One Saturday in August
The Adios Is Something Special
The Meadows Annual Race Flies On The Fringes Of Pittsburgh's Sporting Radar
By Bob Grove

One Saturday in August, the traffic negotiating Interstate 79 toward Washington County is thicker than usual, the Meadow Lands exit ramp funneling vehicles toward the race track that Delvin Miller built.

One Saturday in August, the expansive parking lot at The Meadows begins filling in the early afternoon hours, about the same time a palpable sense of anticipation permeates the grounds. The bettors in the grandstand, their pens studiously marking a program, can feel it. So can the dining room customers, who are greeted by the unmistakable smell of prime rib.

One Saturday in August, the fans hugging the trackside fence are treated to the familiar sound of hooves on limestone as horses go through warmups that somehow seem more crisp than usual. Throughout the barns beyond the backside or in the busy paddock, hundreds of horsemen tend to their pre-race chores with a renewed sense of purpose.

One Saturday in August, the tellers look out to see longer lines than usual, and you swear there's a level of excitement in the voice of track announcer Roger Huston that wasn't there yesterday. The sun is pounding down on the picnics populating the hillside below the track's offices, and the heat reminds everyone of the challenge awaiting the standardbreds in the big race.

The Adios, contested every year on a Saturday in August, dominates the Pennsylvania racing calendar like no other event. With an estimated purse of $450,000, it is the richest horse race in the state, and those in attendance get a rare chance to see many of harness racing's best 3-year-old pacers, the pride and joy of some of the best trainers in the business, and a generous helping of the sport's best drivers.

It is the equivalent of an All-Star Game every year at PNC Park, with some added regional flavor in the form of track regulars in the sulkies and locally-owned horses pacing to the starting gate alongside national stars. The mile-long race has produced numerous world records, including Riyadh's 1:50.4 performance in 1993 that remains the racing standard for 3-year-olds on a 5/8-mile track.

Yet somehow the Adios, a race named for the famed sire of the late Delvin Miller, founder of The Meadows, still flies on the fringes of the sporting radar in the Pittsburgh area. Despite its uniqueness among local sports events, its rich history and its stature in the harness racing world, the Adios is not extensively covered by the media. Its charms are not sampled by as many fans as could be found at the track back in the days when ancillary events and parties associated with the Adios brought Arnold Palmer, Stan Musial and others to the rolling hills of Washington County.

"Sometimes it's hard to turn people who aren't into harness racing onto the sport, but if we could just get them to the track on Adios Day, to witness the excitement, it would really help," says Tracy Bittner, marketing manager at The Meadows. "They don't realize what the experience is really like."

The Adios Experience

Last August, the Adios drew a crowd of 8,550 to the afternoon card, and another 4,002 were in attendance for the evening card, which now includes a car giveaway that has brought new fans to the track. But the best promotion for the race continues to be the experience of watching it unfold over the course of the day.

"There's an electricity that goes through the crowd in the afternoon," says Huston, "and that develops because you usually have three divisions and the top three winners come back for the final. That momentum just builds to the big race around six o'clock. You look at the hillside and you see people watching the race. There might be 400, 600 people there, they put up a tent, they're having parties, and that adds to the atmosphere.

"Every track has a signature event that it builds its season around. Here's one in your backyard."

The Adios has carved out its own little niche in a standardbred world where $450,000 purses are substantial but hardly an automatic lure for the nation's top colt pacers. That's because you can't put a price on history or the intangible benefit of being associated with Miller, a legendary figure in the industry who for decades served as a goodwill ambassador and tireless promoter of the sport worldwide.

"Anything with Del Miller's name attached to it is definitely going to have a mystique to it," says Huston, who came to the track in 1976. "I was involved in a phone conversation recently when a friend of mine was having a party in New Jersey at the Meadowlands, and there were a bunch of horsemen there. I got on with (trainer) Tommy Haughton.

"His father Billy Haughton and Del were great friends. I asked Tommy if he was going to be here for the Adios, and he said, 'You know I'll be there if I have the horse, and I think I have the horse (Rounder) this year.' He said he wouldn't miss it. So the mystique carries over from one generation to the next."

Tom Leasure has been at The Meadows since 1974, first as a horseman, then assistant race secretary and, since 1986, race secretary. And based on his frequent conversations with trainers over the years, he echoes Huston's feeling about the way the race is regarded.

"Most horsemen, they understand the name Adios, the name Del Miller. They know who he was," says Leasure. "The major trainers in today's market, guys like Brett Pelling, they know what the Adios is and they want to win it."

Big-Name Attraction

It has also been a measure of the race's importance that it has attracted the biggest names among harness drivers. John Campbell, arguably the most dominant driver in the sport's history, has won the event five times, including four consecutively in 1992 (Direct Flight), 1993 (Miles McCool), 1994 (Cam's Card Shark) and 1995 (David's Pass).

Part of the allure of the Adios also lies in its two-heat format, used today for only a handful of races, including the Hoosier Cup, Little Brown Jug and Messenger Stakes, the latter also contested at The Meadows later in the season and, like the Jug, also a leg of the Pacing Triple Crown. The Adios, then, is every bit a throwback to the sport's earlier days.

"The mindset of trainers since the inception of Adios in 1967 has changed," says Huston. "From 1967 into the 70's and early 80's, there wasn't much complaint about going two heats. It was accepted. When the Meadowlands opened in the mid 1970s, that mindset started to change. They began having eliminations one week and the final the next week. They did it to drag it out, make it a two-week event.

"It's hurt (the field) at times, but the Adios still holds the mystique of being one of only three or four races with the format it has. It has helped maintained the mystique and prestige of the event. It's a major thing to win two races in one day."

That's why every Adios writes itself into the memory in different ways. Huston still remembers his first Adios in 1976, when Armbro Ranger and Joe O'Brien won the event while track or world records fell in both eliminations and the final. "And I remember how Glen Garnsey cried like a baby in the winner's circle in 1978 when he won with Abercrombie," says Huston. "He said later this was a race he always thought was one of the greatest."

Leasure, like many local fans, will never forget the 1986 Adios, when Dick Stillings made Barberry Spur the first local horse to win the race for owner Roy Davis of Pittsburgh. Long-time fans still remember the shock of watching Marauder outlast heavy favorite Nihilator in 1986, or the joy in seeing Meadows regulars Dave Palone (Washington VC, 1999) and Brian Sears (Pine Valley, 2001) win the event.

A Thrill to Watch

When the 36th Coors Delvin Miller Adios is contested August 10, long-time Meadows trainer Dan Altmeyer may provide the local challenge with Michael's Western. He's been around for quite a few Adios Days, and he's still pursuing a trip to the winner's circle on a special Saturday in August.

"I remember when I was younger, it was a big thrill just to watch it," Altmeyer says. "There really is a different atmosphere. Everybody at the track looks forward to it. If you don't get excited watching that race, you probably won't like the sport."

The future of The Meadows, now owned by Magna Entertainment Corporation, is probably directly tied to the current legislative efforts to allow slot machines in the state and put its tracks on a level playing field with similar facilities in nearby states. But in the meantime, the Adios and the associated Pennsylvania Sires Stakes races that surround it on Grand Circuit Week, are the track's lifeline.

"It's the one thing that's been constant over all the ownerships, from Joe Hardy and Ed Ryan on – Adios and Adios week," says Huston. "That race alone tells the story of The Meadows. It's like Hambletonian Week at the Meadowlands, like Jug Week at Delaware. It comes back year after year, regardless of who's here to oversee it."