington, his retired Hall of Fame driver and trainer, was asked what he had seen in Willie that others missed during the early part of his career. Farrington replied in the words of legendary Thoroughbred trainer "Sunny" Jim Fitzsimmons, "The most important thing about a racehorse, you can't see." A biography of the horse was published: ''Rambling Willie: The Horse that God Loved!'' ().

References

External links

Kentucky Horse Park biography

from an Indiana harness racing website {{Authority control 1970 racehorse births 1995 racehorse deaths American Standardbred racehorses Racehorses bred in Indiana United States Harness Racing Hall of Fame inductees Harness racing in the United States