Harness Racing Will Return To Bass Park In Bangor This Month

When I was a little boy, my mom had a couple friends that used to keep horses down at Bass Park. They were race horses naturally, but I thought they were cool as all get-out. My favorite was this one horse her friend had named General Don. He was the first horse I ever bet on. A $2 bet won me $6 dollars that day. I felt rich.

Years later, when my sister was dating her future husband, most of his family also had race horses down there too. So once again, I had an excuse to go down to the track and see some horses. They're such elegant, beautiful animals. But since I'm the most irresponsible human on Earth, I never thought about owning one. Haha.

Harness racing has been a tradition in Bangor for well over a century. Of course, until this year. The pandemic has ruined one thing after another since March. And with the Bangor State Fair being canceled, it left many wondering what the fate of the 2020 harness season would be.

According to WABI - TV5, one of the holdups this season is that the parking lot at Bass Park has been a drive-through COVID testing site. But now, the Maine Harness Racing Commission has been given the green light to hold races again. The first scheduled race is on August 19th, post time of 3:00pm.

It's nice to see some things come back to Bangor. One by one, most fun things have been taken away from us. But slowly, maybe things will make their way back to normal. Sure, I wish the fair was happening this year, so I can get fat on dough boys, but maybe going and placing a bet on a horse will bring me back to simpler times, and that's not a bad thing.