Goshen, NY – After 50 years of serving the industry in the State of New York, Keith Hamilton has made a host of friends and acquaintances along the way.
When the starting car at Goshen Historic Track stops alongside the outside fence, just past the finish wire at the National Historic Landmark, one may think that a celebrity was looking out the back window.
Throngs of fans, friends and well-wishers make their way alongside 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 harness racing that at the Cradle of the Trotter he barely has time to keep up with the judges’ changes and personnel switches.
At Goshen, nearly every race has a new group of excitement-seeking riders in the back of the starting car. Each race brings a new set of fans, each waiting their turn for a glimpse into the thundering hooves and crowd cheering start of a New York-sired race on Fourth of July weekend.
As each group of enthusiasts, young and old, squeeze into the starting car, Hamilton takes it all in stride. Along with his wheel-man Bob Ashelman, many exclaim that this is the most exciting thing they have ever done.
But this is not the only venue that the official starting judge plies his trade. For 50 years Hamilton has started races at nearly every county fair and pari-mutuel track in the Empire State.
First licensed in 1975, Hamilton also serves as a backup associate judge when the need arises. And at 74 years old, it doesn’t look like he is slowing down any time soon.
“There are not as many fairs as there once was, but the program itself still has plenty of support from the participants. And I enjoy doing it,” Hamilton noted.
And while he doesn’t log the 50,000 miles per year that he once put in as a USTA tattoo technician, when the car door opens, it’s like Old Home Week wherever he goes.
At one time, Hamilton was responsible for all of New York, as well as the New England district, where he was responsible for the identification of close to 2,000 horses per year. In fact, he was so well known in the Empire State that all the breeding farms in N.Y. State had his phone number on speed dial.
Born in Schenectady, N.Y., Hamilton has been around trotters and pacers all his life. His father, Richard Hamilton, was a USTA district representative for upstate New York, a job that had him 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 firms were downsizing due to the energy crisis. Concerned that he may need to switch gears, Hamilton took 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 well over two-million miles conducting business for the U.S. Trotting Association. The transition to cryogenics (freeze branding) was nearly 30 years ago, but now much of that has been replaced by the microchip.
With his evolution from identification to race officiating, Hamilton has seen firsthand the grass roots nature of our sport on its foundational level.
“I enjoy all the fairs equally; I don’t really have a favorite. But what is interesting is watching the progression of maturity and ability of the young horses as the season progresses,” stated Hamilton. “We see in the drivers too!”
When asked what he thinks the future holds for harness racing, Hamilton was quick to opine, “As the track ownership, the fans and the betting public get older, I hope that the sport continues to promote itself as a viable entertainment venue for the next generation.”
Married to his wife, Patricia, for nearly 50 years, they share three grown children in Lindsay, Justin and Amber.
Still residing in Schenectady, he is often called into duty as a backup at Saratoga. While he talks about retiring, we all know that the N.Y. circuit is a better place because of Hamilton’s involvement. Already the chapter’s Excelsior Award winner in 2016, we hope to bring him back in less than a decade for our chapter’s highest honor.
Nonetheless, when the Monticello-Goshen USHWA Chapter holds its 66th annual Awards Banquet, presented by the New York Sire Stakes, on Sunday, Dec. 7, Keith Hamilton will receive the chapter’s John Gilmour Good Guy Award.
Once again this year the chapter has been given the opportunity to include the New York Sire Stakes (NYSS) and USTA’s District 8 Awards, which will be in addition to the year-end awards for horses and horse people from the local tracks.
In addition, the Monticello-Goshen USHWA Chapter will bestow the chapter’s highest honor upon Moira Fanning, which is its 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 (Caretaker of the Year). The event’s dinner sponsor is the Hambletonian Society and Breeders Crown.
Funds raised through the banquet and souvenir journal have allowed the Monticello-Goshen Chapter to give well over $150,000 to Goshen Historic Track and the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame over the last two decades. The Track and the Museum are two separate and distinct entities that share the same hallowed ground and a mutual purpose of preserving and promoting harness racing.
The practice of raising money and donating funds 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, N.Y., can be reserved by contacting Shawn Wiles at 845-798-4074, or Email: swiles@rwcatskills.com before Wednesday (Dec. 3).