But what about us little guys?

“Murph” called me the other day.

Yes, THAT Mike Murphy of Four Socks harness racing fame (in my eyes, anyhow!)

We got to chatting about the strong yearling sales this year and, while the headlines are about the strength of those sales with record prices, Mike brought up a point—and a good one—saying “the stronger the sales, the weaker the position it puts us little guys in!”

Mike has got a valid point there.

“Not too many of us, “Mike related, “can afford those $500,000 yearlings…or even $100,000…or even $20,000. Those folks in the elite class don’t give us a chance to reap the rewards of a horse that is in the top tier of a class.”

Yes, Murph has a good point there, too, since the overnight horses are still the backbone of the industry but are left at the starting gate every time a hammer goes down on an expensive yearling.

“A lot of these men and women are up way before the sun rises and don’t lay their head on a pillow until the darkest hours of the night when they race,” Murph summed it up, “and they fight to keep their heads above the water mark, so they don’t drown in debt! There’s a lot of work keeping our equine athletes healthy.

“This is a business many of us have been supporting for a lifetime and as the focus is on the two and three-year-olds—we’re now seeing some of the stakes for older horses now being threatened with extinction…like the Graduate.

“Of course, the breeders are ecstatic as they continue to breed for speed and not necessarily for durability as the ballgame on the racetrack is over for them if and when a horse goes a mile in world record time.”

The breeding sheds are getting loaded with 1:50 performers and gone are the days when the great pedigree man Carl Becker would brag from the podium, “Remember, the mare is the dam of THREE in 1:58 with 2:00 pedigree going back several generations!”

I am fearful that, soon, even 1:50 performers will be passe…not only in the breeding shed, but on the racetrack, as well.

It’s already happening with $4,000 claimers going faster than Bret Hanover ever did and, to make the elite list of the fastest 62 winning miles of this 2022 season, that water mark is 1:48.3—3/5 faster than the legendary Niatross.

Take Shake That House, for example. Never heard of him, eh?

Well, he’s in the upper half of that elite list with a winning mile in 1:48…and he’s got $38,264 on his card this year…hardly break even.

And Nicholas Beach, fifth in the list at 1:47, hasn’t pierced the $100,000 mark.

Purses are approaching $500,000,000 this year and the top 50 trainers have swallowed around $155,000,00 of it—over 30%.

The top TWO trainers have close to 5% of the total purses distribution so far this year.

Is the sport tilting over to thoroughbred ways where only the elite can share in the glory and wealth?

Murph thinks so lamenting, “It’s expensive to raise and keep a champion…and it’s just as expensive to keep just a plain old overnight racehorse healthy.”

Kentucky horseman Randall Jerrell agrees. “It’s pretty tough sledding,” he said, “when you’ve got a horse that can go in (1):52 and a piece and, when you look at the competition in a particular race, we see it might be fifth or sixth best in that same class.

“We’re being left out in the cold.”

One of the great trainers in the history of our sport, Fred Grant, said, “You’d better count on $100 a day once they leave the sales ring.”

Grant, of course, has a half century of history with harness racing, beginning with Stanley Dancer and continuing with Billy Haughton and has been around some of the greatest like Silent Majority and Handle With Care for Dancer and Haughton, respectively, and, on his own, Boomer Drummond, Señor Skipper and the great Cambest who, in 1993, paced a time trial mile 1:46.1, yes almost 30 years ago! And let’s not forget Guts.

“I have witnessed a lot in 50 years and the changes have been startling!” He added. “1:53 or 1:54 got you something back then. Today, it may not even get you a check…in fact, it’s 70-30 you won’t!”

(By the way, Grant hasn’t lost an ounce of training talent as his training batting average this semester is .526 with a 19-22-9 scorecard in 65 starts.)

Others say that it’s no different in this business than every other business.

“I’m not going to get involved in the squabble,” said one person on condition of anonymity, “but even with a human running a mile, you’ve seen the record come down from Roger Bannister’s first 4:00 mile in 1954 (3:59.4) to 3:43 (3:43.13) in 1999.

“We’ve had advancements in every segment of life during our generation and harness racing is no different. There have been substantial improvements in breeding, sulkies, equipment, tracks and the like and you’ve got to give credit to those who adapt to new innovations.”

After hearing that argument, Murphy chimed back in saying, “Maybe so, but, again, it’s the money that made the difference, whether it’s in medicine, education, construction or sports, money is the key ingredient.

“People without insurance can’t get the necessary medical attention they might need. Education in the best schools costs a fortune and a Harvard guy has a better chance at a top job than a guy from Podunk University. The strongest buildings have the latest, best and most expensive materials. The team with the most money will get Aaron Judge. It’s all about money.”

So, we have arguments on both sides of the coin on this issue, so we’ll close with this…

There are approximately 4,200 trainers licensed in the U.S. and owners probably total around 15,000.

If the top 50 trainers gobble up over 30% of the purse money and the next 100 most successful trainers grab another $100,000,000, that covers about half of the anticipated final purse total for the year.

That leaves more than 4,000 trainers trying to get a share of the remaining purse money left. That’s an average of $62,500 each—some, of course, being well over that average on the high side on the list and some on the much lower side.

As far as owners are concerned, with training, feed, shoeing, equipment, sawdust, vet bills, etc., the nut—after the cost of the yearling, if that’s the case—is close to $3,000 per month.

As one astute owner lamented, “I have been an educator in New York all my life in the field of literature. Back in 1821, the famed poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote some words that eventually became ‘the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.”

In our business, no truer words were ever written!

by John Berry, for Harnesslink