Silent Majority spoke volumes when it came to influencing owners, breed

by Ardith Carlton

He was a plain bay horse, nothing special to the eye.

Yet Silent Majority was a lot more. Part talented pacer, part lightning rod for fate, he was an unknowing catalyst in keeping hopes alive, both on the racetrack and in the breeding shed.

From fulfilling his breeder's faith, to helping a family survive a tragedy, to giving horsemen a solid chance for profit, to influencing the breed itself, the plain bay horse was, in fact, unforgettable to those he helped.

Long before she delivered Silent Majority, and even before her first race, Norman Woolworth thought Hobby Horse Tar was one of the two best fillies he'd ever owned--right alongside Maxine's Dream, a Grand Circuit star who was among the breed's first 2:00 freshman pacing fillies.

Woolworth was crazy for Hobby Horse Tar when he saw her in Hobby Horse Farms' yearling consignment--"I loved everything about her; she was a big, high-class, good-looking filly," he recalled. After he made the strapping Tar Heel lass his own, she had trained tremendously for Earle Avery.

But Hobby Horse Tar never made it to the gate. Going from her Roosevelt Raceway barn to the paddock for her first race, she abruptly went lame, and soon joined the broodmares at Stoner Creek Stud, the Kentucky nursery that Woolworth co-owned.

"I told an awful lot of people, including Jim Harrison, that 'Hobby' was going to be a great producer," said Woolworth. He didn't have to look far for her first consort.

Henry T. Adios, a compact son of Adios, was standing his fourth season at Stoner Creek. Voted champion of his division at ages 3, 4 and 5, "Henry" won the Little Brown Jug for Stanley Dancer and had been a feared free-for-aller, reigning for a time as the breed's richest pacer.

The result of their union, a solid bay colt, arrived on April 16, 1969. "He was built square, like a box--just like Henry," said Woolworth, who christened the baby Silent Majority.

As a yearling, Silent Majority was privately graded as a "solid B" by the Stoner Creek staff. "He was a damn nice yearling and everything was perfect on him, but he was very plain-looking. He just wasn't the kind of horse that walks into the sales ring and you go 'whew!'" Woolworth explained. "His B was a good, strong mark; we didn't rate many As, and we had a hell of a lot of Cs and Ds that went on to be good racehorses."

That fall, the crowd eyeing Stoner Creek's consignment at Tattersalls included Roger White, one of Quebec's hottest trainer-drivers and a growing force on both sides of the border.

Woolworth had been impressed with White ever since meeting him at Roosevelt the night of the inaugural International Trot in 1959. "I was shocked in the barn area to see this polite, athletic young man dressed in gray flannels and a terrific dark sports jacket," the breeder recalled.

"I asked Mr. Avery, 'Who the hell is that?' He told me Roger White was the number-one up-and-coming Canadian horseman, and that you never could meet a nicer fellow."

In the International, White, then 27, finished seventh to Jamin with Canadian entry Philip Frost. His reputation would grow, and by the time he visited Stoner Creek's yearlings in 1970, "he was starting to get top owners all over, and he was the most sought-after man in the Montreal area," said Woolworth. "All the horsemen had him pretty much tabbed as the next great trainer.

"I knew Roger quite well and recommended Silent Majority to him, and he bought him. Silent went on to be a terrific horse. And Roger went on to get himself killed."

A powerful start

White loved hockey as well as harness racing, and in the late '60s a hockey-playing friend introduced him to Montreal businessman Irving Liverman.

Liverman's electrical appliances company was located near White's home base of Blue Bonnets Raceway--a track known today as Hippodrome de Montreal. Watching his friend train and compete piqued Liverman's interest in the sport, and White offered to go partners with him on a pacer.

"Roger was a young, tremendous athlete, and I felt very confident he was an honest type of person," recalled Liverman. "So we each invested $2,000, and he bought a filly called Keystone Wish [p,3,2:04.3f ($24,759)].

"She wasn't Grand Circuit category and never made a ton of money, but she gave us a lot of good times and laughs. Then Roger said, 'Let's try another one.'

"He called me and said he saw a good-looking animal, a Henry T. Adios--which didn't mean much to me, just another name--and if it wasn't too expensive, $10,000 to $15,000, he would buy that one," said Liverman. "He purchased him for $9,500, and it turned out he had a good eye."

White brought Silent Majority north to Blue Bonnets, and Liverman came by almost every day to watch the colt learn his lessons. The partners decided to stake the colt primarily in Quebec. "Roger staked so many horses and never got them to the big races, so he went very lightly on 'Silent,'" explained Liverman.

