by John Berry

With yet another harness racing facility closing its doors for BAD (certainly, not for GOOD), we, again, tapped on the brilliance of our BDHC members (Broken Down Horseplayers Club) and “Send It In Army” personnel to sort out the situation.

Once again, their wisdom — though not quite in the same arena as Harvard — provides some useful insight on the perils that lie ahead.

Most of these BDHC members are, as they say in our harness racing land, “older” but of sound mind with, still, an insatiable appetite for a sport they have loved for many decades — even one as far back as when the mobile starting gate first appeared on the scene.

HRU: I appreciate your willingness to lend us, our HRU readers, your insight and wisdom. So, to Smitty, Dixon, R. Phil, Luke S and you three that continue to prefer anonymity, let’s hear your thoughts.

Smitty: “As an educator for many years, we guys up here aren’t as stupid as we look coming to simulcasting to put our faith in a four-legged steed.

“We still like the camaraderie of being part of our crowd and still enjoy trying to pick a winner or two. It’s great therapy for us ‘oldsters.’

“The problems today stem from the entire industry, that have, pretty much, forgotten about the fan.”

HRU: Well, let us interject that there are a few bright spots as the many amateur clubs bring fans to their respective tracks and spread a lot of goodwill with their charitable contributions.

Smitty: “Yeah, and to tell you the truth, I bet on some up at The Meadowlands but, still, it’s an insignificant number to what we need to revive on-track attendance.

“But the old Roosevelt and Yonkers days crowds are long gone and Chicago’s Sportsman’s and Maywood and Washington Park are long gone, too, but this is still a spectator sport and we’re forgotten.”

Dixon: “Yes, I agree. But I think that is because of necessity as the casinos and sports books have moved in on the territory.

“The horsemen, I think, realize that their days are numbered — not tomorrow or the next day — but this sport could certainly dry up and shrivel away in 20 or 30 years… or certainly be just a sliver of its former self.

“I can’t blame the horsemen because they have to try and win today. It’s a dog-eat-dog business and the pressure to win is, I’m sure, very tough… and, you know, that’s what keeps me playing because I am hoping that they all will be trying with their horses.”

R. Phil: “The problem, as I see it, comes down to one thing, value! And betting is, now, the least valuable way to go.”

Luke S: “Why do you say that?”

R. Phil: “Because the takeout on the pari-mutuels is outrageously high.

“There is absolutely no value in betting to win, place or show, and I’m not interested in a $3.20, 2.40 and $2.10 across the board payoff and the only value is in the [trifectas], exactas, and even many of those are short prices these days.

“But the takeout is 25 per cent, 30 per cent, 35 per cent, and that’s a killer, especially when the slot takeout is 6 per cent, 7 per cent, 8 per cent, some even lower.”

Luke S: “Well, once in a while, I play the slots — not often — and my $50 goes in five minutes.”

R. Phil: “It’s all about the churn, my friend, it’s all about the churn.”

“In the perfect world, if you catch a machine that does pay, say, 90 per cent, you’re $100 becomes $90 after round 1, then $81, then $73 and you get, like, nine churns before you’re broke, and that takes some time.

“I read that, by the way, in an HRU article!

“Let me tell ya, slots are no great investment and, if you look at the stats from Las Vegas — and I DO — it gives you the percentage payouts on slots at every casino, except the [Native Americans].”

HRU: There’s a lot more competition than slot machines, gentleman, like the lottery, sports betting, on-line casinos popping up and the ability to bet from the comfort of your own home. And the lottery takeout is about 40 per cent, greater than any pari-mutuel take-out.

Anonymous #1: “Yes, but they offer something that pari-mutuels cannot do, offer a prize that can be in the $500,000,000 up to over a billion.

“I will always play a few bucks on that and know that I will never win the big one but the lure is too much to not take a shot.”

HRU: Millions do.

Smitty: “Why can’t harness racing do something like that with a different host track on something like that?”

HRU: We had a column on that recently and suggested that we have a ‘perfect pick’ race. Instead of six numbers and a ‘power ball’ number, have a “lucky-pick-six” event with the kicker being the selection of the trifecta in the finale. It easily could grow to a prize that could equate to the Mega Lotto. But nobody will take the bull by the horns.

Luke S.: “So, how do we get the money to do something like this? From the tracks?”

R. Phil: “No! It’s impossible to come from the tracks, they are over-expensed as it is, especially the ones that don’t have any casinos or legislative money to prop them up.

