Why Harness Racing is a minor sport to TVG.
 

I like TVG and I really like Michelle Yu. But on a night where they have the Meadowlands Pace wouldn't it make sense to have someone on camera who has an idea that when a horse breaks stride there will be an inquiry?

I think they let their best harness people go, which just makes their coverage of this big night look even more lacking.

Maybe they should just play the music tonight and let the races go off in between.

Michelle seems to me to be an authority only on ditzy.
Listening to her for more than a minute or two is pure torture.

People play harness?? :eek:

not really, they just watch and politely applaud.

ive trained both thorobred and standardbred, and although the thorobreds get the glory, they can't hold a candle to their "poor stepchild" siblings the standardbred. the harness horses are more sound, more consistant, race much more and are of better temperment to work with.

over the oast 3 decades the standardbred has improved lightyears compared to the thorobred which is becoming so frail, they barely make it thru their third year of racing.

Might have something to do with the fact that they go a heck of a lot slower, and they're trotting/pacing...not going in a full out gallop...no?

And that you can have a horse have no shot before the race begins. If a horse breaks before the start then just tear up the ticket before the race begins! :ThmbDown:

True, but this really has nothing to do with why the breed might be more durable...

Whoops quoted wrong message.
but that is why its treated to 'minor league' status

Like T-breds never stumble or act up or bolt out of the gate....Or get severely bumped around....Each breed has some drawbacks, don't you agree ?....

best,

But you never see Tbreds stumbling before they reach the gate, or spotting the field a sixteenth of a mile (never have understood why some harness jocks do this). I've played harness more in recent years, but watching how horses break stride at an alarming rate is ... alarming! By the way, I think TVG overdoes harness racing. You harness guys dominate the early to midweek cards on TVG. Just recently did they begin featuring Charles Town. Otherwise we never see old staples like Evangeline and Lone Star and many of the quarter horse meets.

But it happens after the race starts, whereas harness happens before the race starts. Big difference!!!

Few among us care about trotters/pacers. Sooooo boring, and the pools reflect that !!

Yes they "are" different, but they are still "severe" drawbacks....

Say you had a bet on on t-bred, and he stumbles at the start and loses all chance of winning, then what....It is racing luck...Same thing for both breeds....

Actually, other than breaking stride in S-breds, I truly believe that a t-bred can find more ways to lose a chance to win a race than the trotter or pacer...

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Ok guess we will agree to disagree. If it happens at the start after the gate opens its racing luck. If a trotter falls back before the start of the race is that racing luck?

How about a t-bred, stumbling, acting up or thrashing about inside a loaded starting gate ?....Same thing, losing all chance before the race starts, wouldn't you say that is quite similar ?....Perhaps, with either breed the horse shouldn't have been racing on that day, to begin with....Harness horses with gait problems are usually unsound racehorses, and most likely should have been scratched before post time...The t-breds have a much looser set of rules when it comes to scratches.....Sometimes, too loose for me....Imagine, a race that starts out with 10 entrants, and they go with 4 or 5 at off time.....Harness horses have to show much more "just cause" in order for a track vet to scratch a horse...

best,

It was fairly obvious that someone told her during the break what the inquiry was about. Right after that I switched to the Meadowlands live feed and watched the rest of the races on the computer. Once when a horse went offstride at the wire Todd Schrupp said "what happened'?

This is what happens when you terminate your top harness guy who is good enough to work for NBC.

Just a hunch but when the contract comes up for it being an "exclusive" track I think Gural goes in a different direction. He might try to rebate players instead of TVG if it's legal. I know it costs a couple of million but having hi def would be a big plus. I wish him well hope he can restore some of the glory M1 once had.

We Love Cal Racing!
 

Word on the street is we won't be seeing any live races for a while anyway.

TVG has decided to stay live at Del Mar for the 8 horse opener Wednesday, since there are only 3900 minutes to post.

PS; Gotta anal-ize our pick 4's :eek:
Disclaimer;This post is a parody, I think.