On May 11, 1971, Silent Majority debuted at his home track in a $500 baby race, and White guided him home first in 2:07. A week later they won again. And again, and again.

Stepping up from the freshman tests to Blue Bonnets' conditioned ranks in June, Silent Majority continued to win for White. They rode a six-win streak into the Juvenile Circuit series at nearby Hippodrome de Quebec and racked up three more victories in its initial legs.

Rival colt E.B. Time was waiting at Ontario's Rideau Carleton oval, though, and snapped the streak with a 2:04 effort, with Silent second. But five days later Silent began it anew, returning to Quebec to nab another Juvenile Circuit leg for White.

In late July at Montreal's Richelieu Park, the $23,144 Canadian Juvenile Pace brought together not only Silent Majority and E.B. Time, but also Strike Out, a golden-hued speedball who'd been turning heads on both sides of the border.

Undefeated in his eight-start career, Strike Out was the heavy favorite--but Silent and substitute pilot Serge Grise were unimpressed, taking the battle to the chestnut at the half and finally grinding past in deep stretch to win in 2:02.1, with E.B. Time third.

A morass of mud took its toll on Silent the next week, as he dropped a Juvenile Circuit leg at Hippodrome de Quebec in 2:10.4, the fastest mile on the card. But a month of clear sailing awaited at Toronto's Greenwood Raceway, where he won his next four races--including a pair of preferred handicaps against his elders.

Silent extended his new string to five wins with another Canadian Juvenile score, this time for substitute driver Kenneth McElroy at Connaught Park on Sept. 9.

Meanwhile, Strike Out had been repaying his Ontario owners for their faith in staking him with several Grand Circuit wins, including the Fox Stake. The rich Roosevelt Futurity on Oct. 1 was one of the few stakes that allowed supplemental entries, and White and Liverman gladly paid the $7,500 fee to give their own colt a shot at the best in the class.

In the meantime, the Liberty Bell yearling sale in Philadelphia was slated to begin Sept. 18, and White invited Liverman to join him and another of his owners, Blue Bonnets director Jacques Cote, on the shopping trip.

"Roger was racing a horse at Garden City Raceway in St. Catherine's, and then they were going down to the sale in a private plane," recalled Liverman, who initially agreed to go. "But when I told my mother I was going, she said, 'No, you aren't. It's our Jewish High Holidays, so I don't think you should go.'

"All good boys listen to their mothers, and I didn't go."

The last contact with the plane White and Cote had chartered came near Elmira, N.Y., when the pilot reported trouble with severe weather and poor visibility. It took four days to find the plane's wreckage in a mountainous area of Pennsylvania. There were no survivors.

White left his wife of 11 years, Aline, and three daughters, age 9, 7 and 3. There were 42 horses in his barn, including nine recently purchased yearlings.

"Most of the stable was split to the hands of the owners, who took their horses to other trainers," recalled Aline White, now 65. "Roger owned a few by himself, but I had to sell all those within a couple of months. I couldn't afford to keep them.

"I stayed only with Silent and Keystone Wish, because Mr. Liverman was a partner and he was interested in racing, so he could help me with the decisions. I couldn't have stayed in it without him.

"Staying with the horses helped me, too," she added. "The first years [without Roger] were difficult, but you have to keep going. The horses kept me busy, not just staying at home with the children. The children liked the horses, too."

"We got along well, and it was a tremendous partnership," said Liverman.

White's second trainer, Guy Contant, and Lucien Fontaine both stepped in to condition Silent Majority, who hadn't raced in three weeks. The only available tune-up was an A-1 pace three days before the Roosevelt Futurity, and the colt eased home fourth.

The $81,216 Futurity itself saw Strike Out soar to the lead and never look back, clinching divisional honors. In his wake, Silent Majority and catch-driver Herve Filion crossed the wire a disappointing fourth.

Exactly one month after White's plane had been found, Blue Bonnets' $23,244 Canadian Juvenile Circuit Pace finale was the last of Silent's freshman engagements, and 27-year-old Serge Grise returned to the bike for the season-ending showdown with Strike Out.

The chestnut again left hard, but this time Silent Majority went with him. After the early duel, Strike Out began to back through the field, and wound up seventh as Silent hit the wire in 2:00.2.

"That's the race that is most outstanding in my memory," admitted Aline White. "The horse showed so much courage, and it was a very emotional win."

Creating opportunities

At season's end, Blue Bonnets General Manager Georges Giguere asked Stanley Dancer, on behalf of Liverman and Mrs. White, if he would train Silent Majority. Having campaigned Henry T. Adios, Dancer was more than happy to handle one of his old champion's sons--especially one coming off a 17-for-21 freshman season.

