Last fall at Maywood Park, 44-year-old Walt Paisley became the 11th harness driver in history to win more than 4,000 races.
The feat is a testimonial not only to Paisley`s skill in the sulky but also to the faith he had in himself through the lean years he experienced.
In his first eight years as a driver, Paisley won only 37 races, and after 12 years, he had only 127 triumphs.
In contrast, he already has made 21 trips to the winner`s circle in Hawthorne`s current meeting.
”From the time I was starting out at 18 until I was 26, I raced one horse,” Paisley recalled.
”Most of the drivers were in their late 30s, and they had been around since harness racing was legalized in Illinois (in 1946). I drove for 14 years before I got my first catch-drive.”
In harness racing, many trainers drive their own horses. A catch-driver is one who is hired by a trainer to compete in a race.
Although Paisley`s pickings were slim in the 1960s, he never thought about getting out of the harness game.
”You could see the sport growing, and I wasn`t backed into a corner with responsibilities,” he explained. ”I didn`t get married until I was 27.”
The big breakthrough finally came in 1971–his 14th year–when he came from nowhere to become the fifth leading driver in the nation with 217 winners.
Since then, Paisley has swiftly made up for lost time. Last year was the 13th in which he drove the winners of more than $1 million in purse money.
Like successful athletes in other sports, a harness driver who excels sometimes is forced to ply his trade despite great pain.
In December, 1984, Paisley unknowingly broke his shoulder when a horse went down in front of him during a race at Maywood Park. But he wasn`t aware of the extent of the injury until April.
”Sometimes I`d come home from the races unable to move my whole right side,” he said. ”In April, I had the shoulder X-rayed, and they found a chip, but it was too late to do anything about it because it was almost healed.”
When Paisley approached the 4,000th-winner milestone, he did so in tandem with his friendly rival, Daryl Busse. They were rooting for each other.
”I got the flu and missed two or three days,” said Paisley. ”I told Daryl, `Go ahead and beat me.` We go back a long way together.”
Paisley, who has lived in the western suburbs of Chicago all his life, tried the Meadowlands, the nation`s No. 1 harness track, at this time two years ago. But after a few months, he decided against making the move to New Jersey and came back to Chicago.
”I couldn`t get any catch-drives to speak of,” he said. ”I was driving lots of horses, but very few of them were doing well. On opening night there, the handle was $3.1 million, and I was chasing around and getting none of the purse money.
”After a while, I realized I was better off back home in Chicago. This is home. For that reason, I`m glad I didn`t do well in New Jersey.”
But the winners here also are becoming harder to come by. ”Like anything else, there`s always younger guys coming in,” he said. ”It`s hard to maintain the number of drives.
”You also get to a stage where you`ve raced so many horses that you know exactly what they did and they didn`t do in a race. It`s second nature. But sometimes when you tell a trainer or an owner why a particular horse lost, it`s not what they want to hear. A younger guy might be more diplomatic.
”So, the next time that trainer or owner has a horse in a race, he decides he wants somebody else in the bike.
”You come to realize horses are like people. A lot of them don`t try. Others will only do as much as they have to. And others are determined to succeed, no matter what.”
Paisley can relate to the horse ”determined to succeed, no matter what.” It took him 14 years before he finally convinced people he was one of the best drivers in the business.
