Thank you for the articles about the closure and memories of Freehold Raceway.

I grew up in the Philadelphia area. The two old harness tracks I grew up with, Brandywine Raceway and Liberty Bell Park (and later Garden State Park), are all gone. For now I still have Harrah’s Philadelphia for my live harness racing action. I guess this just shows how much harness racing has lost interest from the betting public.

When I was younger, I remember the large crowds especially on big race days. Today, most people either stay home and bet via the Internet or live mostly inside the simulcast area. Unfortunately, I will be one of the missing for the final day of racing at Freehold. I had an accident at home and broke my leg and I am still unable to walk so I will be one of those watching through my internet betting sites.

I am sorry to see another historic track close, but as I have been watching, all I see is betting handle go down as the betting dollars go elsewhere. Unless someone can get more excitement in the races, we may see even more tracks close. I feel there must be a way to make the races more competitive. There are too many races where the outstanding favorite always wins. This leads to low mutuel profits in all pools except maybe the multi-race bets. However multi-race bets do not drive mutuel handle. The industry cannot continue to hope to continue on other source income to fund purses. At some point that may disappear.

I would suggest fewer races with more competitive fields. Maybe even eliminate some of the higher purse feature races and increase regular race purses to encourage investment in horses that will compete in normal races at higher purses and bring more competitive racing on the track.

Thanks again for the memories of Freehold. I hope I don’t lose my last local harness track since I still like seeing harness racing live.

John Chambers / Lansdowne, PA