About our future
by John Berry
Way, way back in 1949, my grandfather took me to my first major league baseball game — the Cubs vs. the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Over the years, of course, I was — and still am — a Cubs fan.
Handsome Ransom Jackson, Roy Smalley, Eddie Miksis, Dee Fondy, Hank Sauer, Frankie Baumholtz, and Paul Minner, to name a handful.
Oh, I had an interest in other sports, as well, pro football — the Bears, of course — Johnny Lujack and George Blanda among the greats.
They were all “old” guys, as far as I was concerned. After all, I was 6 or 7 years old when I first got interested in sports, and they were much older — in their 20s and 30s, and some “ancient” guys in their 40s and even, rarely, a tad older.
Every single season, without exception, a new generation of future stars popped up — all in their early 20s and a few phenoms in their teens — like Bob Feller. At age 17, or, now that I think of it, Joe Nuxhall, who was 15!
Compare that to the icons that I met when I first got interested in harness racing when I was 16.
It started in the bowling alleys of Chicago when my teammates and competition ranged from their 20s all the way up to many veterans in their 70s.
From the bowling alleys of Chicago I was taken to Sportsman’s Park on Aug. 22,1959.
As I was approaching my late teenage years, I got to be friends with gentlemen and ladies who became my idols — Bob Farrington, Bruce Nickells, Lou Rapone, Gene Vallandingham, Edith Mouw, Dwayne Pletcher, Edgar Leonard, Curly Smart and, when they came to town for the Grand Circuit, Stanley Dancer and Frank Ervin.
Years later, my added idols included Mr. Campbell, Mr. O’Donnell, Mr. Doherty and, along the way, Tom Merriman, Peter Blood, Mike Deters, Jimmy Mac, Mike Murphy, Jake Huff, Jimmy Mattison and, of course, JoAnn Looney, Jacquie Ingrassia and Kelly Case — all of whom added so much to my harness racing landscape since I wrote my first article in 1964.
As time paced and trotted by as the never-ending phenomena of age continued over the next 30 years and beyond, these wonderful friends, thankfully, aged but, eventually, faced the inevitable.
So, over that time, my list of “idols” was “refreshed” and, today, thankfully, includes, Tim and Dave and Peter and George and Wally and Mickey, to name a few, and the great trainer Fred Grant.
Oh, and, by the way, I almost forgot my new young idols, Matt K. and Doug Mc and Brett and Brax, to name close to a handful, and therewith lies the problem.
Just as every other major sport refreshes every year with a new roster of potential greatness and idol status with farm systems honing future stars, the numbers for our grand sport are just not there.
The 14th century idiom, “The proof is in the pudding” has never been more evident since there may be as many as 5,000 trainer-drivers in our sport these days, but less than half a per cent are aged 25 and under.
Sure, we have budding stars like Brett Beckwith, now 23 years old, and Braxten Boyd, who just turned 26, and Marvin Luna, 24 and Justin Irvine, also 24.
And Luke Hanners, 25, Trae Porter, 24, Jacob Cutting, 25, Kyle Cummings, 25, William Carter, only 21, and Kyle Swift, 20, and some new names popping up like Adarryl Gates, Jr., Carson Conrad, and Geremy Bobbitt, too.
And I cannot forget Braiden Rhoades, who just turned 21 a few days ago and has five years under his girth already.
But these few very talented young men, themselves, cannot be the sole future of a sport that has a history going back over two centuries and is losing its future to competition and earning potential in countless other ways.
As much as we all dislike facing the inevitability of aging, it never stops, year by year, month by month, day by day, second by second.
Wally and the two Daves — Miller and Palone — cannot go one forever. Art Stafford, Jr. cannot go on forever.
Same for gentlemen like Sam Widger, Brent Holland, Larry Stalbaum, and two or three thousand others in our sport who are no longer in the age bracket of the aforementioned Beckwith, Boyd, Porter, and Carter.
In fact, they are now far away and getting further away with every racing night.
Yes, 18-year-old Ryder Skinner won the big stake at Bally’s Dover Downs recently — but we need a thousand more young horsemen like him to sustain the future.
And, yes, we have our wonderful Harness Horse Youth Foundation with their outstanding workshops and camps that are held in various locations, including the Goshen Historic Track.
But that is a single drop in our water bucket compared to other major sports, and I am one who still considers ours a MAJOR SPORT!
In discussion with a few outside of our industry, some valid, critical points were made with one comment honing in on my lamenting, “J. B. You’re too much of an optimist.
“There were those shrewd enough to realize that this began a long time ago — 40-50 years — when tracks began selling their property as land increased in value to a point that harness racing was a bad bet.
“We cussed out the ones that deserted harness racing for the big bucks from land but, you have to remember, harness racing is an industry filled with optimists and have no time to look beyond their individual needs to stay afloat and earn a living.
“Trainers send the bills to the owners and they stay at least able to put a burger on the table.
“The elite drivers dominate the scene and there is no room for the mom-and-pop driver anymore.
“Things have changed and this industry has not, and when land values and circumstances became too good to ignore, the inevitable began to happen — so slowly we hardly even noticed until it was too late.
“Harness racing had a stronghold in many of the major cities that had pro sports teams — Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Detroit, and Washington, D.C..
“Chicago is just about done, Hollywood Park is gone, Liberty Bell is gone, and Hazel Park, too.
“The handwriting was on the wall and the optimists didn’t want to accept it, and here we are.”
Yet another astute observation came in the form of our lack of any viable farm system to hone the skills of anyone interested in our sport.
Yet another comment hit home as one veteran said, “Every single racetrack should offer an intern program for high schoolers and college kids to get involved in harness racing.
“There’s no better ‘professor’ in our sport than the day-in, day-out trainers that work with horses.
“These kids, who may not become doctors or lawyers or computer techs, may be very well suited for our business — and we sure could use the new blood.”
In closing this Mane Attraction, here’s another idea from a fan, partnering casinos with our tracks, when applicable, to benefit all parties involved.
As we all know, casinos use the “free play” incentive to lure players back to the casino.
The average ranges between, roughly, $10 to over $100 per player with the total, for example, at Pompano Park, when they were racing, being over $2 million per month with Gulfstream Park free play usually over $1.5 million per month.
Our fan suggests that every single program could and should be a “day/night at the races,” sponsored by the casino with all those guests given a casino voucher available only before the first race for $25 in free slot play and redeemable after the 10th race is official.
Yes, I admit, I am an optimist and will remain so until my last breath, but I need a lot of help in justifying my stance on the future of a really great sport.
May The Horse Be With You!