"I trained him for Mrs. White for nothing. It never hurts to do somebody a favor," said Dancer, a longtime friend of Roger White's who had White catch-drive his horses in Canadian engagements he couldn't make it to. "Liverman paid his part of the bills."

Dancer observed that Silent Majority was good-gaited, went clean, and didn't share some of his sire's quirks.

"Henry could beat them all away, but then he wanted to be behind another horse as long as possible. Silent had as much quick speed, but he'd race anywhere," he said. "Henry was a great racehorse, but Silent was the tougher of the two. He could rough it.

"They both did pin their ears quite a lot, but both of them were pretty good-natured--not like Nevele Pride, for instance. Henry and Silent were the kind you really enjoy."

The owners planned to supplement Silent to as many stakes as possible--to give him not only his greatest chance to shine, but also his best chance to earn a hefty bankroll. With Roger's death, "I got hit by taxes and debt at the same time," said Aline. "It was scary. I definitely needed Silent to race well."

Making his season premiere at Yonkers on April 16, 1972, Silent Majority went postward in an A-2 pace and had an easy time against his elders. The next notch up the ladder was also no challenge, with the colt coasting wire-to-wire for Dancer in an A-1 event in 2:01.4.

Rockingham Park's $25,000 Romeo Hanover Invitational was one of the first sophomore rumbles of the season, and Silent quickly asserted himself. His 28.3 opening quarter was the fastest the New Hampshire half-miler had ever seen, and after turning back a bid by Strike Out, Silent powered on to victory in 2:00.4 over Entrepreneur, with Strike Out fourth.

Sharing Dancer's barn with 4-year-old Albatross made for some tricky logistics at times, and after winning the Realization with his older champion, Dancer was scant minutes too late in reaching Brandywine Raceway to drive Silent in his division of the Battle of Brandywine.

Stanley's brother Vernon had things in hand, though, and guided Silent Majority in a gutsy win that saw the colt race parked for much of the mile before kicking away down the stretch, besting Strike Out by six lengths in 1:57.2.

Dancer's conflicts resulted in Vernon and stable assistant Walter "Pee Wee" Welch driving the colt in the weeks that followed. Silent won the American-National, but dropped his next two starts to older foes.

Reunited with Stanley Dancer, Silent Majority rebounded to win the Connaught Cup in a track-record 1:58.4. Paid into Greenwood's Grand Circuit Queen City Pace, he edged out Strike Out--but they were third and fourth as 70-1 winner Lynden Bye Bye lit up the board in a tight finish.

Illness derailed the colt before Blue Bonnets' $100,000 Prix d'Ete, Canada's first-ever six-figure horse race, and he struggled home fourth behind Strike Out.

Just one week away was a race with far less purse but much more meaning: Hippodrome de Quebec's $12,000 Roger White Memorial Invitational Pace. If ever a master trainer's touch was needed, this was the time--and Stanley Dancer came through.

"Silent was sick in the Prix d'Ete, but whatever he had, he recovered from it quick," said Dancer, who reined the colt home on top before a joyous crowd.

"All the people who knew my husband came to see that race," recalled Aline White, with emotion. "They unveiled a plaque at the track in my husband's name, and in the horse's name, also. It was a very nice occasion."

Driven Marcel Dostie was called upon to substitute for Dancer in the next week's $35,650 Beaver Pace at Blue Bonnets, and although he and Silent did their best to reel in the front-flying Strike Out, the chestnut paced away late to hang another loss on his rival.

A hot new team

Between the superlative season Dancer was having with Albatross, and his ultimately successful pursuit of the Trotting Triple Crown with Super Bowl, his previous commitments to that pair of champions were a growing roadblock to taking a regular seat behind Silent.

However, Liverman had gotten to know Bill Haughton that season, and since that Hall of Fame horseman didn't have a superstar that year, all agreed it might be best for Silent Majority to move to Billy's barn.

"Billy Haughton was very similar to Roger," said Liverman. "They were completely wound up into horse racing, and they loved training. That's why I stayed with Billy practically until he got killed [in 1986]."

Haughton and his new pupil clicked immediately, winning Hazel Park's Little Brown Jug Trial. Silent Majority was not eligible to the Jug--won in world-record time by Strike Out--so he went to The Red Mile, taking a thriller of a free-for-all. That primed him for a straight-heat romp in the Grand Circuit's $15,100 Thomas Murphy Memorial, skimming the muddy clay surface in 1:58 and back in 1:56.3, his lifetime best.

