by Brett Sturman

One week from today on Friday (March 14), Harrah’s Hoosier Park will begin season number 32 of live harness racing. With that, followers, and bettors of the racing program at the Harrah’s property will have reasons to be more optimistic than ever as it was announced over the past week that Gabe Prewitt assumed duties of vice president and general manager of racing there.

Prewitt’s experience and success to this point has been well documented which is what’s elevated him to this role, and it’s his understanding and bond with those who wager on the sport that’s made him so popular amongst that group. Prewitt’s new position will enable him to exert much more influence on the product than a prior role as director of racing for Caesar’s Entertainment.

“This role is dedicated to the Hoosier property,” said Prewitt. “In the Caesar’s role before, I was sort of at a 30,000-foot level and across multiple properties. Joe Morris who is the senior VP of racing for Caesars had been working hard and had to go through a lot of work with the commission to get the deal done and bring Indiana into the merger between Caesar’s and El Dorado, and so he was really driving that in Indiana. In that role, I was more involved with Scioto and Harrah’s Philly, but Indiana wasn’t quite as much on my radar as it was the work of Joe Morris.”

As Prewitt mentioned Scioto, it’s hard to believe it’s already been five years now, but it brought back memories to the COVID-19 season of 2020 when Prewitt was working at the Columbus, OH track. Then, Scioto was the first harness track (and one of the first of any racing track, anywhere), to resume racing in the spring of that year, and it saw record handle after record handle, all of which were the highest in the track’s 60+ year history. Like Prewitt’s predecessor track Pompano, Scioto went from handling maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars a card to routinely over $1 million and in rarer cases, over $2 million.

The formula for success that Prewitt has implemented elsewhere are staples for what can be expected at Hoosier.

“I think a lot of the things that people could easily guess will be things we’re going to be looking at,” said Prewitt. “Whether it be the wagering menu, takeout rates, coordination of post times is something that I’ve been immersed in and will be hands-on with that, and those types of areas. We’ll look to freshen up the broadcast in time with a fresh look and just everything as far as how we present the product.”

What’s different for Prewitt in this role compared to some of his prior ones — notably Pompano — is that he’s not coming in with a product to be built from scratch.

“[Hoosier] has already done a tremendously good job,” said Prewitt. “Many of the things that I’ve looked at in the past are already in place. That includes things like offering free programs and video qualifiers with replays – they’re already there. They’ve got a great signature wager with the Hoosier High Five [low 12 per cent takeout] and we’ll grow on that. It’s a first-class facility, great state, solid horsemen, and it’s a lot further along than most places I’ve had the opportunity to have any influence over.

“It’s going to be cool to see if we can be quite as effective when we have this kind of head start. My one concern is maybe with being able to maintain the horse population, where it can be difficult as we all know to fill five days a week for over 160 days of racing throughout the year. Hoosier’s been sort of known for big fields and competitive racing and usually 14 races a night, so those are the things I want to be able to maintain – field sizes and things along those lines that at least give us a fair shake to keep rolling.”

I’ve felt myself that Hoosier has been one of those tracks with even more potential than it’s yet realized in terms of handle. It’s one of the few larger-sized tracks in North America, and I also remain a proponent of the track’s passing lane. The track is set up in a way that gives more horses the potential to have a fair chance to win than anywhere else — and that, combined with Prewitt’s bettor-friendly initiatives — could elevate the track to unprecedented wagering volume.

“It may be a little bit of trial by error early on, but I think we’ve got a good thing, and we’ll continue to roll out different wagering opportunities as we get a few weeks into the meet,” said Prewitt. “I hope that we can become a place that’s known for one of the great tracks to wager at in harness racing. Like I said, it’s a much different scenario than other things I’ve come into before where we’re already well down the field, and so I think this will be a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to it. We’ll try to put our touch on it as much as we can.”