100 reasons you need to attend this year’s Hambletonian
Beyond celebrating the 100th anniversary of America’s Trotting Classic, Moira Fanning and John Campbell say this year’s event is packed with special appearances, promotions and merchandise.
by Dave Briggs
The stewards of America’s Trotting Classic have a message for anyone still dithering about attending the 100th Hambletonian on Aug. 2 at The Meadowlands: You’re not going to want to miss this one.
As the Hambletonian Society’s chief operating officer Moira Fanning and chief executive officer John Campbell listed off a plethora of special events for the centenary, they kept coming back to one overriding imperative.
“Obviously, the 100th Hambletonian is a huge day,” Campbell said. “So, getting people there and exposing them to what we have to offer on an event like this, it just can’t be overemphasized how important that is.”
Fanning said she hopes this is the one day people make the effort to attend.
“Everybody has access to every aspect of racing on their phone now… but we’re trying to ply them with enough attractions and offers that they say, ‘You know, what the heck… I’m going to go,’” she said.
After all, the Hambletonian 100 committee has spent almost a year-and-a-half planning for this one day.
“We wanted to make the focus, ‘Come back to The Meadowlands’ and ‘Come back to the Hambletonian,’” Fanning said. “We’re hoping for a very big crowd.”
A major focus is on The Meadowlands’ backyard.
“Bergen County… we felt that was an untapped market that we haven’t taken advantage of because, back in the day, everybody in Bergen County went to The Meadowlands,” Campbell said. “The Meadowlands has stepped up their online presence and social media presence trying to target that southern Bergen County audience and we’re hoping we get some results from that.”
“The difference between Bergen County or The Meadowlands from 1976 to the year 2000 is vast,” Fanning added. “We’re working hard to reclaim the people that remember us and attract the people who are new to us.”
CELEBRITIES AND SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS
Campbell said planning the 100th Hambletonian has been Fanning’s main focus since January. She’s gone all in to deliver a bash befitting the race’s 100th birthday, starting with celebrity guests.
Television personality Carson Kressley and social media influencer Caitlyn Warakomski of How Do I Wear That? Instagram fame will be in attendance.
“Carson Kressley has reached out to us, which is always nice when your celebrity wants to come back,” Fanning said. “He’s going to host the press conference, which we’ve had very successfully at Patty Hogan’s vet clinic. We’ve moved it to Chateau Grande, which is a really nice place in mid-Jersey, owned in partnership with Belmar Racing. So, Carson is hosting that. He’s hosting the draw and he’s leading the post parade on his horse and will judge the hat contest.
“[Warakomski] has got probably 700,000 followers on Instagram. Her dad was a Freehold bettor.”
Warakomski will judge a $2,500 best dressed contest.
AN ATTRACTIVE BETTING MENU WITH EUROPEAN APPEAL
Key to the preparations, Fanning said, was, “trying to make sure we pay attention to every segment of people that we want to attract. It’s always a great betting day and The Meadowlands always tries to take care of their bettors with betting options that day.”
Sending the race card to Europe for wagering is, “almost routine for us now,” Fanning said. “France has been onboard for 25 years. When I say France, I mean the PMU hub that’s most of Europe. Sweden, Scandinavia, ATG as well.”
Campbell added, “We try make sure we have trots for the PMU. They take a set number of races and we make sure they know when they are going to go… ATG takes the whole card. PMU is a little more restricted and they only want trotting races, but we accommodate them each and every year with that.”
Tour groups from Sweden and France are coming and will visit area farms, the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in Goshen, NY and, of course, The Meadowlands for Hambletonian Day.
100TH HOMECOMING PARTY REPLETE WITH HISTORY
The night before Hambletonian Day, “we’re having what we’re calling a Homecoming Party… for alumni and participants,” Campbell said. “Anybody is welcome and can pay for a ticketand go, but we’re putting it on for alumni and the participants this year and VIPs.”
History is, of course, a major part of the 100th celebration.
“On this [100th] committee, thank God, we had people like Kathy Parker, Tom Charters, Janet [Terhune] from the Hall of Fame, who really moved several projects forward,” Fanning said. “The Hall of Fame updated their Hambletonian exhibit and moved it to the front of the museum. I know Fox went there to shoot a feature piece. They had a Hambletonian birthday celebration, so they handled the historical part effortlessly.
“Kathy really took charge of updating the 75th [anniversary] book, so now it’s a 100th book. That turned out really well.
“Also, if you’ve noticed our social media, Ryan [Macedonio] created tiles for every year. So, at 100 days out we started counting down the 100 winners, because we had a dead heat… So, we’ve certainly stepped up our social media game. We have a million pieces of photos and memorabilia that is finally seeing the light of day. We’re going to have a memorabilia display at The Meadowlands.
