When the starting car on Goshen Historic Track pulls up next to the outer fence, just past the finish wire at the National Historic Landmark, you might think a celebrity was looking out the back window.
Crowds of fans, friends and sympathizers file past the white Cadillac with the funny roof to say hello to their old friend Keith. In fact, Hamilton has made so many contacts in the sport of running that he barely has time to keep up with jury changes and personnel changes at the Cradle of the Trotter.
In Goshen, almost every race has a new group of exciting drivers in the back of the starting car. Each race brings with it a new group of fans, all awaiting their turn for a glimpse of the thundering hooves and cheering crowd at the start of a New York-begotten race on the Fourth of July weekend.
While each group of enthusiasts, young and old, climbs into the starting car, Hamilton takes it all for granted. Together with his helmsman Bob Ashelman, many exclaim that this is the most exciting thing they have ever done.
But this is not the only location where the official starting judge practices his profession. For 50 years, Hamilton has started races at almost every fair and pari-mutuel track in the Empire State.
Hamilton was first licensed in 1975 and also serves as a reserve assistant judge when needed. And at 74, he doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
“There aren’t as many grants as there used to be, but the program itself still gets a lot of support from the participants. And I enjoy doing it,” Hamilton noted.
And while he doesn’t keep track of the 50,000 miles a year he once logged as a tattoo technician with the USTA, when the car door opens, it’s a kind of Old Home Week wherever he goes.
Hamilton was once responsible for all of New York, as well as the New England district, where he was responsible for identifying nearly 2,000 horses per year. In fact, he was so well known in the Empire State that all the breeding farms in New York State had his phone number on speed dial.
Born in Schenectady, NY, Hamilton has been surrounded by trotters and pacers his entire life. His father, Richard Hamilton, was a USTA district representative for New York State, a job that involved checking breeding records, overseeing the county fair circuit and administering the driver/trainer test.
After earning a degree in Engineering from Buffalo State, the young Hamilton noticed that many mechanical companies were downsizing due to the energy crisis. Concerned that he might have to make the switch, Hamilton followed his father’s advice and answered the call for an opening at the USTA for an identification technician in 1974.
The affable Hamilton has never looked back, logging more than two million miles while doing business for the US Trotting Association. The transition to cryogenic technology (freeze branding) was almost thirty years ago, but now a large part of it has been replaced by the microchip.
With his evolution from identification to race management, Hamilton has seen firsthand the basic nature of our sport at the fundamental level.
“I enjoy all the fairs equally; I don’t really have a favorite. But what is interesting is watching the development of maturity and ability of the young horses as the season progresses,” said Hamilton. “We also see that in the drivers!”
When asked what he thinks the future holds for harness racing, Hamilton quickly responded: “As the track ownership, fans and betting public mature, I hope the sport continues to promote itself as a viable entertainment venue for the next generation.”
They have been married to his wife Patricia for almost 50 years and share three adult children: Lindsay, Justin and Amber.
He still lives in Schenectady and is often called upon as a backup at Saratoga. While he’s talking about retirement, we all know the New York track is a better place because of Hamilton’s involvement. We are already the chapter’s 2016 Excelsior Award winner and we hope to bring him back for our chapter’s highest honor in less than a decade.
Nevertheless, when the Monticello-Goshen USHWA Chapter holds its 66th annual Awards Banquet presented by the New York Sire Stakes on Sunday, December 7, Keith Hamilton will receive the chapter’s John Gilmour Good Guy Award.
This year, the chapter once again has the opportunity to include the New York Sire Stakes (NYSS) and USTA’s District 8 Awards, which will complement the year-end awards for horses and horse people from the local tracks.
In addition, the Monticello-Goshen USHWA Chapter will award Moira Fanning the chapter’s highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Monticello-Goshen Chapter will also honor Ralph Scunziano (Excelsior Award); Janet Durso (Amy Bull Crist Distinguished Service Award); James Crawford IV (Cradle of the Trotter Breeders Award); Dylan Huckabone-Miller (Rising Star Award); Jessica Hallett (Phil Pines Award); Barb Merton & Liz Stubits (Mighty M Award of Appreciation); and Brenna Gill (caregiver of the year). The event’s dinner sponsor is the Hambletonian Society and Breeders Crown.
Funds raised through the pastry and souvenir magazine have allowed the Monticello-Goshen Chapter to donate more than $150,000 to Goshen Historic Track and the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame over the past twenty years. The track and the museum are two separate and distinct entities that share the same hallowed ground and a common goal: to preserve and promote harness racing.
The practice of raising money and donating money to Historic Track and the Hall of Fame began in the mid-1970s with Monticello Raceway publicity icon John Manzi and has continued ever since.
Additional information can be found on our website: monticellogoshen.com.
Tickets for the gala event at The Country Club at Otterkill, Campbell Hall, NY, can be reserved by contacting Shawn Wiles at 845-798-4074, or by email: [email protected] before Wednesday (December 3).
From the Monticello-Goshen Chapter of USHWA
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