Effervescent Pop-Up Series building fields and handle at Mohawk

by Melissa Keith

Field size challenges are part of North American harness racing today, particularly at this time of year. Two-year-olds are not ready to qualify for several months; older warriors have left pari-mutuel careers behind; horses shipping in from training centers end up scratched due to treacherous winter roads. Woodbine Mohawk Park has responded by introducing pop-up series, which debuted there in November 2021.

The first three Mohawk Pop-Up Series were for non-winners of $25,000 in 2021 who had made a minimum of 10 starts, with divisions written for male and female pacers as well as mixed trotters. Each series consisted of two legs with a purse of $17,000 each and a $30,000 final, with a provision for a $20,000 consolation if warranted by the number of entries. With no nomination or starting fees, the Pop-Up Series proved attractive to owners and trainers of overnight horses.

The first Mohawk Pop-Up Series final was won by Shawn Steacy trainee Priceless Beach and driver James MacDonald on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021. The stallion came out on top of a competitive field which consisted of the top 10 money-earning male pacers from legs 1 and 2. Two Pop-Up consolations were contested on the same 11-race card: a $15,000 division for horses finishing 21st through 30th in earnings after the two preliminary legs, won by Cheddar Bay and J Harris, and a $20,000 division for those who finished 11th through 20th, in which Thrilling Times and Louis-Philippe Roy edged out Night Watchman by a nose.

The pacing mares’ and trotters’ series finals were raced on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. Aussie Lover pulled a 40-1 upset for trainer Gord Remmen and driver J Harris in the 10-horse trotting final. The pacing mare final went to Duane Marfisi trainee Greystone Natalio, in line to Doug McNair, in another field of 10 determined by earnings in the two previous legs. Tuckers Out won the lone trotting consolation for trainer/driver Phil Hudon; Control The Thong won the mare pace consolation for trainer Dominic Gladu and driver Jonathan Drury.

The cards handled $1,601,574 (11 races Dec. 6) and $1,550,877 (10 races Dec. 9) respectively. Not record-breaking, but steady like a “lunch box” trotter or pacer traversing a snowy surface.

Field size was found to be the main driver of harness handle in an October 2018 study by Steven Vickner, economist and associate professor in the Equine Industry Program, at the University of Louisville, and Steve Koch, executive director of the Safety & Integrity Alliance at the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and a former vice-president of racing at Woodbine Racetrack.

Their analytics brief (“Modeling the Determinants of Handle: Standardbred Racing at Woodbine and Mohawk”) considered “data for 2,742 races over 241 race days from the 2009 standardbred racing season at the Woodbine and Mohawk Racetracks.”

Woodbine Racetrack discontinued harness racing in April 2018, as Mohawk became a year-round racing facility.

“Field size remains the leading determinant of handle per race. While there were slight diminishing returns per entry, it was not as pronounced as found in thoroughbred racing,” wrote Vickner and Koch. They found that bettors preferred pacers over trotters, and responded somewhat favorably to harness races (but not thoroughbred races) restricted to Ontario-sired horses. Distaff races did not show better or worse handle than male or mixed fields.

“Not surprisingly, poor weather conditions adversely impacted handle,” concluded the researchers.

Mohawk has offered Pop-Up Series throughout the season since the first editions yielded strong participation, even when weather has been less than ideal. On May 25, 2022, the race office promoted three of them (for male and female pacers, and mixed trotters), corresponding with the increase to a five-night-per-week racing schedule in June. With conditions attractively tailored to welcome blue-collar horses to the big track, they have since become a mainstay.

Jan. 25, 2026, Mohawk canceled because of an impending storm, postponing the opening leg of the first 2026 pop-up series.

“We pushed it back a week,” said Bill McLinchey, Woodbine’s vice-president of standardbred racing. “The first leg was supposed to be… last Sunday, and [now] it will be this Sunday [Feb. 2]. We just thought it would be best to keep it on the Sunday, and it looked like most of the ones came back that were entered the first week, so that was good.”

McLinchey confirmed that pop-up series have been helpful in managing the declining population of racing-aged standardbreds.

“Over the last few years, we have had some success in getting extra races or horses entered at Mohawk by offering the Pop-Up Series,” he said. “It seems to attract horses that maybe wouldn’t race at Mohawk on a regular basis. We try to write conditions that maybe are a little different than the usual conditions that are on the sheet, to group those horses together. To be honest, it’s worked well to get more horses in the box, because that certainly has been a struggle for the last little while.”

The struggle is not unique to Canada’s top track.

“It seems like most tracks are a little short [on] horses, at least I can speak for the ones we draw,” McLinchey said. “We draw Flamboro Downs in our race office, and they’re quite short; Western Fair is short. So, I think we don’t have quite enough horses to fulfill all the [racing] opportunities, but this weather has really probably compounded it, because I can only imagine it’s near-impossible to get a young horse ready.”

Mohawk has scheduled training hours from 7 a.m. until noon on Wednesdays and Saturdays, January through March 2026.

“I felt so bad over Christmas and into the new year when we kept canceling training days,” McLinchey said. “We know how important they are for people to come in to Mohawk and train, but the weather just wouldn’t allow it, so when we’ve had a chance to add a day here and there, or have people come in and train on qualifying mornings, we’re certainly doing that.”

Pop-Up Series draw horses whose connections might not otherwise think about entering them at Mohawk. McLinchey noted that the series allow them “to race against their own kind,” only over the big track and with a purse structure “that allows us to have a bit of a carrot at the end, with the [final] purse being probably higher than what those horses are usually accustomed to racing for.”

Five years after introducing Pop-Up Series at Mohawk, the experiment continues paying off.

“Actually, that first one [in Dec. 2021] really pleasantly surprised us,” McLinchey said. “When we put it out there, we were really just trying to find a way: How can we attract some of these horses that aren’t currently racing at Mohawk? How can we get them? And that one worked really well. I’m not sure if one’s worked as well since that, to be honest, but it got us four divisions that opening week.”

He’s heard the arguments against pop-up series at Mohawk.

“I know they’re not everybody’s cup of tea,” McLinchey said. “Sometimes we do end up with some shorter fields in them, just the way they split, or sometimes the caliber isn’t the same as horses that are racing at Mohawk all the time, but it works to attract horses. It’s also nice to see some money going on horses’ cards that maybe wouldn’t make that sort of money or have the opportunity to earn that money in the three- or four-week span.”

Bettors haven’t reacted to pop-up series with “any sort of spike in handle,” according to the VP of standardbred racing. But in serving as a way to maintain field size, Pop-Ups have helped maintain equilibrium.

“If it’s a field of probably over eight horses… it’s handling as much as we see in other races, and usually where there’s a final, no matter what the final is… even in our late-closers, I think it does gather a little bit of attention when [bettors] see an above-average purse on a race card,” McLinchey said. “We’ve really noticed that if you’re putting out a race with six or seven horses, you’re just not going to garner the handle you would if there was an eight-, nine- or 10-horse field.”

Although the O’Brien Awards and the opening of 2026 Mohawk Million slots are making current headlines, another Mohawk Pop-Up Series is quietly percolating, for male $20,000 claiming pacers who are non-winners of $30,000 lifetime, with Ontario-sired and age-based allowances. Announced on Friday (Jan. 30), the first of three $15,000 legs starts Monday (Feb. 9), with the $25,000 final slated for Monday (March 2).

“It’s really building races for the horses that are available to you,” McLinchey said. “When we’re four nights a week, we’d like to be running 42 to 44 races a week, so this is one way to help us get to where we want to get to.”