Photo by Graham Cullen WFMD's Dianah Gibson is driven to victory Tuesday by Tim Offutt with Secret Cam during the Celebrity Race at The Great Frederick Fair.

That's what it says in Ecclesiastes 9:11. But at The Great Frederick Fair, it was a last-minute surge that left me in second place in Tuesday's Celebrity Race.

I could say it is because I'm a "gentleman" that I let Dianah Gibson of WFMD Radio win. But the truth is, I thought I had won the race for a second time.

Her driver was Tim Offutt, who was my driver in last year's competition, and her horse was Secret Cam.

Each year, the Great Frederick Fair hosts media "personalities" in a couple of races. They are one lap, as opposed to the two-lap professional races held each day of the fair.

When the fair started the Celebrity Race three years ago, I won on a horse named Viper with Colby Hubble, who raises horses, holding the reins. The horse got a blanket as a prize, I got a T-shirt. Last year, I lost out to Frederick Mayor Jeff Holtzinger.

This year's race pitted me against the mayor, Dianah and Dave Gunning of Key 103 Radio.

I climbed aboard a cart with Joe Offutt, who has been racing horses since he was 16. That's 40 years at the reins, and he has won many races in that time.

Our horse, McRum 'N' Coke, was ready to go. We did a warm-up lap slowly around the track. I waved to people I knew, and many I didn't, who had come to see the race -- or perhaps just wanted a place to sit after walking around the fair for a while.

It had sprinkled earlier. I wasn't sure if the race would be run in the rain. But it stopped and he headed for the track.

We got behind the "modified" Cadillac that serves as a pace car. When the horses saw it, they knew it was time to speed up.

I braced myself in the cart and held on. As the pace car pulled away, Joe led us to the inside lane and we stayed there. As we pulled into the back straightaway in the lead, some of the horses began pulling even, but were still slightly behind us.

The finish line was coming up fast and I couldn't see any horses in my peripheral vision. I thought we had it.

But suddenly there was Dianah's horse, sprinting across the line, winning by a nose. "It might have been a photo finish," Joe said.

But Dianah got the photo and fame, while the rest of us trotted back to the stable.

I'm sure she was doubly happy, considering her ongoing competition with the mayor about the horse race.

It was all in fun, of course, and we all enjoyed it. We came out safely and perhaps brought some excitement to the folks in the grandstand.

I hope I get to do it again next year. But the real celebrities are the horses, the drivers and those in the stables who take such good care of those beautiful animals.

Thanks to Nancy Hendricks, who heads the equine part of the fair, and to Colby Hubble, for her coordination of the races.