Australian sulky design in the 20th century

For the first fifty years - nothing happened.

The bike sulky introduced in 1892 had reached its final form by 1912 and no performance enhancements came along until the late 1960s. Up to 1968 all northern hemisphere sulkies were light, all-wood, affairs of very similar design.

In the southern hemisphere the preponderance of small and narrow showground tracks led to the gradual dominance of race sulkies which were of similar length and width to northern hemisphere jog carts, but more lightly built. Unlike the ‘bike’ sulky of the northern hemisphere, the typical Australian race sulky had a timber upper frame with tubular steel undercarriage and forks. There were a number of all-timber race sulkies made, of which the New Zealand Bryant was the best known.

In the 1950s, the only significant technical development in Down Under sulky technology was Harold Brewer’s introduction of the steel-back sulky with adjustable balance. Brewer was a master craftsman who had no peers in  his lifetime when it came to pushing the development of the Australian race sulky . Indeed, the Brewer was the first and last Australian wood-shafted sulky to be used in the setting of a world mile record - albeit some 24 years after its designer’s death.

Also in the 1950s, former cyclist Bill ‘Bon-Bon’ Freebairn introduced ultra-light racing wheels with ‘single’ glued-on tyres running on wooden rims. Freebairn’s ultra-light wheels were widely used on new Brewer sulkies and in the 1960s almost 100% of sulkies racing at Sydney’s Harold Park were fitted with Bon-Bon’s wheels. The main drawback to Freebairn’s wheels was their extreme fragility, but most drivers of the time considered their lower rolling friction well worth the risk of puncture or wheel failure.

A year or so after the death of Harold Brewer in 1959, another leading Sydney sulky-maker, Joe Clark, also died. Although the Brewer sulky continued to be made by Harold’s son Barry, he could turn out fewer than 25 new Brewers per annum - nowhere near sufficient for Sydney’s rapidly developing post-war harness racing industry. In South Australia the Brown Brothers turned out their beautifully made ‘Royal Speed’ sulkies. In West Australia Avion Mackie made the ‘Aussie’ brand sulky and in Victoria there were the Hammill and Tasman sulkies.

In 1961 the first of what were to be the century’s top selling and most innovative Australian sulkies hit the market in Sydney. Jim Caffyn bought the first one from its maker, Reg Walsh, and the word quickly spread that good sulkies could be had again at a reasonable price. In 1963 Walsh changed the name of his sulkies from ‘RJW’ to ‘Regal’, meaning ‘of Reg’, and in 1967 recruited his eldest son  out of corporate engineering management and into the rapidly-expanding sulky-building business. By 1970 Regal was the No. 1 selling sulky in Australia. So many were sold that timber shaft suppliers could not meet the demand. Thus began the search for alternatives, which culminated in Australia’s - and the world’s - first sulkies made with high-tensile stainless steel in 1976.

In 1968 the German Weber ‘negative balance’ sulky made its first appearance in North America. The next year Joe King brought out the first single shaft race sulky in the modern era, a sulky that dramatically outperformed the all-wood designs of the day - and which used Weber’s balance principle. The single shaft sulky was banned for alleged safety reasons in the early 1970s to be immediately replaced by King’s ‘modified’ sulky, a two-shaft sulky of chrome-molybdenum steel which also used Webers’s negative balance principle. Within 12 months the all-wood sulky was obsolete and the new ‘modified’ type was adopted by all manufacturers in that country and, a few years later, in Europe.

The Weber negative balance principle (actually a re-discovery of a very ancient technique dating back some 2700 years) was incorporated in Walsh’s new lightweight stainless sulkies which were approved by the Australian Harness Racing Council in  1979. In 1982 the West Australian horse Rhett’s Law became the first of six straight Inter Dominion winners to use a Regal stainless steel sulky. It was the most complete domination of a major national race series by any new sulky in the twentieth century. Fittingly enough, it was another legendary West Australian horse, Village Kid, who wrapped up an outstanding career by using his Regal Time Trial Special race sulky to set a new world mile record for a 13YO pacer of 1:55.1  in October 1993. It was also the fastest mile of Australia’s greatest money winner’s illustrious career, and the only world mile record set in a symmetrical stainless sulky in the southern hemisphere.

