The Hitter Got Hot For Herve

Herve Filion, the flamboyant 39-year-old Canadian driver who wins more harness races than anybody else, was trying to explain last week how it is that he wins so much. "I look, I think, I see, I go," said Filion. And how! For 10 of the last 11 years he has been the sport's top driver, and in 1974 alone he won 637 races and an astounding $3.4 million in purses.

Every year is a great year for Filion, who has 7,006 career victories. And 1979 seems certain to be his best one ever, seeing as he has already earned $2.7 million and has 301 wins. "I win a lot because I drive a lot," he says. "The only race I can't win is one I'm watching. I drive fast horses, slow ones, mediocre ones. It don't matter."

Not at all. Anything with four legs seems capable of winning when Filion's in the sulky. He has been at the starting gate in more than 28,000 races since 1966 and has driven 1,684 times so far this year. Nothing gets him down. A little more than a year ago, a fire ravaged the barns at his Englishtown, N.J. farm, killing 40 horses. "That set me back about a half a million dollars," says Filion. "It made me work harder. In this business you have to have a cast-iron stomach. There is glory one day, disappointment the next."

At the moment, glory clearly has the upper hand, perhaps because (a) Filion is always so certain that he will win, and (b) he has an uncanny knack for knowing just what to do to do so, when to do it and to whom. All of his legendary abilities dovetailed at last Thursday's Little Brown Jug in Delaware, Ohio, the most important race of the year for pacers. "But don't forget," said one driver, "that he also had the best horse."

No question about that. Three-year-old Hot Hitter, a $21,000 cheapie when he was purchased as a yearling by Trainer Lou Meittinis, has all the chips, and the colt appears to know it. After all, in his last 16 starts he has been no worse than second. Waiting for the race, Hitter was positively dozy, but Meittinis promised, "He'll wake up when he gets to the track." Sure enough. Hitter won the Jug in straight heats (first horse to win twice, wins) before a beery crowd of 41,027. The people sat on bales of hay in their pickup trucks and on webbed lawn chairs and went berserk in adulation—especially when Herve stood on the sulky seat after his victory and rode back in front of the grandstand like Ben Hur. "Disgusting," said an oldtimer. Wrong. It was wonderful, a classic demonstration of the Herve verve that has made him the sport's folk hero.

Filion drives primarily in New York and, like that city, he is bold and brassy and sometimes outrageous. He will race on the outside when everyone figures he should be inside; he will race from behind with a horse that likes to go out front. Jim Miller, who drove runner-up Tijuana Taxi in the Jug, says of Filion, "You don't say, 'I think he's the best.' He is the best." Billy Haughton, whom Filion overtook in July to become the leading alltime money-winner (more than $27 million), says of Herve, "He just thinks fast."

By getting home first, Hot Hitter won $90,000 of the $226,455 purse and raised his earnings for the year to $716,839, a single-season record for a harness horse. The old mark was $703,260, by Abercrombie last year. Asked before the race if he thought he would win, Filion responded, "Oh, yes, sure."

What's your strategy?

"I have no strategy. I drive to win."

What's your philosophy?