Rick Berks is working out plans for harness racing to have a healthy future
The owner/breeder and entrepreneur is candid that it needs to be a group effort.
by Murray Brown
I first made the acquaintance of Rick Berks on Oct. 24, 2015. The place was Woodbine Racetrack. The occasion was the $600,000 Breeders Crown for 2-year-old pacing colts. Berks’ Boston Red Rocks had just accomplished a come from behind longshot win in the race. At the three quarters he was ninth. At the head of the lane, he was sixth by five lengths, but at the finish, where it counts, he was on top by three lengths, having won at odds of 18-1.I had been called upon to make the winner’s circle presentation subbing for my boss Jim Simpson.Literally hundreds of horses have been owned by Berks since that memorable day. He has yet to win a richer race, but that certainly has not dimmed his enthusiasm for the sport and the great creatures that make it possible. “Harness Racing is a great sport,” Berks said. “I have been involved with many sports in my life. There are not any better ones. The problem is that so few people even know that we exist.”
How do we change that?
“I believe that there are several ways where we can help. We have so many untapped resources in this sport. The chief ones can be found in our people. We have numerous brilliant minds involved in the game. Great people who have been successful in all sorts of walks of life. Yet when it comes to getting them involved in promoting our sport, they either are not interested, nor have they been asked. I am in the midst of gathering a group of some of these brilliant minds together with a goal of harvesting the data in their brains toward improving the sport. Those who are reading this are probably fans of the sport. It’s incumbent that you realize, ‘Our very existence is at stake!’ If we don’t do, or at least try to do, something and get to it pretty quickly, we may not have such a thing as harness racing in 10 years. The handwriting is on the wall. Our numbers are down just about everywhere.”
You have mentioned that we find ourselves in a terrible spot, where, with the exception of The Meadowlands, almost all of our racetracks are to some degree dependent on subsidies from casinos, entities that do not want us and either are doing everything in their power to get rid of us or are in effect ignoring us, hoping that we wither on the vine and die. How do we overcome this?
“Ultimately we have to exist on our own. Unless we show the casinos that they need us and that our existence is helpful to their business model, they will go on treating us as the unneeded, red headed step child. I realize that is easier said than done. One way to alleviate the situation is to implement major events that bring people not only to the racetrack, but also to the casino that hosts the event. I’m a firm believer that big events in large markets are not as important as those same big events in smaller markets would be. An example would be the hosting of the New York Sires Stakes finals at a place like Batavia Downs, where it drew far more people and created more interest than at Yonkers where in the New York Metropolitan market, it is lost.“The Breeders Crowns finals at Hoosier Park and Mohawk are important events in those relatively small markets. They are fine to have at The Meadowlands, but relative to the New York Metro Area, they are just another event.“Of course, it goes without saying, that these big events need to be properly promoted. If people don’t know they are happening, they are useless. Nevertheless, I feel that getting TV or newspaper coverage and especially in this new world, digital promotion, would be one heck of a lot easier in the smaller market, where such happenings are unusual rather than in a large metropolitan area where they are not considered important. More than just about anything, we need to build an online presence for the sport. This is a new world. We need to become part of it right now or just die.”
You say that big events are what will draw people to harness racing and one of the things you mentioned was a $2- or $3-million race, or even two of them, one for trotters and one for pacers. You feel that such events are doable. That concept sounds great, but how would you fund them?
