by Charlene Polk, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Charlene Polk

Milford, DE — While there are some owners in harness racing who are always in the spotlight, there are those who prefer to stay in the background. That, however, does not mean they enjoy the sport any less.

Delaware owner Robert Messick, although he has owned such standouts as Roddy’s Bags Again (2002, p,5,1:48.4, $705,175) and Clint Black (1991, p,4,1:51.3, $369,157), is not one of the high-profile owners you see at the sales in Harrisburg and Lexington. Messick, a farmer in the first state, is considered by many to be the ideal small-time owner and breeder. It was his love of racing, though, and not high hopes for success, that got him involved in the sport just 15 years ago.

“We’ve always enjoyed racing,” said Norma Lee Messick, who will celebrate her 50th anniversary with Robert this June. “We’re just in it for a love of sports, family and hometown.”

She said that she and her husband had watched the races at nearby Harrington Raceway all their lives.

“Sometimes we’d go to Harrington and make lunch money betting,” she said.

So in 1994 when their son told them he was going to get a Standardbred and have his friend Tim Torbert and Tim’s uncle Ernest Torbert train it, the elder Messicks thought they’d try their hand at racing as well.

USTA/Ed Keys photo

Roddy’s Bags Again banked $705,175 in his four years on the racetrack.

Their first purchase was Get The Bags, a No Nukes mare who went on to earn them $151,231. As if that wasn’t enough, she became the matriarch of their broodmare band, delivering first Susan’s Bags (2000, p,3,1:53.4, $80,322) and then the star, Roddy’s Bags Again. The son of Dragon Again had 23 wins, nine seconds and 18 thirds out of 92 career starts. Although he took a lifetime mark of 1:48.4 at the Meadowlands as a 5-year-old, he boasts sub-1:55 wins each year he raced.

While he was by far the best of the mare’s foals, the Messicks still have high hopes for her youngest offspring — the 3-year-old J J Bags Again, a full-brother to Roddy’s Bags Again who took a qualifying mark of 1:59.1 last year as a 2-year-old, and Bags-In-Place, a 2-year-old in training who is one of the last sons of Artsplace.

“Hopefully they’ll come along,” Messick said. “You never know in this game.”

Messick’s husband is also the owner and breeder of Pacific Philly, the 6-year-old daughter of Pacific Fella and Raani Hanover (Laag). The mare has $667,969 in career earnings and a mark of 1:50.4f taken at Harrah’s Chester last year. She is currently racing in the Fillies and Mares Open at Dover Downs.

Fotowon photo

Pacific Philly has won 24 times in her career, while bankrolling $667,969.

Tim Torbert said Messick, who does lots of research each year into who to breed his mares to, goes about it the right way.

“He breeds to better quality studs,” Torbert said.

Although the Messicks enjoy raising their own racehorses, they have had some success with those they’ve purchased, such as Clint Black, who claimed horse of the meet honors one year at Harrington, and Cold Cape Cod, a successful New Jersey Sire Stakes performer.

“The only horse I’ve bought for them at a yearling sale was Cold Cape Cod,” Torbert said, “and he was out of a full sister to Get The Bags.”

While there is little doubt Messick has achieved quite a bit of success in the business, he certainly doesn’t advertise it.

“He’s not one to pat himself on the back,” Torbert said.

Messick’s wife agreed.

“Robert is very humble,” she said. “If you saw him you wouldn’t think he had a nickel to his name. In his younger years he was a workaholic, but he’s done well for himself and he deserves to sit back and enjoy the horses.”

She added that although harness racing had started out as a hobby for the family, it has turned into a fairly lucrative activity.

“We appreciate that we’ve done as well as we have,” she said. “Farming is a gamble too. Sometimes the horses take care of the farm and sometimes the farm takes care of the horses.”