THE surname ‘Nixon’ has been a constant at every development in harness racing in Ireland. The well-attended trot at Randalstown in 1968, the opening of Lambeg Stadium, the harmless fun at Bob Scott’s Antrim track, the ambitious White House Raceway and all the years of Portmarnock. John Nixon has always been a good-natured sportsman.
John will forever be known as the owner of the first Irish-owned winner of the Famous Musselburgh Pace. However, he reminds us that he actually owned two Musselburgh winners!
The family still have some old magazine cuttings wherein John’s grandfather trotted in the 1920s at Celtic Park in Belfast (now The Park Centre - a shopping mall).
John’s father was George (Geordie), who sold this reporter his first training cart for £30 around 1983. The sulky had been in more crashes than Lewis Hamilton, but following a few welds and a good pair of motorbike tyres, there was a new trainer in town.
John, now 85, is one of the senior spectators who still attend Annaghmore. The veteran horseman welcomed The Irish Field to his fine yard at Ballycoan (Carryduff) recently.
John and his wife Muriel have a closely knit family, with son Jonathan and daughters Victoria and Georgina. Georgina’s children keep John and Muriel young at heart.
The family were poultry dealers on Belfast’s Newtownards Road. John’s reminiscences both of harness racing and life in general hark back to a simpler more, innocent time.
Early years of racing
“I first saw trotting at Gibson Park on the Cregagh Road in the 1950s. They ran a good few of what they called ‘Tradesman’s Trots’ for horses and horsemen who also worked in the days before mechanisation.
“Harness racing more or less died out in Ireland once Gibson Park, Ballymena and Raheny (Dublin) stopped racing. You could buy the few surviving racehorses for very little. Some of them were pulling carts loaded with goods every day.
“I remember going out of my way to buy Typhoon from the original Joe Murdock. Barney Ross’s Robin Adair was another of the old Gibson Park horses still around.
Lambeg Stadium
“Then, around 1969, a syndicate of businessmen opened a quarry dust track at Lambeg, near Lisburn. The partners included Hill Stewart (father of thoroughbred producer George Stewart) and a man called Humphries. There was also a man we always called Mr Buchanan (grandfather of jockey Peter Buchanan).
“I believe Lambeg was the best chance the sport ever had in this country. There was a grandstand, a bar and a nice number of stables on site. Throughout the worst days of the Troubles, both sides mixed at the racing and our differences were forgotten.
“Unfortunately, the horsemen were unreasonable about racing matters. The owners lost heart and the horsemen missed their chance to buy the place as a united club – it was a pity.”
Lambeg Stadium is now Drumbo Park, home to Distillery FC, and a very successful greyhound track.
1970s and 1980s horses
“The 1950s were great days. Lots of families kept horses in yards around the city. On a Friday, the growers from Comber would come into Mays Market.
“On the way back out, they would lift the manure in their horse-drawn carts from the yards to fertilise their vegetables.
“My father had old Whispering Smith and Way To Go, who he broke himself. He bought Whispering Smith from Henry Kane. When he went to collect the horse, they tried to slip him Little Chief instead but my father knew the difference.
“I had no entries at Randalstown in 1968, the great revival meeting. I reckon the crowd was 2,000. Anyway, the late Eddie Doherty had sold a man a mare, and she wasn’t any good. Eddie asked me to drive her, so we made sure she wouldn’t join the other horses at that start. The move meant that the new owner didn’t get to see how poor she was!
“We used to socialise in Owen McMahon’s pub on the Newtownards Road. I remember selling the horse Special D to a wee syndicate of friends. Their names included Daisy (Dessie) and Ernie and so on. I think they raced him as the DEFG Syndicate.
In the 1970s, John bought the trotting mares Miss Arnie and Call Girl from Will Cowan in Scotland.
“Miss Arnie was the better mare. Once you had her trotting, you had to keep her going as she would have lifted her two hind legs at the driver.”
African Star and Eastwood Smoke were fast pacers. “Eastwood Smoke won Horse Of The Year at that time.”
John made a surprising revelation about his classy trotter Vitus S. “He was sold from the continent as he kept switching over to a pace. We had awful bother keeping him right. He was plagued by feet trouble. Despite all that, he had a lovely trotting action.
What are the biggest differences between the old-time horses and today’s?
“The horses years ago were a lot more ignorant, kind of wild. But they were tougher. Murdocks’ Volunteer or Whispering Smith could race three times in one day - six-furlong dash, one mile, then mile and a quarter.”
Musselburgh success
As mentioned, in 1985 Nixon made a breakthrough for this country as his The Lucky One dead-heated with the Ian Pimlott-trained Bye For Now to share Britain’s biggest prize. John missed the meeting as his father was ill. Eddie Doherty junior was in the bike.
“I owned the 1986 winner, Air Mail, as well. The late Kenneth Hanna came up to buy The Lucky One, after his big win. However, I was kind of in love with The Lucky One after what he had achieved. So I pointed at Air Mail and said: “He’s a better one, he’ll win it next year.”
Kenneth trained Air Mail in the lead up to Musselburgh 1986, but sold him to Crothers Brothers. “Air Mail won the 1986 Famous Musselburgh Pace, driven by Alan Haythornthwaite.”
Unusual ban
John, as with everyone who remembers Hughie Richardson, acknowledges the contribution Hughie made running Portmarnock Raceway, which he co-owned with WJ McEnery of Portmarnock Stud.
One flaw of Hughie’s management style was at times he could be judge, jury and executioner, which leads to an amusing story.
“In 1976, some of us had bought a horse out of England. By pure coincidence, he had my surname in his name. He was called Nixon Dundridge.
“Anyway, the first day I raced the horse I was sitting on the outside with Patsy Fagan on my inside on a horse that belonged to Hughie. Old Nixon Dundridge took a jump to the left for no reason and takes Hughie’s horse out of the race. It was unintentional.
“After racing, Hughie said: “You’re banned indefinitely”, and it was a long time before I drove at Portmarnock again.”
Presumably steward and driver were back on speaking terms at the time of Hughie’s passing in 2014.
The present day – French Influence
John is impressed by the link up between the Irish Harness Racing Association and Le TROT of France.
“The French horses and their involvement are the best thing that ever happened to the sport. I travelled to the Prix d’Amerique at Vincennes in 2023. I did the tour of the training complex at Grosbois. I’ve never seen anything like their facilities.
“One concern I have is that the IHRA need to be careful that they don’t make their costs too steep for the ordinary working man.”
Jonathan Nixon has attended Le TROT stewarding courses. The family got great sport out of the Trotteur Français Brooklyn Trixie.
John is very keen on their untried four-year-old pacer by Kikicolt out of Gee and Tee, a full-brother to Beat The Clock and Sarahs Gift. John Nixon - 85 years young and looking forward!