from Meadowlands Media Relations

While the top older pacers will battle it out in the $50,000 second leg of the Presidential Series on Saturday night at the Meadowlands, a connection to one of the greatest free for allers of the past will be keeping his eye on the tenth race — if he can stay awake that late.

Seventy-eight-year-old Robert Farrington, who drove and trained the great Rambling Willie from 1972 to 1983, is one of the co-owners of Cam’s Conqueror, along with James Alan Geis of Chicago, Illinois and the Andy Miller Stable of Millstone Township, New Jersey. Andy Miller will drive Cam’s Conqueror who is trained by his wife, Julie. The five-year-old is rated 5-1 in the morning line for a purse of $32,500 and a claiming tag of $90,000.

“He’s the only one we own now,” said Farrington, who lives in Sanford, Florida with his wife of 58 years, Vivian. “I’ve known Andy over 10 years. He and his wife are good people. I sold my farm [in Illinois] 10 years ago, no more training after that for me. We always own one or two, and we watch at home here on TRN. I watch Freehold during the day and the Meadowlands and Chicago at night.”

Farrington, who is doing well despite suffering a stroke five years ago, will always be linked with Rambling Willie who posted 128 victories, 69 seconds and 43 thirds from 304 starts and banked $2,038,219, retiring at age 13. He was honored as Older Pacer of the Year in 1975, 1976 and 1977.

“He was an amazing horse,” said Farrington. “When I first got him, I called Lloyd Arnold four or five times to sell him half the horse. I paid $15,000 for him. But I didn’t get in touch with him [Arnold] and wound up selling half to Paul Seibert. I knew at the end of Willie’s three-year-old season that he was a lot more than I expected. He had a bowed tendon. It actually bothered him his whole career, and it looked like he was going to miss some time. By the time he was five, it was incredible what he could do. Every time out there, he did something that amazed me.”

One of those times was September 1, 1976. It was grand opening of a new racetrack – the Meadowlands – and Rambling Willie won the feature race, the Inaugural Pace. When Willie retired, he had the records for most starts, most wins, most sub two-minute miles and highest earnings by a standardbred. From 1983 until his death on August 24, 1995, he spent his retirement at the Hall of Champions at the Kentucky Horse Park. He was the subject of a popular book called The Horse That God Loved, so named because Vivian Farrington donated 10 percent of his earnings to churches.

“Willie could do it any way he wanted,” Farrington recalled. “He was not a one dimensional horse at all. He raced against several sets of free for allers, horses like Nero, Tarport Hap, Shadyside Trixie, Oil Burner, Whata Baron, Meadow Blue Chip and a lot more. Willie was a lazy horse by nature. You had to get after him pretty good or he would go only as much as he had to. He was a good-gaited horse. It was like playtime out there for him. He would look around at the stands and the infield, the crowd, the lake — he was having fun out there. He was always having a good time, and he knew he was good, too.

“Willie was like a ballplayer,” Farrington added. “He got to the top of his sport and stayed there-for four or five years. But you know what they say, when you reach the top there’s only one way to go from there. He stayed there a long time and raced until he was 13.”

The gelded son of Rambling Fury – Meadow Belle was foaled on April 18, 1970 in Indiana and voted into harness racing’s Hall of Fame in 1997, joining Farrington, who was in the class of 1979.

Vivian Farrington’s book tour for The Horse That God Loved included taking Willie along so that he could provide hoof print autographs.

“When he went on the book tour, I was nervous, especially when he went into the malls,” she recalled. “I knew he was known to kick here and there, but he was the perfect gentleman. I held my breath, but he was good, especially so around the kids. You could take him anywhere. Everywhere we went they sold out of books. Today, you have to get one on E-Bay if you want one.

“I was a little girl who always loved horses,” she explained. “My father was a minister in Illinois. When Willie came along, he was the first horse that I had my name on in the program. Maybe good things do come to those who wait. It came right before my birthday [July 23] and was a present to me from Bob.”

If she could do one thing differently, Vivian Farrington said she would “tithe all the money to my father’s church – I sent it all over to too many different denominations.”

The fall of 1983 marked the end of Rambling Willie’s racing career.

“The last race he won, he could hardly walk out of the winner’s circle,” she recalled. “We didn’t want to race him again. But they had a promotion, and we raced one more time. He finished second, and the horse that beat him got booed coming back to the winner’s circle. We’ll never forget Rambling Willie. It was a wonderful experience, one we’ll never forget.”