Thoughts on Dean Towers’ columnon Greg Schuler’s club sport tweet. In my opinion Schuler’s tweet was kind and gracious and Dean Towers reply isn’t as penetrating as it should be. I grew up in an era where thousands would navigate Chicago winters for Hawthorne winter racing. When the judges didn’t “intervene” the broken down horseplayers (BDH), as we were known then, did. The language thrown at the drivers along the apron is memorable, as were the nights the BDH literally tried to burn the place down. The “club” is much deeper and sinister than Towers would lead us to imagine and to fret about.

Years ago, I was told, then, the most “unclub” racing was in Ohio because those farmers literally drove hours to race, trained and drove their own horses, and were hellbent to not go home empty handed. Catch drivers changed that. Honestly, the best drivers are like watching Lebron, Jordan and yes, Durant. Electrifying. But today’s best drivers are very different from the early days Joe Marsh Jr., Campbell, O’Donnell and Luc and Sears. There were occasional “club” races but nothing like the “club” race cards we see today.

I have seen $3,000 purse races in the past competed like it was the World Trotting Derby. Remarkably, a few drivers from near that era compete at The Big M. Their efforts in much more meaty purse races are toiled to yield a result that is seemingly known by the club before the horses are even called to the gate. In the past, one would rationalize ‘they got me in that race,’ but bet to form and I have a shot at recovering. Not so much anymore today because the “club” rules.

Like the other night, a 40-something shot beat an odds on favorite in a trot race. Almost none of the betting public were in that club. The Meadowlands is the race place for harness and there and elsewhere will always catch my attention, especially stakes races. But not too many of my dollars and many nights just as an observer.

The allure to thoroughbred racing, as Schuler’s tweet suggests, is the club is not so ingrained. It’s there for sure. But take Churchill. Maidens go for $100k plus. Jocks get 10 per cent. Betting pools dwarf harness. A $200 win ticket doesn’t come close to tipping the odds. When gambling is the game, evil things can happen. Judges have sat down thoroughbred jocks for failure to “persevere” or in plain talk you didn’t give a full effort. Only once in harness racing do I recall such a consequence and it’s widely played on YouTube. The driver was suspended because he all but choked a horse down just before the wire to clearly avoid winning. With club members from the racing office to the judge’s booth, and with international drivers now on the scene, we don’t get enough intervention, say in things like reviewing betting patterns where that longshot trotter made the odds on favorite unravel like a cheap claimer or, get this, a mandatory meeting at the club where Federal prosecutors discuss integrity and the weight of the law when club rules conflict with the public interest. With all due respect for the drug integrity thing, at the very least track owners and race officials (Judges) should protect the public. Not the club.

Vincent Lee / Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Thanks for the article about where are all the fans at the race track today. I was introduced to both harness and thoroughbred racing as a child. In the summer, almost every Saturday, and later Sunday when the tracks started running that day, we would go to Delaware Park and Brandywine Raceway to enjoy a day or night of live racing. In the 1960s, it would not be unusual to have a crowd of 10,000 or more at Delaware Park and a slightly less crowd at Brandywine. So what happened? Several things: more new sports to attract old horse fans, the lottery, casinos and now sports betting.

Add in the addition of great high technology products to bring the show to our homes and there is less of a reason to go to the track to see and bet on the horses. I am now a senior citizen and have to admit I attend the races live a lot less now. The convenience of betting and seeing the races at home is just too good. I still go occasionally to see the live racing usually when the track is having its best races or if the weather is really nice. The other thing not mentioned in the article is the cost to go to the live races. While most tracks do not charge admission anymore, there still is the cost to drive there which sometimes means even paying tolls on the road to get there. For example, for many years, I attended the races at The Meadowlands but being from Philadelphia it is about a three hour drive and between the gas and NJ Turnpike tolls it got expensive to go. So now I still watch and bet on the races but usually from home. But I do miss the old flavor of live racing and the large crowds that used to attend. There is nothing like seeing and hearing the horses pass by at speed or being there to see a new record broken or a great close finish of a race.

John Chambers / Lansdowne, PA