Stephen G. Phillips

Stephen G. Phillips (1887 – September 26, 1973) was an American harness racing official and inventor who developed the mobile starting gate. He was inducted into the Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame in 1962.

Early life Stephen Gabriel Phillips was born in 1887 in Xenia, Ohio, United States. He was born into a family of noted horsemen. He was a nephew of Stephen C. Phillips, a Hall of Fame harness race driver-trainer. He made it to the Grand Circuit in 1917. He held the role of starting judge on the Grand Circuit for 26 years. The 1926 Hambletonian Stakes in Syracuse, New York featured Phillips as its starter. He worked on over 100 tracks throughout the United States. He developed, in 1937, a moving automobile with a folding contraption mounted on the back that maintains horses side by side toward the starting line. In July 1937, he demonstrated his first gate, built on a 1930 Ford chassis, at North Randall, Ohio, but Grand Circuit officials refused its use during races until further approval.

After consulting George Morton Levy, Robert G. Johnson, and J. Alfred Valentine, controlling officials at Roosevelt Raceway, Phillips gained authorization to build an improved starting gate. Following his move to New York in 1940, he refined his invention at the Liberty Aircraft Corporation, devising a folding arm to close the 70-foot wings once the race began. It was built at a cost of $53,000 at the Long Island plant. Within three years of its introduction, his invention was adopted by most major harness tracks in the United States. Its use extended to Yonkers Raceway for the Hambletonian, to Reading, Pennsylvania, for the Reading Fair Futurity, and to The Red Mile for the Kentucky Futurity. Before his retirement, Phillips started an average of 1,900 races during a season.

He was named the first recipient of the United States Harness Writers Association Proximity Award in 1952.

Along with E. Roland Harriman, he was one of the first two living members elected to the Hall of Fame of the Trotter in 1962. In 1968, he was honored with the "Meritorious Award" by the Ohio chapter of the United States Harness Writers Association in Columbus.