Politics spills over into just about everything
by John Berry
If you are “for” something, it’s PRO.
If you are “against” something, it’s CON.
Moving forward might be called PROgress.
Stagnation might be described as CONgress.
Not too long ago, in a town hall meeting, a congressional representative, supposedly of and for the people, had a tough time with the audience, especially, a veteran that questioned the motives of the congressman and his fellow reps simply asking if he represents the interests of the voters that elected him to office or was he more interested in serving his higher ups.
This veteran knows he has no real voice in changing things in Washington, DC, but he had the intestinal fortitude to speak his piece among his peers, who also have no voice.
He then got thrown out of the town hall meeting. That figures!
What’s this got to do with our grand sport?
Well, over the past goodness knows how many years, I have had conversations with horsemen and women and countless fans and have come to feel like that veteran in the town hall meeting to hear, absorb and try to come up with ideas and solutions to insure the future of a sport that I truly love.
I have received plenty of feedback from folk on both sides of the fence when it comes to the touchy subject of the speed explosion in our sport.
Some horsemen have expressed a view that I should get over the criticism of speed and accept it because this is the world in which we are living today.
“It’s not 1960 anymore,” one prominent horseman said.
Another lamented, “Times are different today, and we all have to adjust to today’s world.”
I totally understand that.
Hey, (should that be ‘hay’?) history shows the first Indy 500 auto race averaged just a bit over 74 miles-per-hour, and that was in an era when the classes in harness racing went from the 2:30 class on up with, literally, only a handful of 2:00 miles on the history books.
Today, the Indy 500 speed is in the 230 mph range, even a bit more.
I love speed just as much as anyone.
From witnessing Rusty Range’s track record at Sportsman’s Park in the summer of 1964 — if memory serves me — of 1:58.2 onward to the 1:55 explosion at The Meadowlands when they opened in 1976, to Niatross’ epic achievement in his Red Mile time trial, to the 2:10 2-year-old list melting away to obscurity and, more than 15 years ago (can you believe it?) Sportswriter and One More Laugh pacing in 1:49.2 as 2-year-olds.
Now that sub-1:50 2-year-old list is well over 50.
Yes, I am excited by that! I think it’s fantastic for what I believe to be the greatest of equine breeds, our standardbreds.
But, at the same time, I realize, too, that I have no voice in this sport, but that doesn’t stop me from, at least, trying to come up with some viable suggestions to help save harness racing or, at the very least, improve it a bit.
From suggestions about re-draws and saddle pads to the “fill it or kill it” proposal and improving value for those punters still alive and faithful (6 per cent takeout on track), I know nothing will change, and that may be okay, for now, but might spell disaster for later as we age and lose more players to the inevitable.
But I listen to the folks — though aging — that made and make this sport great in the first place, the fans, you know, distinguished members of the BDHC (Broken Down Horseplayers Club).
Yes, they are a dying breed with few replacements waiting in the wings.
Not many have listened to the fans recently, say, over the past 40 years.
But I do, and I try and convey their thoughts — “as if we matter” one said — in these HRU columns.
Yes, I seem to be the sounding board writing for HRU to our leaders with the hope that something will stick to the wall for our future.
Not many in the upper echelon seem to care about a declining fan base and the shrinking field sizes and tracks with decoupling becoming more of a threat with every new meeting of state legislatures.
Smitty from Chicago said, “The only reason that racing is still ongoing today is because so many tracks have closed, and that’s kind of a blessing — not that the tracks closed — but it helped consolidate the number of entries in a race as those horses had to go to other tracks.
“If they were still open, we’d have all four and five horse fields all over the place.”
Rich, also from the Midwest, and a recent vacationer here in Florida, relayed, “speed means nothing to me and all I want to do is cash a ticket and I could care less if the mile is in 1:40 or five minutes.”
It all comes down to which side of the fence you’re on — those in the paddock watching their own horses race in company with, virtually, the same number of bettors in the stands, or those aging folk that are in their casino’s simulcast area or making their bets on their phone at home or wherever.
There are valid points on both sides of the fence, as they say, but every time we lose a horse, “it costs a track an entry,” said simulcast visitor Freddy H, “and every entry we lose in a race takes away a player’s betting value.”
Yes, we are getting double whammy’d here, on both sides of the fence, and like water evaporating, we hardly notice from day to day.
“Why do you think The Meadowlands handles $3 [million] on a lot of nights?” said Bert S. “Because they have full fields, decent purses and a $50 bet hardly dents the [tote] board. When you get down to fives and sixes [in a field], the product takes a hit and the value is lessened.
“I have been to venues where a bet of any decent size — even $20 or $30 — can knock a horse down from 6-1 down to 9-5. A $20 winning bet goes from $140, $150 to $56 or $58. We are betting against ourselves. It’s a double bite, first, on takeout and, then with the drop in odds. If you don’t realize it, well, you’d better open those eyes, wide.
“There are some viable tracks, like Meadowlands, Hoosier, Northfield, that get some play but the bites [takeout], especially on the exotics, are way too deep.”
When confronting this gent on the takeout on the numbers racket, er, the legal state lottery, he quickly responded, “Yeah, but they have multi-million-dollar lures for a few bucks, and that’s a whole different ballgame.”
We have two crutches holding us up, some casinos and some legislatures.
When you think about that, those are pretty weak crutches as evidenced by what happened in Florida, and it’s happening again there, and Illinois with Hawthorne the only track open, and with only limited racing days, with Balmoral, gone, Maywood, gone, Arlington Park, gone.
Political dollars always overhang our industry and casinos are always looking for outs and trying to find political help in breaking so-called iron-clad promises that protect our pari-mutuel racing entities.
One might choose to ignore the signs but, when Pompano and Calder fell into the ocean of memories and Gulfstream and Tampa Bay Downs seem to be in danger, along with the 40 others over the past years, the crutches seem to be shaking.
As for me, I love our sport so much that nothing will ever change for me.
I will give harness racing my heart and soul until my dying breath.
But competition and instant gratification games have taken a bite out of our beloved pari-mutuels, and as much as we love the excitement of our speed — and as much as we hate to admit it — it just is very difficult to compete for an $8.40 winning mutuel ticket or even a $83.60 winning trifecta ducat these days, and have to wait 20 or 22 minutes to try it all over again.
MAY THE HORSE BE WITH YOU
