adios harry
Adios Harry was bred by L. T. Hempt of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He was an Adios - Helen Win by Mc I Win foal. Adios Harry was owned by J. Howard Lyons of Harrington, Delaware and trained (and often driven) by son Luther Lyons. Adios Harry was considered a temperamental horse, who was usually a front runner. At two, he won the Bloomsburg Fair Stake, and at three, driven by Morris MacDonald, he won the 1954 Little Brown Jug in three straight heats of 2:01.3, 2:02.3 and 2:03.2. In so doing, he set a new three-heat record for three-year-old pacers on a half-mile track.
In 1955, as a four-year-old, Adios Harry clocked six 2:00 miles, one over a half-mile track, to become the fifth pacer to do so up to that time in history. That same year he set three world records: 1:59.2 at Roosevelt Raceway's half-mile track, 3:04.2, again at Roosevelt in the one-mile Nassau Pace, and at Vernon Downs, New York, where he captured pacing's first 1:55 mile. Adios Harry held this record for sixteen years. He was the leading moneywinning pacer and was named 1955 Aged Pacer of the Year.
By the time he was five, Adios Harry held twelve world pacing records, at distances ranging from a mile to a mile-and-a-half. He was featured on the front cover of the July 23, 1956 issue of Sports Illustrated magazine, under the banner, "ADIOS HARRY: World's Fastest Pacer." That year, he ranked second in the all-time leading moneywinning pacers list. Twelve months later he was named the all-time Standardbred earner, for both gaits, surpassing the earnings of Pronto Don, who had earned $332,363. Adios Harry's lifetime earnings totalled $345,433.
Adios Harry, who stood at stud at Sugar Hill Farm, Greenwood, Delaware sired 352 pacers, 26 in 2:00 and 187 in 2:05. He sired dams of 698 pacers, 114 in 2:00, 466 in 2:05.
Published in the Harness Racing Museum's 2001 Souvenir Journal