The sport began when the horses that delivered the post in America in the 1800s were made to race against each other. But it really took off properly with the coming of the first and most famous harness racing horse, Hambletonian, in the 1850s.

In those days, the horses were trained to do a mile in two and a half minutes - that is the standard speed for a standard bred horse. Most of the horses in harness racing today come from the bloodline of the stallion Hambletonian. They are known as standard bred, as opposed to thoroughbred like flat or steeplechase race horses.

The sport has become more popular throughout the world than thoroughbred racing, except in the UK. We don't riders, but drivers, as they have a 'sulky' - an old name for the cart.

The French have a derivation of harness racing called 'le trotter Francais'. Most of the horses in Europe trot as opposed to pace like in North America, Australia and New Zealand. Pacing is at the moment faster than trotting - it's all in the way the horse moves its legs, though they say trotting is a more natural gait for the horse.

At the moment, there's about a three second difference over a mile between the best trotters and pacers in the UK.

Harness racing has been going in Wales for over 100 years, traditionally raced on grass tracks. But they're more dependant on the weather, so now there are four hard or all-weather tracks in the UK, two of which are in Wales - Ammanford Valley and Tir Prince in Towyn, the only full half-mile, floodlit hard track in the country.

The sport has been traditionally one for farmers in the UK - it was a relatively cheap sport for those who kept the odd horse and it was very much for amateurs. Now it's been taken up by small businessmen or people who just love horses.

The late Billy Williams, father of my business partner Andy Williams, set up Tir Prince. He was a driver himself - he got into it in the 1950s whilst working at Pontins in Prestatyn where there was a track. He loved it so much that one day he went to the races in his Ford Cortina, swapped it for a horse and walked home with the horse! He'd fallen in love with the sport.

Tir Prince was a derelict piece of land in 1990 when we took it over and now we hold 13 races a year, some of which go out live on Rasus on S4C. There's big prize money on the televised nights - they're one of the richest nights in the sport. People from all over the world come here - there's a real Irish invasion.
David Senior