How a Horse May Be the Greatest Athlete in Green County History

The Green County Fair’s harness racing tradition reaches back to an era when one Monroe horse became a national name in one of America’s biggest sports. 

Todd Klassy
by Todd Klassy
How a Horse May Be the Greatest Athlete in Green County History

With the Green County Fair quickly approaching, the harness races on the fair schedule may look to some like a tradition from another time.

They are. But they are not there by accident.

Green County was once a hotbed for harness racing, a place where horsemen, fair crowds, breeders and drivers helped connect southern Wisconsin to one of the most popular sports in America. And perhaps no horse did more to put Green County harness racing on the map than a chestnut-colored stallion named Knight of Strathmore.

Foaled in 1906 near Lexington, Kentucky, and later purchased by George Bleiler of Monroe, Knight of Strathmore arrived in Green County with little hint of how far his name would travel, according to a 1954 Monroe Evening Times retrospective. Bleiler brought the horse to Monroe as a 3-year-old, beginning a partnership that would soon produce a world record at the Green County Fairgrounds and make both names known in racing circles far beyond Monroe. 

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