Observations from the stakes racing that was between the Adios at The Meadows and Hambletonian/Oaks eliminations at The Meadowlands.

by Brett Sturman 

I’m not embarrassed to admit that I missed the second of last Saturday’s (July 27) two Hambletonian elimination’s live and didn’t see it until the next morning. With that race going off at 11:10 p.m. local time and me having fallen asleep sometime after the preceding race, T C I’s win at The Meadowlands came close to 12 hours following the 11:45 a.m. start time of the Adios card at The Meadows. Timing of The Meadows races had impact on The Meadowlands card. But, the unnecessarily long race cards bordered on insanity.

Beginning with The Meadows, the first race advertised post time was 11:45 a.m. and the last of the 16 races went off at 5:52 p.m., which comes out to an average of 23 minutes in between each race. The Meadowlands allowed for long delays between races early in its card as to provide more time for drivers incoming from The Meadows to arrive. They averaged almost 25 minutes between 14 races from the start of their advertised post time of 6:20 p.m. to an ending time of 12:06 a.m. the next morning. It would have been even longer had things not been relatively sped up for the last three races.

The $350,000 Adios didn’t go off until close to 5:30 a.m. the 15th race on the card. For drivers such as Dexter Dunn, David Miller, Todd McCarthy and Tim Tetrick, who had Adios drives as well as Hambletonian, Hambletonian Oaks and other stakes engagements at The Meadowlands, it left little room for error in travel logistics. Dunn, in fact, did miss a winnable Tompkins-Geers drive from race 4 that night before he and the others arrived in time for race 5. But, if there were better coordination between the tracks, could the races have been better scheduled?

For example, what if instead of race 15 the Adios was carded even an hour earlier around race 12 or 13? What would have been lost in that process? I know it’s customary for the very big races to be run towards the end of a race card, but I don’t see a downside if it were run a little earlier. The Meadowlands has experimented with this having run the Hambletonian right in the middle of its card a couple of years ago and I recall it being well received as far as placement and impact to handle on the overall card.

The reality is that harness racing does have a very busy stakes schedule and coordination between all the races at all the tracks isn’t feasible, but some flexibility between tracks should be doable for when highly impactful races fall on the same day.

And more generally, when did six-hour race cards across parts of the industry become the norm? It doesn’t matter as much if most of the audience is remote as is the case for most race days throughout the year and I can personally get errands and other things done over the course of an hour and only miss a race or two, but what are you supposed to do to kill 25 minutes onsite in between 16 races?

If the card length is being extended in the name of handle, is there any evidence that handle would be different if races were 16 minutes apart instead of 24 minutes? The bottom line is at a time when major league baseball games have never been shorter, harness race cards have never been longer.

A few other observations: In between many of the supporting stakes races on the Adios card was random lower-level claiming and conditioned races. There must have been a reason I don’t know of, but why couldn’t they have swapped those regular overnight races with all the 2-year-old Arden Downs stakes that were run the day before on Friday, and then Saturday could have been a near all-stakes super type of card?

Maybe an overreaction here, but in the theme of tracks not ceding the spotlight to others or maybe not even being aware, Saratoga Harness went to their second race post on Saturday at the exact time the Adios was going off. If you are a harness racing bettor and those two races go off simultaneously, who is betting the Saratoga race? As common sense, it just seems like bad business.

Onto the actual horses, the Adios delivered with a pretty exciting race considering that the field quality wasn’t as highly regarded as it’s been in some recent years. Credit to Captain Albano who parked out Clever Cody, set fast fractions and was a deserving winner to just hang in there in 1:49.2. I’m anxious though to see what type of horse runner-up Wish You Well turns into in the latter part of the summer. I raved about his elimination win in last week’s column and he proved that race was absolutely no fluke when he was absolutely raging once again after being free too late. Is he really now suddenly this good? We’ll find out.

At The Meadowlands, a lot of credit is to be given to Elista Hanover as she made it 10 in a row with her Hambletonian Oaks elimination win; it’s truly impressive how much better she got between ages 2 and 3. That was a well-earned win fending off the first-over push from Buy A Round and then fighting back and extending away late against Drawn Impression. It’ll be interesting to see how the betting public assesses her odds against fellow elimination winners Allegiant and R Melina, as well as a host of others who could contend.

In the Hambletonian, it’s back to where it started with Karl and T C I both rebounding off prior race losses to win their eliminations, but my sense is that others in the field may never be closer to those top two than they are now. The well-regarded Private Access who was runner-up to Highland Kismet in the Goodtimes in June, almost capitalized on a pocket-trip and was slowly inching towards T C I in his elimination to just miss while being way clear of anyone else. In the deeper elimination, Karl brushed to the lead with a winning move by three-quarters and kept a nearly two-length lead to the wire but there were a host of others not too far behind. Sig Sauer raced evenly but well and Highland Kismet bounced back too and caught the eye with his :26.1 final quarter close. Even Bella’s Musclehill came back with a very strong showing following a break and proved he belongs. Anything in the final can happen.