Is earlier Big M post a waste of time?

As one seasoned Meadowlands bettor said, having less time between races and ending the card earlier would be a more promising development.

by Debbie Little

Starting last week, The Meadowlands officially shifted to an earlier post time, moving to 6 p.m. from their traditional 6:20 p.m.

According to Big M chief operating officer/general manager Jason Settlemoir, the earlier post will stay in play for the next couple of months.

“We’re going to stay at 6 o’clock until we get closer to the Championship Meet [which starts on May 1], then we’ll make a decision about it,” Settlemoir said.

There is no question that Mother Nature has not been on the side of horsepeople or gamblers in East Rutherford, NJ, this year since six of the last 11 cards were canceled due to extreme cold temperatures and inclement weather.

Perhaps the highlight of the meet so far came on Jan. 24, when that Saturday night card saw the mile oval handle over $3 million for the first and only time this season.

That card was not a typical night at the track, since the 14 races started at 6 p.m. rather than 6:20 p.m., and were judiciously expedited by the powers that be in order to get horsepeople, employees, and customers home safely before the impending blizzard that eventually dropped over a foot of snow on the area. Race 14 went off that night at 10:47 and handled $176,124, a more than respectable number for the last race on the card.

Since then, The Meadowlands has conducted three live cards — Feb. 6, 13, and 14 — all with a 6 p.m. first post but without the same fast pace throughout the night as on Jan. 24.

To be fair, the three February cards all had 15 races, which, no matter how you slice it, would take longer than 14, but the question that some fans/bettors are asking is “Why so much longer?”

HRU contacted a seasoned big bettor at The Meadowlands to get his take on the Jan. 24 card and the earlier start time.

“I’ll be honest with you, Saturday night (Feb. 14), I turned [The Meadowlands show] on for a little bit at the end, after coming back from dinner, and it was just dragging so slow, I just tuned out in the last couple of races,” he said. “I’m like, this is just taking too long. This is getting boring.”

Race 15 on Feb. 14 went off at 11:39 p.m., just as it did the night before, almost an hour later than it did on Jan. 24, and the handles for the last race on those two later nights were $122,706 (Feb. 13) and $149,508 (Feb. 14).

The Big M big better said he did watch and wager on the Jan. 24 card and even though he’s not a fan of the 6 p.m. start time, because traffic makes it hard to get there on time on a Friday night, he is a fan of less time between races and for the entire card.

“A regular Meadowlands bettor like me, at some point on Wednesday or Thursday night, has gone through the program already… so, what am I doing between the races?” he said. “Maybe I want to see the horse warm up for a second, maybe I want to hear what one of the TV hosts has to say, but for the most part, I kind of know what my bet’s already going to be. So why are you keeping me unentertained for 20 minutes where I’ve got to sit there and just wait, and wait? I think you lose your audience. It’s like a movie that’s not getting to the plot and it’s dragging on. So, to me, I thought it worked that night [on Jan. 24] because people were like, okay, boom, this is great.

“The Meadowlands would be more attractive to me as a casual fan if I knew I could get there at 6:30 for the first race, and I could probably catch the whole card and be out of there by 10:30. Not many people stay there past 9 o’clock, 9:30, except the hardcore guys.”

His suggestion was to try to repeat what they did on Jan. 24, but to let bettors know in advance what’s coming.

“Let the public know that The Meadowlands is going to be doing an experiment where not only are they starting at 6 o’clock, but there’s going to be a hard cap of 15 minutes where the next race is going to be 15 minutes later,” he said. “And if everyone knew about that, I don’t think you’re going to lose money in the pools, and the people won’t be blindsided, and they know they’ve got to get their bets in… I’d rather be at a sporting event for two hours than four hours and be entertained. I’d rather be at the races for three and a half to four hours and get through a card than be dragging it six hours, because, again, what are people doing between races?

“If they’re handicapping the card for the first time it gives them a little time, but the ones that are handicapping between races probably don’t really know much about handicapping, so they could do it in probably three minutes, because they’ll pick the name of the horse or the color or who looks cute out there, and the hardcore ’cappers have probably already read the program the night before, so you’re not going to lose betters by speeding it up. That’s my opinion.”

Even though one of the biggest arguments made against lessening the time between races is that bettors will not have enough time to get their bets in, he said it’s not true.

“If there are 12 minutes between the races or 24 minutes, I’m going to get my bet in; it’s not like I’m going to get shut out,” he said with a laugh. “But when you drag it on, bettors like me, we lose interest as it gets to the end of the card, especially if you’re at the track, and then you’ve got to get home afterwards, and I’m not home till 12:30 or 12:40 a.m., it’s just too long.”

He mentioned how the 15-second pitch clock has dramatically shortened baseball games and would love to see harness racing implement their own version of it.

“It’s shorter because we live in a society now where people’s attention spans is not there,” he said. “They want to be entertained, but they don’t want it to drag on. With a horse racing experience at The Meadowlands, you’ll say 6:20 post time, but half the time that first race goes off at like 6:35. You can’t captivate everyone’s attention for five and a half, six hours. We live in a society that kind of likes quick action.

“That’s the beauty of horse racing, here it could be rapid fire, but it’s the lag between races, and does it really add money to the pools? If everyone knows that the post time really is going to be in 13 minutes, and there’s not going to be a drag, and it’s consistent, then people are going to know they’ve got to get their bets in, and you won’t lose bettors later in the card. I’ve got to imagine you’re losing bettors later in the card because of it.”

Comparing one card to another is more like equating apples to oranges than apples to apples, since unforeseen delays such as equipment or tote issues or inquiries and accidents can totally change what happens and how long it takes.

The total handle for the three cards that have taken place since Jan. 24 — Feb. 6 ($2,608,671), Feb. 13 ($2,829,403), and Feb. 14 ($2,753,693) — are good, but not close to $3,379,086.

The Jan. 24 card proves it’s possible to start a card at 6 p.m. and have it take less than five hours and still handle well. It’s not just speculation. Can it be replicated? We won’t know until somebody tries.

The seasoned big bettor said one of his biggest concerns is that the sport is going to fade out because people like him who love it continue to get older, and there are not necessarily a ton of replacements waiting in the wings.

“Thank God for John Rallis and Cheyenne Christman and Meadow Twaddle, but there’s not enough young people that like it because they don’t understand it and when they come for the experience, it’s entertaining, but a five and a half or six-hour experience is just too long for new people,” he said.