Harness racing is a grandstand race in which a horse pulls a two-wheeled cart called a sulky, with a driver seated in it, around an oval track at a trot or pace rather than a gallop. It is an older grandstand tradition at New England agricultural fairs generally, historically paired with cattle shows and pulling as the events that filled a fairgrounds' arena schedule before demolition derbies became common. Not every fairgrounds in this Massachusetts directory has the oval track and stabling that harness racing requires, since it depends on purpose-built grandstand infrastructure rather than a rope-line ring, so it is realistic to expect it mainly at the larger, longer-running fairgrounds rather than at a one-day town fair.
Also known as: sulky racing, trotting race.