Wins in a Yonkers junior free-for-all and in Rockingham Park's $28,000 Salem Championship sophomore pace gave Silent a six-race win skein with Haughton, and Liverman and Mrs. White the confidence to lay down $15,000 to supplement their colt to Roosevelt's $154,733 Messenger Stake.

It was the race of his life.

Liverman remembers the constant rain that fell on that dank November night, as Strike Out fought his way around and through traffic to reach the front while Silent Majority paced along patiently, parked far back in the mud-splashed 11-horse field.

Down the backstretch the second time, Haughton asked him to go, and the sight of her colt looping the field has always stayed with Aline White. "He just went like a bullet and passed everybody," she remembered, with awe. "Like a bullet!"

The anticipated duel with Strike Out lasted just a few strides, and then Silent Majority was winging away. Eased up in the stretch, he still won by two lengths, with Strike Out a beaten eighth.

It was Silent Majority's fourth defeat of Strike Out in their six sophomore meetings, and sixth of nine overall. It was also a record fourth Messenger win for Haughton, who had nothing but praise for his charge. "You can turn this colt inside out or any way you want to," he told the press.

Hollywood Park in California offered the season's last batch of big-money races, and six days after their Messenger win, Silent Majority and Haughton added another big one in the $106,550 L.K. Shapiro Pace for 3-year-olds. The three-length score in 1:59 brought Silent's seasonal bankroll to $302,929, making him at that time only the seventh pacer in history to earn over $300,000 in a single year.

"Silent Majority is just in another league," raved Bruce Nickells, who'd been second with Fast Clip. "Billy can do anything he wants with him, and boy, can he do it all!"

Even so, Silent didn't seem the same. "When we won the Messenger, I asked him and he opened right up," Haughton told reporters. "Tonight he didn't, although I didn't have to use him as much."

Haughton debated skipping the next week's $50,000 Western Pace, where a meeting with Albatross loomed, to rest his colt for the 1 1/8-mile American Pacing Classic that would follow. At zero hour, though, he dropped Silent's name into the box.

"I got to thinking that if I didn't try him against these older horses at a mile, how could I expect him to beat them at a mile and an eighth?" he explained at the time.

After pressing Albatross for the first half-mile, Haughton tucked Silent Majority into the pocket, and then popped out for another try as they turned for home. But the 3-year-old was all done, and backed through the field as Dancer and Albatross sped to the wire in 1:56.2.

Silent's connections all agreed it was time to end the season--and to begin planning for his campaign at 4.

'Winners by the dozens'

Despite Silent Majority's bigger bankroll and 19-for-26 season, Jug winner Strike Out, first or second in 21 of his 25 starts, was again voted the class champion by the U.S. Harness Writers' Association. Liverman and White were gracious in defeat.

"We only went for the races where we could pay a supplemental fee or you didn't have to be staked," said White. "Strike Out was staked to everything, so he deserved it more."

But as Silent Majority was training back for his 4-year-old campaign with the Haughton Stable in Florida, news came from the north: In the Canadian Trotting Association's annual poll of race secretaries, Silent Majority had been selected over Strike Out not only as Canada's champion 3-year-old colt pacer, but also as the 1972 Canadian Harness Horse of the Year.

"That was a great tribute to Roger," said White. "Buying a colt or filly and getting it to win a race is a long trip, a lot of work, and you have to be lucky, too--but most of all, you have to know what you're doing. Roger was great with picking and training horses."

In March, Silent was nearly ready for his 1973 debut when he suddenly came up lame.

"He broke a little bone," White recalled. "We sent him to the best vets he could have, and they said he could never be the same. So we had to retire him.

"By then the stud season had already started, so you have to go to the next year--but they forget soon, you know? There are so many new horses coming, they're maybe considered first for stud before you.

"But Walnut Hall was interested, and he went there. The people there are always so nice."

"The whole family are wonderful people; in fact, [then-Walnut Hall Farm manager] Steve Brown is still a very close friend," added Liverman.

Brown joined Liverman, White, Haughton, and catch-drivers Grise and Dostie at an official retirement ceremony for Silent Majority held at Blue Bonnets that August. Soon after, the bay stallion was brought back to the Bluegrass, scant miles from his birthplace.

"Some people were scared to death of Silent Majority because he was by Henry T. Adios," said Brown. "Henry was a fast horse but he'd sulk, so some people thought Silent Majority would never be any kind of a sire.

"But Billy Haughton told me Silent was the only horse he ever had that pinned his ears and went forward."