I love harness racing. Batavia opens shorty and I will be there. Nothing like a nice juicy hot dog, ice cold beer, leaning on the fence watching the pacers on a hot summer's night.

Ain't a damn thing boring about picking winners.

the buggies getting boxed in is a pain....harness seems more like a chess game (or a blatant scam) more so then the t breds

the pools are garbage and it seems like the typical buggy winner pays around 3.00

Handle on the Big M card last night was 3.9 million. I hear the money spends the same. ;)

Sounds like Heaven!

Thats what happens when there is a big stakes race on the card. What is a normal non-stakes card handle?

Handle on Friday nights card was 1.75 million.

Back on topic, TVG has the exclusive TV rights to the pacing version of the Kentucky Derby. Michelle Yu can have a date with me any day of the week and I will explain all the details of harness racing. ;)

But seriously, it is like having a football announcer covering the playoffs who does not even know what a holding penalty is. :ThmbDown:

I don't particularly care for harness racing, but, I DO get a kick out of a horse when it goes off stride and starts running all out.

I don't care for it either.
BUT
If my business depends on betting through my ADW platform, & each dollar matters to my profit total whether it be from thoroughbred, harness or quarter horse, it should matter.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but I have a tough time believing that a breed can improve so much after just a few generations. It seems more likely that the improved final times have more to do with better equipment (sulky and other), training, nutrition, drugs etc... than genetics.

Ya got me on this one Tom.....I fully expected you to comment on what a dive the joint is, along with the substandard driving colony, combined with cheap racing and thin pools. What did I miss here?

I've been going to Batavia for 30+ years. Love the place.
If you sit way down the end near top of the stretch, if seems like 1958 there!
Nothing beats night racing. We used to leave FL and head straight to Batavia, about a 45 minute drive, 3-4 nights a week.

all of the things you mention are,certainly, a factor to the faster times but the animal itself has become more refined and athletic. as a breed there are many more good racehorses and on appearance, those once referred to as "jugheads" have acquired a much more attractive appearance.

way back when, breaking a pacer to hopples was like a dam day at the rodeo, now most will pace naturally. much easier and less time consuming.

For those of you who might not know....SonnyP, was (is) a very accomplished and successful Trainer and Driver of harness horses....Who competed and beat the best of them in the prime of it...A very talented horseman, imo....

best,

fight the foe ???

from what i see so many of todays great t-bred cappers learned their lessons at the hallowed grounds of roosevelt raceay

Wow. I wish I could truthfully put that into my resume. :rolleyes: ... :D

Quite surprised, and pleased, that you have an experience that scant few of us remember or care to have. Sadly, the greatest days of harness are long behind all of us. Roosevelt at night with an average 15k on ANY night did it for me.....Used to enjoy Pompano at night, and it was second tier racing as well.

While Sonny alludes to the pacer as his example, I will define how the breed is responsible by describing the trot, something I know "a little" about.
Gone are the days of toe weights, hinged quarter boots, filled with lead, and the propensity for nearly all of them to interfere. I recall when Brisco Hanover set the world mark for a 2yr old at .57. That was considered freakish! (Jim Miller is with Erv now, and still looks good btw...) Now Erv has a colt that set the WR at 1:53.2 as a 2yr old, and he has gone more than that this year. Its not just equipment and drugs. You can look at the flesh and see a bigger, longer barelled specimen, that is fluid, sleek, and not as rough around the edges to the eye when squared up for inspection i.e. sales ring. It IS the breed.

It is probably a combination, but the percentages, who knows? Surely artificial insemination speeds things up.

great point. artificial insemination does speed the process, but it can work both ways. the process allows both stallions and mares to participate in the breeding of foals who really have no desirable qualities to reproduce.

Tom,

You bring back the memories of many a great summer night spent at Roosevelt Raceway in the 1960's when harness was king of night time entertainment.
Great racing this Saturday night at Mohawk, enjoy.

__________
David-LV

Jack Lee, the "Million Dollar Tote", and, one of the best Grandstands anywhere, for watching a race on a fine summer night....I remember you Dave !...That was you Dave, wasn't it...?


best,