“Tom [Charters] had the idea of using Remi Bellocq, who does the caricatures for the thoroughbred racing. His panels are still up in the entrance to the new Meadowlands and in the food court of the new Meadowlands. So, Remi did three panels — the Good Time Park years, the DuQuoin years and The Meadowlands years — and they turned out really great. They are going to be poster giveaways starting July 12 and then the DuQuoin years on the elimination [night], then The Meadowlands years on the [day of the] final.”
Fanning said some of the Hambletonian 100 merchandise has a vintage look, but the Society has also done its best to create items people might perceive as modern.”
GOAL IS TO FILL PADDOCK PARK
The goal is also to create new, younger, fans and customers.
“[Hambletonian Society staking manager] Nadia [Tarnawa] has reached out to some colleges to try to get some sororities and frats to create an event around it,” Fanning said. “The intent is to fill Paddock Park. The building is always filled, from the roof to the bottom, but to fill that Paddock Park and just expose everybody to what is really the best showcase we can for harness racing.”
Other events and promotions around the 100th Hambletonian include:
• A special 100th Hambletonian hat The Meadowlands produced as this year’s giveaway.
• A long list of 100th Hambletonian merchandise — along with the Hambletonian Society’s first attempt at a high-end handbag (right) which has been a hot item.
• Commissioning Breyer to do a stablemate size of their Atlanta model, complete with freeze brand, which is being used as the kids giveaway at American Dream mall and on Hambletonian Day, as well as a mini-stuffed horse with a bandana with the Hambletonian date.
• Drivers, trainers and caretakers will get a Hambletonian 100 bag with glass and merchandise.
• Hambletonian 100 shirts for everyone in the paddock on Hambletonian Day, with help from the Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association of New Jersey and The Meadowlands.
• The Harness Horse Youth Foundation did a special hologram 100 Hambletonian card in this year’s hero cards deck.
• Producing over 2,000 Save The Date magnets.
• The Hambletonian vintage label champagne has two of the most iconic winners this year – Continentalvictory and Muscle Hill.
• Commemorative Hambletonian wine and beer, with Karl featured on the latter.
• John Polvinale of the Facebook group Harness Racing History is presenting us with a pristine 1926 Hambletonian Syracuse program on Hambletonian Day.
• The Hambletonian Society helped underwrite and supplied photos and material for Cheryl Eriksen’s book on Greyhound and will host a few book signing opportunities.
“We’re working on what it is that we can give people as they leave,” Fanning said. “We’ve also created coasters that we’re putting around both north Jersey and here in central Jersey in bars and restaurants that if you bring it back into The Meadowlands on Hambo Day it has a $10 bet on it. Literally, we’re giving people $10 cash.”
CREATING REPEAT CUSTOMERS
The point is not just celebrating an important milestone for harness racing’s greatest race, but to create repeat customers.
“You have to make sure that, for your big day, you’ve thought of everything and oversupplied the water or Cokes or whatever it is, because you have to provide a happy, satisfying experience where someone says, ‘Hey, I’ve never been here before, but I’m coming back,’” Fanning said.
But, if you absolutely cannot get to The Meadowlands, the day will be broadcast in multiple locations.
“For TV, we’re back on Fox and FS1 for the majority of the day,” Fanning said. “I’m so glad that Woodbine embraced Curtis [MacDonald’s] Prime Time Racing. I know it’s small, but it will grow. [MacDonald] produces the CBS show alongside the streaming that they do, because the CBS show has to wait until the next day in order to package the Hambletonian and Hambletonian Oaks into one hour and let Fox be live on the Saratoga show.
“I think having the Hambletonian on the Fox network, packaged in with that Saratoga show, has been responsible for… at least a million [viewers]. I’m very skeptical of viewings and impressions and measurement, but when you focus in on that block where the Hambletonian was shown [last year], we didn’t lose viewers and I think the Fox opportunity has just brought in a whole bunch of crossover people, who are familiar with racing and hopefully some new eyeballs. We’ve only added to our impressions by adding all these television outlets and streaming outlets.”
Both Fanning and Campbell said it has been a privilege to plan for the 100th Hambletonian.
“It’s just an amazing milestone and, just to be part of the planning and the implementing and the presentation of such a historic event, I consider it an honor,” Campbell said.
For Fanning, the Hambletonian has been an important part of her entire adult life.
“When I was a caretaker, we did to try to see the Hambletonian on TV if we couldn’t be there live,” Fanning said. “Then, to come to work [at the Hambletonian Society], I never in a million years would have imagined that I would. Obviously, when you get to be involved in the best of everything the sport has to offer, it is a lot of work. I used to spend Hambo Day in the NBC TV truck, but the end result was that The Meadowlands always had the attitude — and DuQuoin always had the attitude — that when people are in the Hambletonian they want it to be the best experience they’ve had. Winning the Hambletonian, they want that to be the lede in your obituary.
“What I’ve enjoyed with the 100th has been getting to immerse myself in the early years and the history of it again. You just realize it’s 100 years old and that’s an amazing thing in harness racing as we watch tracks close and races go away and management changes and dynasties change. Everything has changed and [the Hambletonian] has lasted.”
