For Heather Wilder, harness racing is a family affair
For Heather Wilder, harness racing is the family business
Family and harness racing go together with the Altmyer and Wilder families at The Meadows.
It’s about horses. It’s about love. It’s the family business.
While Dan Altmyer is an acclaimed horseman and a top and respected trainer of Standardbred horses and Mike Wilder an accomplished driver with an Adios-winning drive on his resume, perhaps the brightest light on the family tree is Heather Wilder, Dan’s daughter and Mike’s wife.
She holds the line for the Altmyer-Wilder racing operation. She’s also a trusted industry voice, media personality, strong interviewer and owns the will to be a positive force in the industry.
It makes sense. She’s been around it her entire life.
“Harness racing is everything, I live and I breathe it,” she said. “I love it. Some of my earliest memories are with the horses and growing up telling people I want to be in the sport. People would ask what are you going to do to make a living and things like that. It’s funny because none of us have guaranteed livelihoods. We compete every day. We know we can go in one day and make money or we can come home with absolutely nothing that day. Nothing is guaranteed. It’s all a gamble but I think that we all just love it and, first and foremost, it’s about the horse. None of us would choose this type of uncertainty if the love for the animal wasn’t there.”
Wilder has seen horses in her own unique way. The roles have been abundant.
“I was a stall cleaner, of course, first. I’d go in and ride with my Pappy Scott and he would take me around the track, letting me hold the lines. He had a couple different horses who my dad was training in Florida. Those winter miles. … I’d go out and ride with him, so I started doing that at a very young age, then later with my dad. I thought that if I had to have a job, I would be in the barn, so I’d have a couple horses that I had to take care of and admittedly, I wasn’t great.
“I would not hire a younger me with the work ethic I had then. As a young person you’re having fun. So, it has come full circle. I never really saw myself on the front side of the business growing up. As far as the media side, I had always wanted to be in the actual racing side, the competitor side, but now it’s worked out great where I have a little bit of both worlds.
“I think that’s true for a lot of my colleagues as well. We fell in love with horses, then the sport, then answered the call when needed to step up into the operation and promotion side.”
Wilder has forged a reputation of fairness, working with sincerity and the tenacity to embrace it all and smile while doing so.
Wilder has an enormous number of supporters and admirers, the result of putting in the time needed and completing every detail to finish the job. One of those is recently retired Moira Fanning, a world-renowned administrator and publicist and Chief Operating Officer for the Hambletonian and Breeders Crown, Fanning is effusive in her praise for Heather Wilder.
“When I first met Heather, which had to be at least 20 years ago, if not more, I believe I told her I thought she was capable of being a network broadcaster because she had presence,” Fanning said. “She has the poise and easy relationship to people and obviously she presents very well. I thought she could go as far as she wanted to go in the real world of broadcasting and, of course, she’s got a pedigree. She’s a wonderful person. She brings the skill set, a varied and wide-ranging skill set, then brings her temperament. It is impressive. She’s the best kind of person, which is a person who leads by example and when there’s something to do or a project to be taken, no matter how tedious, she does it and does it cheerfully and very well.”
Added responsibility
Wilder is the president of the Keystone Chapter of the United States Harness Writers’ Association, and last year she was appointed to a six-year term on the Screening Committee for harness racing’s Hall of Fame.
“It did come as a shock,” Wilder said. “It’s always something I wanted to be part of. “It’s usually held for people with more experience. Generally, it comes along later in the career.”
The committee meets annually to determine who will reach the final ballot to try to achieve the sport’s ultimate honor, membership in the Hall of Fame.
Wilder and her husband Mike, daughters and fellow members of USHWA Scarlett and Lauren, and parents Dan and Ruth Altmeyer, have spent almost a decade building their barn and brand. Heather Wilder is respected and active in numerous parts of the industry, including the Vincent Delaney Memorial Tour and working on-air during the event held in Ireland, among other duties.
Wilder voluntarily serves as board member for Pacing for the Cure.
“I don’t know how she does it all to tell you the truth,” said Roger Huston, Hall of Fame track announcer and harness racing historian. “There’s only so many hours in a day. She helps Mike at the barn as a caretaker. She runs the tour group for Ireland. She’s president of the Pennsylvania chapter of harness writers. She’s now a vice president of harness writers nationally. She’s raised two daughters. She’s just phenomenal. There’s no word big enough to use.”
Said Mike Wilder: “She’s the backbone of the business for me. She does the books. You see what she does in the business alone, she’s well known with all the interviews and things she does. She’s very intelligent about what’s happening in the sport and what’s going on. She kind of keeps the ball rolling – a big piece of the puzzle.
“She was born into it; her father has done well. He’s a very intelligent guy and she’s so in tune to everything that’s going on. She’s on top of so much stuff. Heather has a knack for it.”
Concluded her father: “I’m 100 percent proud of what she’s doing. She’s done a great job publicizing the business. A lot of people respect what she has to say. She is a bright light in the business.”
Thinking ahead
Heather Wilder often thinks of ways to attract people to harness racing tracks. She has some interesting “out of the box” ideas.
“I think The Meadows and MSOA are doing a great job with promoting the product to the on-track fans, and with social media they reach a lot of the people who view from other places,” she said. “The handle is significantly up from the previous years. We have young, eager people in those roles and they are trying new things. In anything, learning to adapt and evolve with the changing market are the keys to success. I personally watch most of the races online, so I can understand where the trend is going and I think we have the right people in place to pivot into this new generation of racing.
“I also recognize that nothing beats having an on-track, well-attended event. That’s what hooked so many to the sport and nothing beats that type of energy, when the crowd is cheering down the lane. With the types of promotions that bring fans in like food trucks, Corgi races and so on, we can expose a new demographic to our product. I think any track that embraces that is doing a service to the industry.”
Wilder says she would “love to see gimmick (or prop bets).
“It would be fun and interactive while waiting between races,” she said. “Who leaves the gate first? What saddle pad color is on the front at the quarter pole? Who has the fastest last quarter of the race? Who’s on top at the three-quarters pole? There are so many options. I’m not a handicapper and I would enjoy it, so maybe there are others like me out there. Viewers might start there and over time learn more about the program, product, and horses.”
Fanning said as confident as Heather Wilder is in herself, she thrives as a team member.
She’s a great committee person,” Fannin said. “Committees only work if they’re fair and balanced and move forward with the majority not with personal agendas.
“She never makes anything look hard. She does it and makes it look effortlessly.”
John Sacco writes a column for the Observer-Reporter about local sports history.