Is harness racing in the same trouble?

[tzipi]

Is harness racing in the same trouble as thoroughbred racing? I know they are not as spread out on valuable land as thorougbred tracks and probably don't have the same high operating costs. But how are they stacking up in todays times?

[LottaKash]

Is harness racing in the same trouble as thoroughbred racing? I know they are not as spread out on valuable land as thorougbred tracks and probably don't have the same high operating costs. But how are they stacking up in todays times?

Tzipi, much more trouble, imo....Close to death in many places...Sadly...

[tzipi]

Tzipi, much more trouble, imo....Close to death in many places...Sadly...

So no good news. Shame about whats happened to horse racing.

[Trotman]

tzipi I have to agree with LottaKash I think in a lot more trouble. For one if you look at the market as per mutuel handle Harness racing is about 20 - 25% the size of it's Thoroughbred counterpart, and when you take into account that 20 -25% is really made up of 5 - 6 tracks or circuits where you can bet volume without moving the pools that much, IMO Harness racing has too much of their market in one basket. With what has been going on elsewhere in the general economy, the world is in a major correction mode and tracks on both sides will go under.

[markgoldie]

I'm going to take a slightly different opinion here because it is a matter of relative trouble. The great savior of harness racing has been slots. If you can imagine the sport at this moment without them, I think that we see a life which would have been all but gone by now.

For example, imagine the state of racing in Delaware, Pa., Ind., and NY. without alternative gambling money flowing to the tracks. Most of the tracks in those states would have been closed or closing by now. In other words, they would be in the state of Rosecroft, Balmoral, or Maywood. You may have noticed that in Ill., many of the better professional drivers have now abandoned the state. This process has sent Anthony Morgan, Tim Tetrick, Andy Miller, Brandon Simpson, and Tyler Buter packing for greener pastures. The recent cut in purses has made the economics so bad for horsemen that even the now-inactive Ind. circuit, which normally supplies lots of horses to Ill. over the winter, has dried up as a source of racing stock. The Ind. horsemen would rather rest their animals than ship them to Chicago for so little money.

There have been literally hundreds of articles in the harness racing press over the years about what harness racing needs to do to stop the slide and maintain their position. But all of these recommendations fail to take into the consideration the sea change in the landscape that horse wagering faces. Nothing can buck this tide. Years ago, racing was the only form of legal wagering. Today, the competition for the wagering dollar is staggeringly large and growing by leaps and bounds. It is no wonder, then, that racing, which requires a great deal of experience and work to be even moderately successful (or more likely, marginally unprofitable), has been relegated to a small cult of officianados.

So in this respect, harness racing has been lucky. Lucky that the anti-gambling lobby was strong enough to cause the pro-gambling lobby to use existing wagering venues as an argument for slots and table games. Had there been no such anti-gambling pressure, the gaming industry would have gotten the legalization bills without including the handouts to the tracks and racing as we know it would have been truly dead or dying.

So while there is trouble as always, things might have been catastrophically worse.

[Hanover1]

I cut my teeth with the trots as a teen, and am a close friend of several current players in the sport, both breeders and trainers, hence the name Hanover1. If you call the impending demise of what was once the crown jewel racetrack (Meadowlands), and the demise of Garden State (wich was an excellent venue during its stay, along with woes in several states "relative", then its status quo. The very savior (slot monies and politics) that promised to save the sport is now slowly deciding that harness racing is a non profitable, non publicized sport, and are slowly taking measures to squeeze horsemen and owners alike out of the game. Its a matter of time imo, yet I suspect Tbred racing will survive, if even to a lesser degree at some point. Men will always race horses, but the notion of sulky racing has long lost its mass appeal starting in the eighties, and has spiraled downward since. In short, we are wittnessing the start of a bygone era.

[Pacingguy]

I have a more optimistic view. I think harness racing will survive; VLTs have been delaying the inevitable right sizing of the sport. Now that VLT revenue is starting to vanish, tracks and horsemen will have to address the inevitable. The sport needs to address the issues it has refused to do. Too much racing, too long meets. VLTs have been a subsidy that racing has squandered. No one, horsemen or tracks have used any of these funds to improve the sport. This is why like in Quebec, the states are finally going to say 'enough'.

Look at Balmoral and Maywood with the base purse of $1,800. They have a massive deficit in their purse account. By not racing the first three weeks of the year, they reduced the deficit (partially due to simulcasting on other tracks) by $800,000. That is right, they reduced the deficit by not racing three weeks. If they went to a six month or less race meet, there would be no deficit in the purse account and I bet the base purse for the bottom classes would be $5,000; just with the actual betting on their product and money earned on simulcast wagering the rest of the year.

How is this right sizing going to occur? The Wall Street guys who came into the sport in the Lou Guida era are going to get out leaving those that truly love the sport and will be willing to do what needs to be done to keep it going. No doubt, it is going to be painful, more painful because the industry and its participants have refused to do anything to help themselves over the last twenty years.

For what it is worth, here is my vision of what is going to happen and the ramifications. Like I said, the sport will survive.

http://viewfromthegrandstand.blogspot.com/2010/02/look-at-future.html

[LottaKash]

IFor what it is worth, here is my vision of what is going to happen and the ramifications. Like I said, the sport will survive.

http://viewfromthegrandstand.blogspot.com/2010/02/look-at-future.html

Pacingguy, for what it is worth, I was quite impressed by your little spiel about the impending demise of harness racing, and what would have to change in order for it to survive....Your points were well taken by me, and I applaud your keen insight & vision in all of this....Well done....I just hope that someone of any consequence in the sport wil perhaps may read and digest your particular vision as an alternative to the future of harness racing...

In numerous posts of mine, I have often stated that, as I see it, there is just way too much racing in too many venues, both "trots & flats", going on simultaneously, and the quality of racing is suffering as a result of this current state and mindset of the powers that be at today's tracks.....

I am rooting for our sport to survive, but as things are as of now, well, I just don't know.....Greed and apathy abound, and the people who think they are in the know, really don't know, do they ?....Stagnation has been setting in for some time now, and they just can't or won't see it, I am afraid...

As I see it, horse-racing as it is today, is definitely not our Daddy's horse-racing, at least as he once knew it.....We live in an electronic age, and this one aspect alone is not being addressed with any thought to the future...
Where online wagering is concerned, there is mint to be made with the right approach, trouble is, I don't think that most tracks are willing to communicate and mutually cooperate with each other in that respect, and because of that, I believe a great shakeout of the industry must ensue before any real or meanigful and lasting change can occur, and then it may be just too late to save it all ...Sure, some will survive, and that is because of people like us, but me, I am getting old, and I miss the good old days, when you could bet $500 and not rock the odds much....Nowadays, at some tracks $50 will move a number to the point that you are trying to win your own money at times....

Here's hopin'.....:jump:...we'll see :bang:

best,