The BDHC speaks up about the ‘standard’ bred
by John Berry
Among the comments received from my Mane Attraction column of the standardbred being anything but standard, was one from a longtime friend, Shelly D., from New Jersey, who, like I, appreciate the storied history of our grand sport.
You can’t build a future without history.
Baseball had its Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Willy Mays, Yogi, Campy, Ted Williams, Three Finger Brown, Nolan Ryan, a thousand, maybe 10,000 more.
Football had Jerry Rice, Jim Brown, Joe Montana, Walter Payton, Johnny Unitas, Butkus, Deacon Jones, Bronco Nagurski, Sayers, Elway, Smith (Emmitt), Jim Thorpe, Red Grange, and then there’s Prime Time (Deion Sanders), Megatron (Calvin Johnson), Sweetness (Walter Payton), The Bus (Jerome Battis), The Minister of Defense (Reggie White), Night Train (Dick Lane), Mean Joe Greene, and even Too Tall Ed Jones, to name a handful-and-a-half.
You get the idea.
I still consider our sport a “major” sport, and history means a lot to me, and Shelly, and possibly, five or six others BDHC (Broken Down Horse Player) members, as well.
We have ’em, too — legendary names — in our sport: The Minister of Speed (George Brennan), The Green Hornet (Yannick Gingras), and, years ago, The Captain (Doug Brown), The Red Man (Carmine Abbatiello), The Magic Man (Billy O’Donnell), The White Knight (Brian Sears), The Bionic Man (Timmy Tetrick), to name a few.
And, of course, going back a century or so, the immortal “Pop” Geers…and then came “Curly” Smart.
We build the future on our history from our history.
But, on the other side of the ledger, there are comments from several other BDHP brethren insisting that I am beating a “dead horse.”
Smitty is one who loves the “game” but thinks that harness racing needs to have the sport imploded and rebuilt “brick by brick.”
Smitty is a retired educator from the Sportsman’s Park-Maywood Park era early on.
He related, “Harness racing has been the victim of a ‘different form’ of artificial intelligence for, probably 50 years — in other terms, a half century — if that might be a bit of wake-up verbiage for us all.
“By artificial intelligence, I mean the folks that have run the sport without modernizing it.
“I like the history of harness racing as much as anyone — I have witnessed much of it as a young man and have seen little change now that I am an old man, except for speed and the competition that has emerged to drive the bettors to the sidelines.
“Yes, they got 100,000 people to see Dan Patch and Greyhound in action but that was when harness racing had z-e-r-o competition, hardly any cars were on the road since there were over 20,000,000 horses in the U.S.
“Then, the popularity of the car came into focus and things changed rapidly and, by 1920, there were millions of cars on the road, and horses kind of disappeared as a means of transportation.
“I point this out because times changed and the world changed, and, to survive and succeed, you and I had/have to change.”
What can we do about that?
“We need to wake up… I think you touched on this before and it hit a nerve with me. I’m serious about this. If you had 2,000 people holding hands from the first man to todays, only the last two or three could use a telephone or listen to music or watch television or fly in the air and the innovations since then have made these original ones obsolete, as well — useless — and only the last one or two could benefit from radar or medical breakthroughs.
“JB, you are on dialysis and that has been available to only your generation; computers, the internet, GPS routing for your car, and smartphones, and, now, artificial intelligence, real artificial intelligence, not some harness guys on the phone chatting about something immaterial.
“You guys [HRU] hadan article about that recently.
“This has changed the way we do everything from communicate with each other and, even, think, and harness racing is still in the ancient era because everything else has progressed and the inside of this industry has not.”
Would you say the breeding industry has more than kept up with the times?
“Yes, and they have left the rest of the industry in their limestone dust.
“And that, in itself is a problem.
“They have done a superior job in changing the breed.”
I think you’re correct, but I have had a few bark at me saying that “that’s the way it is these days, get used to it.” The fans and the horses are getting more and more in short supply every day, and I don’t want to get used to that.
“And besides that, remember, the speed can shorten careers, shorten fields and shorten odds on the board and, again, it’s the bettor that gets the short end of the stick.
“Answer me this, do you think any thoroughbred trainer or jockey or owner or, more importantly, bettor cares if his horse wins a six-furlong race in 1:12.3 or 1:15.1?
“Same thing for us, the guy with a sawbuck [$10] on a trotter or pacer could care less about the time of the race!”
Smitty has many valid points and yet another BDHP faithful, R. Phil added, “Harness racing used to be a spectator sport but that’s, mostly, all changed these days with the emphasis on the success of a small percentage of success for owners and trainers and the rest left out to dry, including the guy, and gal, that still likes to bet on them.
“I don’t have to tell you about casinos and the lottery ripping the heart of our industry — they are ruthless.
“And they are successful because they are ruthless, and that’s because they are business people, sharp business people that excel at being ruthless at their game.”
Yet another voice chimed in with M.P., saying, “Racetracks — and not too many of them — need a track, a simulcasting-betting venue to hold a couple of hundred people, a nice snack venue and that’s about it.
“Many have that luxury in their own homes these days, too, sitting on a sofa with the fridge and a beer within an arm’s length,
“Add to that building more simulcast franchises and venues at selected spots throughout North America almost every day of the year with, literally, hundreds and hundreds of these simulcast venues accepting bets — whether they be pari-mutuel or fixed odds — along with exotics at these selected racing places that offer guaranteed pools daily to draw new faces that bring new money to our sport. That is what we need.
“We need a ‘Grand Circuit’ featuring 45-to-60-day non-competing meetings at, say, no more than a dozen of the most elite tracks with half offering racing during the day and half at night.
“Six daytime tracks, each with non-competing race dates January-February, March-April, all the way through November-December.
“Six selected tracks featuring nighttime racing with a 1 to 5 afternoon program and a 7 to 11 night schedule.”
M.P., maybe we could have a couple of “anchor” tracks like The Meadowlands, Northfield, Hoosier Park, Mohawk, that have a strong following these days and add other tracks to our Grand Circuit and offer enough to whet appetites without thinning our product out too much, and that should include the menu for betting.
“Yes. There are so many things that can and need to be done but time is escaping us and other industries are on a futuristic bandwagon now and we haven’t even begun to chase that bandwagon.”
Finally, Adolph W. caps off this Mane Attraction with the following brainstorming observations: “Look at all the other major sports, Major League Baseball, the NFL, NBA, NHL, everyone has seen game innovations.”
Would you give us some examples?
“Well, in [pro] football, there’s a new touchback rule that encourages return kicks, instead of taking touchbacks. It just adds another exciting play to the game, and another prop bet feature, where harness racing has just about completely failed.
“And look at the number of international games. In other words, these major sports are becoming an entertainment business for the world.
“Baseball has been trying to speed up their games and has new replay innovations to make things more exciting for the fans.
“We seem to have horsemen running harness racing, or trying to. None of the commissioners in our major sports have this happening. They are right on top of things and experimenting with innovations.
“Just about all of the big-wigs worked as lawyers or legal counsel — Adam Silver, David Stern, Bowie Kuhn, [Paul] Tagliabue, [Gary] Bettman — everyone had many years of specific or legal experience and business acumen before reigning as commissioner.
“We shouldn’t care if they know the difference between a — as you say, JB — a ‘tracer’ or a ‘potter.’
“All that matters is someone that can lead us successfully into a future to a grand sport that we all love so much.”
May The Horse Be With You!