“If, maybe, a small percentage could be generated from the yearling sales companies and the tracks that are ‘blessed’ with a casino propping up purses, maybe a small percentage could be weaseled out of them, even the ones that had a hand in destroying racing at their tracks from decoupling.

“That could be a start.”

HRU: It’s a thought anyhow, maybe a hard sell, but a thought. From a few casinos on the Vegas strip to see 2,000 casinos in 44 States these days, a lot of businesses are looking for charity and relief.

Anonymous #2: “When I started playing at Roosevelt [Raceway] and Yonkers, we were the only game in town, with win, place and show betting and the Daily Double.

“The exotic bets have diluted the pools so much that there’s not much value.

“Just take a look at the pools and you’ll see that place and show betting make up, maybe 5 per cent of the handle… maybe they should scrap place and show bets and only have Daily Double, win betting, and perfectas on some races and, when there’s no perfecta, then a superfecta.”

HRU: Maybe perfectas/exactas on fields of seven or less and trifectas with eight or more horses. Maybe a super if there are nine or 10 in there.

Anonymous #2: “Just don’t have so many that the value disappears.”

Smitty: “Personally, the entire sport and breed has changed.

“The breeders care about one thing, speed. The drivers and trainers care about making a living, and the owners care about both!

“Notice something? They have left the fan out of the equation!

“Hoosier does offer some value with their lower takeout on exotics, so I’ll play there, and Northfield and The Meadowlands seem to have decent pools but the others would be dead in the water without casinos.

“Meadowlands is quite remarkable without a casino, but how long can they last?

HRU: Mr. Anonymous #3, you’ve been silent so far. What have you got to say?

Anonymous #3: “You guys have said it all. The only thing I would add is that we’ve never been able to be seen as a major sport or breed.

“There’s a thoroughbred television station but no harness.”

R. Phil: “They do show a harness race sometimes.”

Anonymous #3: “Yes, they do, but we are at their mercy and they are few and far between.

“We can’t go on relying on someone else to show harness racing. We need our own channel.”

HRU: We have also brought that problem to light in our columns.

Smitty: “What about the drug problem? Nobody has brought that up.”

Dixon: “That is impossible to fix, plain and simple. It would cost millions and millions of dollars in equipment and personnel, so you have to assume that ‘for every termite seen, there’s a thousand more somewhere!’”

Smitty said with a laugh: “Funny thing you said that… In Chicago, we had a driver that never left the ‘wood’ and the horses he drove were known as ‘termites!’”

Anonymous #1: “That’s what you need a commissioner for, to fix all this.”

Dixon: “Well, that’ll be a cold day in hell before that ever happens!”

HRU: Let’s move on. I’d like your comments on safety and the rare accidents on our tracks in this era of speed.

Smitty: “I know that there is a reluctance to talk about this but, in my opinion, tragedy happens in all sports.

“I don’t like it any more than the next guy but, truthfully, it’s part of sport.

“There are injuries in every single sport known to mankind, all equine sports, baseball, football, auto racing, boxing, you name it, there are mishaps, injuries and fatalities.”

HRU: For the record, Owen Hart (wrestling), Hank Gathers (basketball), Bill Masterson (hockey), Dale Earnhardt (auto racing), Chuck Hughes (pro football), Pop Geers (harness racing) and many others. Including some great thoroughbred horses like Ruffian, Go For Wand and Eight Belles and, of course, sadly, tragedies in our sport.

Of course, the difference being that humankind chooses their fate while horses are summoned for their work, kind of like being drafted for the military.

We don’t like it, but we have to live with it or else all sports will die, and that’s not going to happen, especially, now, when there are millions and millions dollars being bet on sports every day, maybe every minute

HRU: Finally, here’s the big question. On a scale of one to five — not 1-5 on a tote board — do you think harness racing can come out of the dark ages and into the future with some progressive ideas to keep us alive and, maybe, even thrive: “five” meaning we can do it and “one” meaning it’s a long shot.

Smitty: “It’s a ‘zero’ and, when the casinos get tired of giving our sport charity, decoupling will become widespread.”

Dixon: “One. Shrinking field sizes are killing us.”

R. Phil: “One.”

Luke S.: “Sorry, one.”

Anonymous #1: “I hate to give up hope. I’ll say “two-and-a-half” as a Hail Mary.”

Anonymous #2: “If we can combine it with a billion-dollar lottery like we talked about earlier, then, yes, we have a chance, but I also think that, in a few years, we’ll be down to just a few tracks — no more than 10 — with full fields and big purses. I say ‘five.’”

Let’s hope so.

MAY THE HORSE BE WITH YOU