Of the 34 foals in Silent Majority's first crop, nearly one-third were bred by Walnut Hall Farm, including Silent's masterpiece: Abercrombie p,4,1:53 ($984,391). That pacer's impact on the racetrack earned him 1978 Horse of the Year honors, and his impact on the breed itself has been immeasurable.

The sport's leading money-winning sire in 1987, '88, '90 and '96, Abercrombie has also become a sire of sires, with his Horse of the Year son Artsplace the sport's number-one sire by all-age earnings in 1997 and '98.

Silent Majority never sired another horse of Abercrombie's lofty level--but his offspring were racehorses to the bone.

"He's what you'd call a good poor man's sire," said Norman Woolworth. "He didn't stand for any great stud fee, but he turned out winners by the dozens." Standing for $5,000 most of his career, Silent Majority's average earnings per foal--not just the starters--was more than $32,500.

Silent's legacy

With their breeding shares in Silent Majority, Liverman and White were able to enjoy some of his winners, too.

Liverman and his son Herb bred mares to Silent each year he stood at stud, and were rewarded in 1983 with Laughs p,3,1:52.1. The speedy bay banked more than $1.3 million for the Eight Friends Stable--a group that included the Livermans and White.

Laughs won 10 of 14 races as a freshman, including the Lawrence B. Sheppard, Prix de l'Avenir, and his division of the Garden State Pace. He returned at 3 to hit one of the sport's grandest jackpots in the Meadowlands Pace.

"We'd won several Messengers and Canes by then," said Liverman, who added a long-coveted Hambletonian last year with Muscles Yankee, "but Laughs' Meadowlands Pace win was the highlight of my career right up until Muscles Yankee.

"We were far from being the favorite in it--I think we went off at 11-1--and he had a lousy post position and everything went against him, but he came charging at the end and won by a neck.

"Laughs was a pretty good guy, kind and tender--unlike Silent. You never turned your back to Silent; he'd take your sleeve off your jacket as soon as look at you."

Immediately after finishing 3-4 in the Jug, Laughs contracted salmonella, ending his racing career and almost his life.

"The vet bill from the hospital was $28,000 just to keep him alive for three months," Liverman said. "Both his front hooves were completely eaten away; we had to build up two new hooves for him."

"We sent him to stud in Ontario, but I guess the disease had done its work, and he died after five years," added White.

White also bred one of Silent Majority's top performers, 1986 Aged Pacing Mare of the Year Samshu Bluegrass p,5,1:55 ($664,978).

"I didn't do much as a breeder, but she was a good one," she said. "I sold her for $6,000 as a yearling [then named National News], and she made a lot of money for Dr. [Luel] Overstreet."

Silent Majority sired crops ranging from 16 foals to a high of 99, and by 1992 his book had dwindled to 25 mares. That August, the 23-year-old stallion laid down and was unable to rise.

"He was down for about a week, and we couldn't get him up," said Dr. Phillip McCarthy, Brown's successor as Walnut Hall's farm manager. The diagnosis was herpes myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord--and on the morning of Aug. 31, Silent was humanely destroyed.

Silent Majority left 969 offspring. The winners of more than $31.5 million to date, they include 28 in 1:55--the swiftest being Under Orders p,4,1:50.4 ($495,292)--and 20 winners of $250,000 or more, with Laughs his richest.

Among his daughters' best performers have been divisional champions She's A Great Lady p,4,1:50.4 ($973,382) and The Big Dog p,4,1:49.3 ($830,011), the gallant Guts p,4,T1:51.3 ($1,654,709), Breeders Crown winner Three Wizzards p,3,1:52.2f ($815,154), C K S p,6,1:51.2 ($956,418) and Justin Kin p,4,1:52 ($816,303).

Today Silent Majority rests in a quiet corner of the Walnut Hall cemetery outside Lexington, near the grave of Abercrombie's dam, Bergdorf. At nearby Castleton Farm, 24-year-old Abercrombie continues to transmit the genes Silent bequeathed him. And far north, in Quebec, Irving Liverman and Aline White are grateful for the part Silent Majority played in their lives.

"I've had other great horses since then, like Handle With Care and Muscles Yankee," said Liverman. "They have big hearts, but Silent was a small horse with a tremendous heart. He could do whatever you want. I have Roger to thank--for Silent, and for introducing me to the sport."

"Those were good times before Roger died," said Aline White, who closed out her breeding interests five years ago, "and later on, after the worst was over and I got interested in living again, we had some very good times with horses.

"I don't think I could have kept going without the Livermans, and they gave me good advice. I could have just been raising my kids and not doing much, but Silent and the other horses made my life more interesting.

"All good things have an end--for me, anyway. But those are times I will never forget."