At 61, Tim Curtin was still excelling as a driver in harness races at Hawthorne Race Course.
When Curtin drove Jazzie Babe to victory in the last race on the June 9 card at the Cicero track, he moved into a second place tie in the driver standings with 23 triumphs.
But when Hawthorne resumed racing June 13, Curtin wasn’t back in the sulky. Curtin died of a heart attack June 11 in Perry, Ga., where he was visiting his fiancé, Dora Portwood, according to Jim Miller, Hawthorne media relations director.
Curtin, a resident of Manteno, was born in the downstate town of Ottawa on Dec. 26, 1957. His name first appeared on the United States Trotting Association’s list of licensed drivers at parimutuel tracks in 1978.
“Way back in the 1970s when I was getting in the business, Tim was getting in the business,” recalled Hawthorne track announcer Peter Galassi. “For many years he was dominant at Fairmount Park (the Collinsville, Ill., track that no longer conducts harness racing).
“Then, he moved up to the Chicago tracks. He started slowly but was able to hold his own in the 1980s and 1990s,” Galassi said.
Curtin went to the East Coast for a time, becoming a successful driver at Dover Downs in Delaware, and then returned to the Chicago circuit, Galassi said.
“He had been a perennial top five driver since we’ve had harness racing at Hawthorne,” Galassi said.
Hawthorne became the area’s exclusive track for harness racing in 2006, after bankrupt sister tracks Balmoral Park and Maywood Park shut down.
During the course of his career Curtin won 3,245 races and his purse money earnings totaled more than $22 million.
His most successful year in terms of victories was 1997 when he made 219 appearances in the winner’s circle. His record for purse booty came in 2008 when the horses he drove collected $1,900,785.
Curtin also dabbled in training from 1991 through 2015. His horses won 30 of their 288 starts and earned $141,905.
“I learned a lot from watching Tim drive,” said Terry Leonard, who is in quest of his sixth consecutive Hawthorne driver championship. “He got along really well with horses that were bad actors and hard to drive.
“He was super to race with on the track. More importantly, off the track he was just the nicest guy you could ever hope to meet. I never heard him say a bad word about anybody.”
“Tim was one of the senior veterans in the drivers room and everybody looked up to him for the way he handled himself and the way he drove horses,” Tony Somone, executive director of the Illinois Harness Horsemen’s Association which is the collective bargaining agent for owners and trainers.
“Losing Tim at this point in his career is a shame because he had found some terrific success the last few years at Hawthorne.”
This spring he was the regular driver of two of the stars of the meeting — Jazzie Babe, a winner of four of her five starts, and Meyer on Fire, an Illinois-bred 3-year-old gelding.
Curtin’s son, Pat, also drove on the Chicago circuit before moving to the East Coast when Balmoral and Maywood went out of business. He currently is driving in Massachusetts at Plainridge Park.
Fellow drivers were joined by owners and trainers in the Hawthorne winner’s circle prior to the start of the June 14 program for a moment of silence held in Curtin’s memory. Then, the track monitors showed the last race of his career five nights earlier.
“Tim went out a winner,” Somone said after Galassi concluded his call of the race.
In addition to his son, Curtin is survived by his mother, Jackie; a daughter, Amy; a brother; and two sisters.
Private memorial services will be held at a later date.
Neil Milbert is a freelance reporter.
