Beach Towel (April 26, 1987 – March 21, 2009) was a

Standardbred The Standardbred is an American horse breed best known for its ability in harness racing, where members of the breed compete at either a trot or pace. Developed in North America, the Standardbred is recognized worldwide, and the breed can trace i ...

pacer who was named the 1990

American Harness Horse of the Year The Harness Horse of the Year is an honor recognizing the top harness racing horse in the United States. The award is selected by the United States Trotting Association and the United States Harness Writers Association (USHWA), which issues the an ...

. He won 18 of his 23 starts with a fastest race mile of 1:50 and earnings of $2,091,860.

Background

As a

yearling Yearling may refer to: *Yearling (horse), a horse between one and two years old *''The Yearling ''The Yearling'' is a novel by American writer Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, published in March 1938. It was the main selection of the Book of the Mo ...

, Beach Towel was bought for $22,000 by Seth Rosenfeld, the 24-year-old managing partner of the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based Uptown Stables.Beach Towel winner in Breeders Crown
Observer-Reporter, November 3, 1990 The colt was trained and driven by Ray Remmen.

Racing career

In 1989, Beach Towel won eleven of his thirteen races including the Presidential Stake, Matron Stake, and Potomac Stake and earned more than $478,000. In July 1990, he contested the

Meadowlands Pace The Meadowlands Pace is a harness race for three-year-old pacers, held at the Meadowlands Racetrack, in East Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. It is the richest pacing race in the United States at $738,550 and second richest p ...

Meadowlands Racetrack The Meadowlands Racetrack (currently referred to as Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment) is a horse racing track at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States. The track hosts both thoroughbred racing and harness ...

and overcame an unfavorable draw to win by a nose from Jake And Elwood. On September 9, he lost to Jake And Elwood (who had won the

Cane Pace The Cane Pace is a harness horse race for standardbred pacers run annually since 1955. The race was first run as the William H. Cane Futurity in 1955 at Yonkers Raceway in New York. In 1956 the race joined with the Little Brown Jug and the Mess ...

) in the

Messenger Stakes The Messenger Stakes is an American harness racing event for 3-year-old pacing horses. It was organized in 1956 at Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury, New York (on suburban Long Island) to join with the Cane Pace and the Little Brown Jug to create ...

Rosecroft Raceway Rosecroft Raceway, nicknamed the "Raceway by the Beltway" for being close to Interstate 495 (Capital Beltway), Interstate 495, is a harness racing track in Fort Washington, Maryland. It first opened in 1949 and was owned by William E. Miller, a ...

. Beach Towel started favorite for Little Brown Jug on September 20. Driven as usual by Remmen, he led from the start and won by one and a half lengths from In The Pocket in a time of 1:53.3. In November, the colt contested the three-year-old pacer division of the

Breeders Crown The Breeders Crown is an annual series of Harness races in the United States and Canada covering each of the sport's twelve traditional categories of age, gait and gender. The series was initiated by the Hambletonian Society, promoters of the Ham ...

at the five-eighths of a mile track at

Pompano Beach Pompano Beach ( ) is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. It is located along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, just north of Fort Lauderdale. The nearby Hillsboro Inlet forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. As of the 2020 ...

. He won by three lengths from In The Pocket in a time of 1:51.2, becoming the first harness racer to win more than $2 million in a single year. He also won the

Delvin Miller Adios Delvin () is a village in County Westmeath, Ireland; it is located on the N52 road at a junction with the N51 to Navan. The town is from Mullingar (along the N52). The word Delvin comes from Delbhna. That tribe settled in what is present-da ...

and many other races.Mighty stallion Beach Towel dies
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Stud record

Beach Towel was also a successful sire. Amongst his offspring was Jenna's Beach Boy who once held the record for the fastest race mile of all-time in harness racing history. Another of his offspring was

Somebeachsomewhere Somebeachsomewhere (2005–2018) was a Standardbred Race Horse who, as a three-year-old, tied the world record for a mile (all ages) at The Red Mile with a time of 1:46.4 and earned $3,221,299. In 2008, he had the highest earnings by a pacer in a ...

, the 2008 Harness Horse of the Year. In 2007, Beach Towel went into retirement at the Woodlands Stud in New Zealand. He died on March 21, 2009, following a severe attack of

colic Colic or cholic () is a form of pain that starts and stops abruptly. It occurs due to muscular contractions of a hollow tube ( small and large intestine, gall bladder, ureter, etc.) in an attempt to relieve an obstruction by forcing content out ...

. He was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame in 2005.

Pedigree

References

{{Reflist 1987 racehorse births 2009 racehorse deaths American Standardbred racehorses American Champion harness horses Little Brown Jug winners United States Harness Racing Hall of Fame inductees