Also in the late 1970s, Australia’s first aluminium sulky, the ‘D&S Sulky’ came onto the market, only to pull out within eighteen months due to mounting failures from poor design and the use of inappropriate grades of aluminium.

However, on May 17, 1983 the 6YO Popular Alm achieved what no Australian pacer had achieved before, when  he shaved 0.2 seconds off the world mile record on a 1000 metre track, running to Vin Knight’s favourite Brewer sulky and stopping the clocks in 1:53.2. Almost two years later, the aged trotting mare Scotch Notch, also shaved exactly 0.2 seconds off the then world record for aged mares on a 1000 metre track when she time-trialed in another Brewer in 1:55.6.

In the same year the Tasmanian 4YO gelding Dyama TT’d in a world record 1:55.5 (0.1 seconds under the previous mark and using conventional Australian timber/steel sulky).
 
By 1985 all sulky makers in Australia had either gone out of business or changed over to the new stainless steel types. Also in the 80s, a few new names made their apearance, such as the Pacesetter (Robert Hansell) and Flite (Kevin Feltham) brands in New South Wales - both created by former Regal employees. In New Zealand Challenger sulkies (also built by a former Regal employee, Maurice Pruden) became dominant, while in South Australia a near identical sulky was sold under the ‘Statesman’ brand.

In 1986 the century’s second significant sulky development in Australia made its debut in Victoria - the offset sulky.

Designed by Jim Walsh, the patented design compensated for Australia’s universally under-banked tracks and carried the Australian sulky to unprecedented heights of performance.

In 1987 the 2YO gelding, Rowleyalla, used a Regal offset sulky in an attempt to become the first 2YO to break two minutes on Harold Park’s sub-half-mile circuit. Before a wildly cheering crowd of 7,135, Rowleyalla stopped the clocks in an incredible 1:55.0!  This was a feat that Dragon’s Lair, Nihilator, Jate Lobell, Barberry Spur and Niatross had been unable to achieve in the U.S.A. as 2YOs on a half mile track.  It was also the outright world record for a 2YO gelding for ALL track sizes - a feat without equal in the century and an astonishing pointer to the growing sophistication of Australia’s harness racing industry. That one run broke a total of EIGHT records, and assured the 2YO of immortality.

It was a staggering seventeen  times the margins by which Popular Alm and Scotch Notch had broken the previous world 1000 metre track records in 1983 and 1985 respectively, and thirty four times Dyema’s world record margin!

Rowleyalla had taken 3.4 seconds of the then world record for a 2YO pacer on a half mile track. The twentieth century did not see another southern hemisphere pacer or trotter achieve anything remotely near such a reduction in a world mile record, let alone beat the mighty Mack Lobell to score the biggest reduction in a world mile record in that year.  At the time, the outright world record for a 2YO on a one mile track was 1:52.4 and Nihilator’s world race record (half mile track) was 1:52.6.

The next year Rowleyalla used the same sulky on Brisbane’s lightening fast 1000 metre Ireland-designed track. The result was Rowleyalla’s second world mile record (by 1.4 seconds) and the century’s fastest mile in the southern hemisphere of 1:52.6.

Notwithstanding the importation of the latest American sulkies from time to time, no horse using the imported bikes equalled or exceeded the records established by Australian horses running to the Australian offset sulky in the latter half of the 20th century.

In 1989 the offset sulkies were both introduced in ordinary racing (as distinct from time trials) and then banned. At the time, the Australian Harness Racing Council had the unwritten policy that the contest should be solely between the various combinations of horses and their drivers, and that all sulkies should be of uniform performance. The AHRC considered the offset bike the only sulky incompatible with that policy.

And they were right.

