Five new arrivals entered their stalls in the Pinehurst Harness Track’s barn 16 last October after a seven-hour journey from Ohio.
These three fillies and two colts, 2-year-olds all, are owned by Pinehurst Racing Partners (PRP), the harness horse ownership syndicate founded by the late local businessman and lifelong racing advocate Marty McKenzie.
In early December, the green newcomers were joined by PRP’s charter class, three pacers and one trotter, 3 years old as of Jan. 1. They took their first training laps on the Pinehurst track last year before heading to northern Ohio to begin racing under the lights.
A narrow window of training off Highway 5 will continue into April. For the newcomers, the early days in the Sandhills were deliberately low-key. The first order of business was to school the youngsters on harness wearing. It’s a process akin to placing a saddle on a young thoroughbred. How they react is anybody’s guess.
The newcomers did not venture onto the track for training until the harness training was complete. It’s a gradual process. But on a sun-drenched Saturday after Christmas Day, with members of the syndicate gathered for coffee, the babies appeared to have adjusted favorably to their new routines under trainer Scottie Freeman and his staff.
Horses have been coming to Pinehurst from northern tracks since the Harness Track was built in 1915 by the Tufts family, which developed Pinehurst and its famous golf resort. But the introduction of a one-mile track placed Pinehurst’s track operation in a class by itself, and the numbers shipped to the area’s moderate winter climate because of the mile track increased substantially.
McKenzie’s introduction to the sounds and rhythms of the racetrack began during his youth. His father, William “Mac” McKenzie, managed the Pinehurst track and supervised development of the mile track in 1952.
“For the first eight years of my life, I lived in a house just 25 steps from the five-eighths-mile track (closest to Highway 5),” McKenzie told Hoof Beats magazine during an interview in mid-2025. “On the other side of the house was the second green and third tee of the No. 1 golf course, so I grew up with a 5-iron in one hand and a horse whip in the other.
“In the fall, all the horsemen and their families would ship in, and the real action got underway getting the young horses ready to race the following year.”
McKenzie’s objective in forming the Pinehurst Racing Partners syndicate was to sell shares to current and new owners, giving them a stake in the horses’ racing careers and a role in the preservation of the track into the future. By expanding community participation, PRP is endeavoring to elevate awareness among citizens and elected officials of the track’s stature as a major economic asset worthy of being maintained and upgraded.
“There are only three things in this town that make Pinehurst what it is: the Pinehurst No. 2 golf course, the village of Pinehurst itself, and the harness tracks,” McKenzie told Hoof Beats for its June 2025 feature. “If you take any one of those away, you just have rural North Carolina.”
Members of the syndicate are committed to sustaining the vision of its founder, Marty McKenzie, who passed away peacefully on Jan. 17.
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