“Of course, it would require money, lots of it. It also would require lots of cooperation from all segments of the sport. I’d start by selling 10 slots at $100,000 each. I’m guessing that within the sport there are at least, probably more than a hundred people who have the means and would be willing to spend $100,000 for a chance to race for two or three million. The breeders, of which I am a minor one, would be the major beneficiaries of such races. They would have to pitch in – let’s say a stud service, maybe even two, for each stallion whose foals would be eligible. They could be sold or made available on one of the online buying sites. The breeders wouldn’t have to reach into their pockets, they would just donate the services. The sales companies would also need to pitch in as would the yearling buyers. Let us say, one half of one per cent or even a full one per cent put up by the buyer, the seller and perhaps the sales company as well. We’d have to figure out a means for homebreds to pay in. I’m sure that could be done fairly easily.“I’m just throwing numbers and ideas around. Some of them might work, others might not. But unless we do something, maybe lots of things, our future, make that our very existence, is at stake. The buying your slot idea is just one of several that I’m throwing around. There will be all sorts of naysayers who are waiting to shoot down these ideas. In some areas, they would probably be right. However, what we are doing now, or perhaps I should say not doing, is most definitely not working. We’ve got to do something new and do it now. Tomorrow might be too late.
“There are those, maybe most, who might say that those are just ‘pie in the sky’ expectations. Maybe, but my response would be, isn’t the whole yearling game somewhat of a pie in the sky deal? Yearling buyers are dreamers. They are buying a dream. What we would be doing with these races would be making that dream larger, a whole lot larger.”
Let’s switch topics and talk about you. How did you become involved in the sport?
“I grew up in South Florida where I used to go to the races with my dad at Pompano Park. As luck would have it, some kids I grew up with had family in the business which led me to claiming my first horse in the mid-1980s. Eventually, I met Pete Blood in the owners’ lounge and I somehow got into the yearling game with him. It wasn’t until many years later that Boston Red Rocks came along and won the Breeders Crown for us. Pete and I have been good friends and business partners for many years.
“After Pompano closed, I bought a 93-acre thoroughbred farm just outside Lexington in Paris, KY. We converted it into a breeding and training farm with a half-mile jog track and named it Melinda Farms. Currently, I own over 50 standardbreds which keeps me ‘unretired.’ My wife and I enjoy Kentucky, so we bought a place in Lexington where we stay during the meet at The Red Mile until it gets too cold.
“Pete has semi-retired although he remains involved, so you may see him occasionally jogging one at Sunshine Meadows in the winter months. Steve Elliott, a great horseman with more Hall of Fame credentials than most of those in the Hall, is my primary trainer. Mike Deters and Tony Dinges do a great job training several horses for me as well.”
What brought a Florida guy to Kentucky?
“Pompano Park closing for one brought me to Kentucky, but also the same reason many others have come: the fantastic breeding and stakes program.
“Speaking of Kentucky, Lexington in particular, I was more than a little shocked to learn that very few people who live there know anything about The Red Mile or even know that there’s harness racing there. The Red Mile is one of Kentucky’s, and harness racing’s, greatest treasures. It opened in 1875, the same year as Churchill Downs. Everyone knows the importance of Churchill, but very few know The Red Mile with the exception of some casino goers and those involved in our sport. It remains one of the best places to race harness horses right in the middle of the self-proclaimed ‘Horse Capital of the World.’ It’s located in downtown Lexington, adjacent to the University of Kentucky but locally it’s virtually unknown. The track is substantially owned by a group of people who are, and have been for many years, deeply involved in harness racing. It’s a sad state of affairs when you walk in the main entrance and need to ask directions to get to trackside.”
What did you do before harness racing entered his life?
“Before I owned harness horses, I worked as a deputy sheriff for several years and then worked several more years on the family farm. Being a gym rat before it was popular, I decided to get into the health club business. I had more ambition and determination than experience or money, but I eventually figured out how to make it work. I opened a Gold’s Gym and bought used equipment from a gym in Tennessee that was going bankrupt and refurbished all of the equipment myself. I then decided to open the original Planet Fitness Health Club in the early 90s, then sold the trademark to the group that now franchises the brand. Still pursuing my entrepreneurial ambitions, I started a new brand, YouFit Health Clubs, which we built to over 100 clubs with much success before I retired five years ago.
“My passion for fitness led me into the gym business and my lifelong passion for harness racing has led me to where I am today.”