However, not all controlling bodies agreed with the view that mediocrity was to be mandatory in sulkies.  The West Australian authorities procured ten offset sulkies and staged  the first ten races in the world in which all starters used the offset sulky. These were run between November 1989 and January 1990. In the same period, the same fields also raced in symmetrical sulkies, providing a uniquely effective comparison of the performance of the two types. The magazine Trotwest reported in February 1990 that the offset sulky, ‘has demonstrated a 1.6 second average improvement in 2100 metre races, and a 2.7 second average mile rate improvement in 1700 metre sprints.’

Astonishing stuff, and many there were who would not believe it, but history was to show that Trotwest had accurately gauged the performance of the new sulkies.

On December 11, 1990, two Australian-made offset sulkies were entered in nine races at the half-mile Freehold track in New Jersey, U.S.A. They won seven of the nine races in which they were entered, two of the horses racing to them setting new lifetime marks and one the fastest mile of the day. It was a feat never to be equalled by any Australasian or other ‘foreign’ sulky racing in the USA in the 20th century.

The Americans were quick to recognise a better product and the offset stainless sulky became the first Australian sulky to be produced under licence in North America. The U.S.-made Regal stainless steel sulkies went on to win both the Woodrow Wilson Pace (America’s Pastime) and the Little Brown Jug (Fake Left) in 1992.
 
The 1990s also saw a new sulky manufacturer appear in Queensland - Rio Sulkies with another all-stainless sulky, while in West Australia the country’s second ill-fated aluminium sulky - the Aero-Lite - made its debut.

But 1990 wasn’t the end of Australia’s new-found front-runner status in sulky design. By  August 1992 the AHRC had revised its sulky policies and the bans on the offset sulky were lifted (in Australia),  On the first night the offset sulkies were used at Albion Park, two of the horses using them ran new lifetime records; new Australasian season’s records and, needless to say, won their races easily.

In one race two horses used the new bikes, those two finishing a staggering 44 metres in front of the rest of the field!  Immediately the Queensland authorities placed restrictions on the offset bikes, requiring notification to the stewards when the offset was to be used and when it was not to be used.

A few months later  the first Inter Dominion was held on the same track, in which some (less than 25%) of the starters used the new offset sulkies and one the new Aero-Lite aluminium bike. It was an extraordinary series with multiple world records established (all in the offset Regal sulkies) and eight of the nine races on the final night’s card - including the Inter final - being won with the offset sulkies. In fact all nine races were won in the one brand of sulky, a feat never equalled in this or any comparable harness racing series in any country.

In 1992 Queensland’s Darryl Brennan set about finding an Australian-built pairs (or team-to-pole) sulky for an attack on a number of world’s pairs records, most of which had been set in the late 1980s by the legendary Stanley Dancer. In this he was greatly assisted by another harness racing legend, Delvin Miller.

Miller and Dancer provided Brennan with encouragement and a series of dimensioned drawings and photographs of the special U.S. team-to-pole sulkies in which the world pairs records had been set. Brennan took the material to the designer of the offset sulky and asked him to design and build a sulky which would enable Australian horses on Australian tracks to best the records established by the generally better US horses on the generally better tracks that had been available to Dancer.

In August of that same year a very  strange looking pairs sulky rolled out onto the Albion Park track. Bob Lutherborrow’s description from the pages of the Australian Standardbred perfectly captured the occasion:

         ‘To the fascination of the throngs who surrounded the pacing pairs, Vic wheeled out the space age Regal gemini gig, the team-to-pole vehicle constructed by Jim Walsh for the occasion, and geared up.
         ‘Jim was confident of the technology; he knew the gig would be fast. Vic knew the horses had the speed but both were known to be headstrong and temperamental, far   from the ideal types for such a venture. And the conditions, well they simply could hardly have been worse.
         ‘From the moment the pair walked on the track, it was clear they were not comfortable in the conditions. Joker Is Wild was stepping short through the puddles and Activity was slipping. When Activity went roughly early on and Vic called off the attempt.
         ‘Although general apprehension started to rise, Vic calmly settled and collected the pair.   When they seemed right, he set off again in a do or die effort. Further mistakes would sink the campaign.
         ‘But there were no mistakes. Although the characteristic long striding of both horses was not there, they ploughed on determinedly through the slush. For 1500 of the 1609 metre journey, Vic masterly maintained a rhythm and tempo and for the last 100 he really asked them to work hard to the line.
         ‘When they arrived, they had done so in 2:01.5, incredibly, inside the previous best time of 2:02.2. It was a world record.
         ‘I for one, felt overwhelmed. When my Breeders Association colleague Darryl Brennan raised the possibility of a pacing pair demonstration at the Expo, I persuaded him (without too much resistance) that our goal was not a demonstration but a world record.    Subsequently I was able to persuade my old mate Vic (again without too much resistance) that he was the man to do it.
         ‘And do it, he surely did.
         ‘This is a record that will not last.
         ‘This was Vic Rasmussen's day, which forever will sit at the top of the Australian List titled "Record, Pacing Pair".’

