On this date forty years ago, Broadway Premier won the $30,000* President's Pace at Scarborough Downs in front of a crowd of about 10,000 spectators.
The pacer trained and driven by Peter Blood won at 10-1, and the parimutuel handle on the track's signature day was $363,069**
Race Replay: Here
* $89,486.98 in 2025 dollars
** $1,082,998.29 in 2025 dollars
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On this date in 1994, Jean Emerson was the first woman to be inducted into the New England Harness Racing Hall of Fame.
Emerson and her husband Chet Emerson began racing their horses on the Maine circuit in the 1960s before buying their own farm in 1970 and racing their homebred pacers and trotters throughout New England and Florida.
Emerson was also a charter member of the Maine Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association in 1973, and she was the publisher of the Northeast Harness Journal for its 15-year run from 1980-1995.
The digital archives of that monthly newsletter can be found here.
Scarborough Downs hosted a race featuring local media personalities on this date thirty-five years ago. Drivers included Bill Green (WCSH TV), Tom Caron (WGME TV), Bud Sawyer (WPOR), Jim Crocker (WGAN), and Jay Burns (Portland Press Herald).
(Credit: Northeast Harness News, September 1989)
On this date in 1984 Maine native and hall-of-fame guitarist Lenny Breau was found dead in a swimming pool on the roof of his apartment building in Los Angeles. Investigators suspected foul play, but no one has been charged for the crime.
Breau was born in Auburn, Maine in 1941, and he first recorded at Al Hawkes's Event Records in Westbrook, Maine in the late 1950s before enjoying an international recording career as a versatile and virtuoso guitarist.
The restaurant Lenny's Pub at Hawkes Plaza in Westbrook is named after Breau.
