It's hard to make changes because the tracks get a lot of complaints, either from the horsemen, or the bettors. Nobody seems to want change but without it the sport will continue to die.
As Dean Towers points out in his column, when the Meadowlands opened in 1977, hard core harness fans who were used to the half-mile tracks (Yonkers and Roosevelt) seemed to hate the Meadowlands because so many big longshots won and horses rallied from far off the pace. But the Meadowlands didn't need to get all of the current fans on board. It created its own fan base and it also had by far the highest percentage of crossover thoroughbred bettors who felt that the Meadowlands harness product was similar to thoroughbred racing.
The bottom line is, you should always try to put out the best product you can and don't worry about the naysayers.
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