It was also a great day for Australia’s sulky manufacturing reputation. In the country’s first attempt at a pairs vehicle since 1918 it had produced a world record breaker. That sulky went on to capture two more world mile records before an accident  at Harold Park resulted in a re-build. The design was further enhanced during the re-build and the resulting vehicle added another ten world pairs records to the previous three, making Australia the pre-eminent pairs sulky manufacturer of all time. Uniquely, the Regal pairs sulkies were the first in the world to achieve faster times with a pair than the previous best of either of the two horses hitched to them - something they did regularly.

Up to 1994, arguably the most primitive horse-drawn vehicles to be found in the first world were Australasian jog carts. The situation was aptly summed up in an email posted to the aus-harness list by prominent Kiwi participant, Alan Mortenson, in early 1998:

         ‘In all my years in Harness Racing the most important ingredient the sport
         has needed was never fulfilled: A comfortable jog cart.
         ‘It always amazed me that you spend a few minutes in a race cart once a week
         and hours upon hours in training bikes and yet nobody has ever been able to
         come up with a real comfortable training sulky.’

But an email posted to the U.S.-based post-parade harness racing list in April 1998, by leading U.S. trainer Luca Derrico, heralded the international debut of a radical new jog cart design:

         ‘i had the pleasure today of trying a new jog cart today and i was totally
         blown away by it. . .
         ‘each wheel has its own axle and shock absorber which allows each wheel to
         dampen any undulations in the terrain independently. it was amazing. even at
         showplace farm on the sand jogging track which is notoriously bumpy the ride
         was smooth.
         ‘as i like to play a lot of golf and have a chronically sore lower back, i
         found the smooth ride a big help.
         ‘some of the folks on the harness talk list mentioned they train their horses
         on "less than ideal tracks and pastures". this is what this cart was
         designed for as in the southern hemisphere is is common to jog and train
         horses in fields, not racetracks. the independent suspension allows the cart
         to remain stable and ride smooth over the most unorthodox terrain.
         ‘it is beautifully engineered and is pleasing to the eye.’

Having started the century lagging the U.S.A. in every area of sulky technology, Australia trailed further behind for the next fifty years, but  lifted its game immensely after WWII. By the end of the century Australia has a strong claim on leading the world in at least five areas of sulky technology - kit sulkies, stainless steel sulkies, pairs sulkies, offset sulkies and suspension sulkies.

Arguably the most telling statistic is the century’s tally of world mile records to Australian or New Zealand sulkies. Of the several dozen brands of sulky produced in Australasia in the 20th century, only two make that list, Brewer and Regal, both Australian. Of those, two world mile records have been set in Brewers; dozens in Regals.

 

Significant Australasian Sulky brands of the 20th Century:

Regal, Brewer, Bryant, Royal Speed, Egan, Challenger (NZ),  Tasman, Tait,  Pacesetter, Clark, Hamill, Rio, Mercer D, D&S, Aero Lite, Aussie, Speed Gig, Comet,  Swift,  Flite, Parker, J.A. Sulky, Statesman Express, R.J.W., Avanti, Berryman,  Turner, Dominion, Continental, (NZ) Rydelite (NZ), Melville,  Speedee, Fairlight, Trubilt.

 

Copyright James S. Walsh