Has harness racing painted itself into a corner?

Harness racing handle decreased by a bit more than eight percent last year.

That’s quite remarkable with the avalanche of competition around with casinos, the lottery and sports betting, in the mix, along with “who knows” how much illegal gambling goes on in the U.S.A.

Casinos say that they pay 90% to 97% back to patrons, in other words, slowly bleeding that $100 bill down to z-e-r-o with the usual churn and chasing technique.

The lottery lures million dollar—and now billion-dollar—jackpots with a takeout as high as 50% and legal sports betting hit over $57 BILLION in 2021—up from $21 BILLION in 2020—and that doesn’t include tribal organizations.

So, all things considered, harness racing didn’t do that badly last year.

But, as they said in The Music Man, “there’s trouble in River City.”

While the casinos, the lottery and sports betting are doing well and continually growing, harness racing handle is struggling to stop the bleeding in handle and one of the problems just might be a saturation of racing.

New York has seven pari-mutuel tracks and there’s action from start to finish—January 2 to December 31.

Ohio has three with Northfield going start to finish, as well, and the Central Ohio tracks covering January 2 right up until Jug Week…plus all of their glorious pari-mutuel fairs!

Pennsylvania has The Meadows going start to finish, Pocono Downs going from mid-February to Halloween and Philadelphia beginning April 2 and going right through the end of the year.

Many of these track’s feature as many as 15 races on each card.

So, what’s the problem?

The problem is there is very little—if any—room to grow in terms of race days and the number of races in a particular day eventually drains the pocketbook long before the 13th or 14th or 15th race!

I have spoken to some bettors, and they argue that the management leans more towards the horsemen and forgets about the fans.

One gentleman said, “I only have so much money in my pocket and sometimes I win a little and most times I lose but my money surely doesn’t stretch as far as 13 or 14 or 15 races on many nights, that’s for sure.”

And then there’s the usual fan attrition from the inevitable as we all age and, as horse owner Ted Hirsch lamented to me in an interview years ago, “Every year there are new foals born and we need new fools to bet on those new foals!”

Yes, the age of patrons who love our sport and are dedicated to harness racing, has increased with each passing year and those guys and dolls that became enamored with racing in the 1950’s and 1960’s at the age of 20 or so are now nearing 80 and beyond…if they have made it this far.

On the other hand, in New Jersey, The Meadowlands had 42 weeks of racing last season with the difference being that they raced two programs a week for 36 of those weeks and three programs a week for six weeks leaving patrons clamoring for the next racing program.

Minnesota has Running Aces for four months with the northern climate a determining and deterring factor up north—but maybe there’s room for a week or two of expansion.

Indiana has Harrah’s Hoosier Park, and their meet stretches eight-and-a-half months of very hard racing…

Illinois has a load of expansion opportunity, if they could get some help and legislative backing—like the good old days of SPk, Haw, Was, May, Blmp when harness racing was the “king” of racing in Chi-town.

Remember the hey-day with Don Busse, Bruce Nickells, Bob Farrington, Butch Paisley, Joe O’Brien, Billy Shuter, Bob Williams, Harry Burright, Joe Marsh, Jr., Gene Vallandingham, Jim Dennis and Dwayne Pletcher, just to name a few?

Maine could expand…if they moved the WHOLE STATE 1,500 miles south for better weather.

Florida could take the bull-by-the-horns and get someone to conduct pari-mutuel races at one of the existing training facilities and all they would need is simulcasting and, maybe, a few mutuel machines on-site!!!

Heck, from October or November to May, with the weather, racing would sizzle, just like it did at Pompano Park the last few years.

Kentucky is thriving—rightfully so—as they have put in place some great stakes programs and have legislators that have put in some programs to put a few more bucks in the pockets of the wagering fans! What’s that that they say…”more bang for the buck?”

Michigan and Massachusetts have some room for expansion and Maryland might have a bit of room, too. We all miss Hazel Park and the other Michigan tracks along with Tom Merriman, Chris Boring, Wally McIlmurray and Gerry Bookmyer, again, just to name a few.

Now, there’s Northville…only!

So, what’s missing?

While, as mentioned, there’s a saturation of racing in the east but, once you’re west of the Mississippi River, it’s a drought as there is only one of those 22 States west of the Mississippi—Alaska and Hawaii excluded—to have harness racing—and that’s California where the Cal-Expo meet ends at the end of April.

It’s a shame that Hollywood Park is long gone…Santa Anita, too.

Tim Bohannon tells me plans are moving along concerning the Pahrump racino in Nevada with an opening date scheduled as early as October 2024, if things go smoothly legislatively and construction can begin on schedule…but who knows?

If that does materialize, maybe a western circuit can form and revive racing a bit.

Colorado, Washington State, New Mexico, Louisiana, Iowa, Utah, Kansas, Idaho, Oregon, North Dakota, Texas, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Oklahoma are States that have no pari-mutuel harness racing.

There is precedent for harness racing in many of these States as there is evidence of harness races held in a whole slew of cities in Iowa with and, the Texas cities of Dallas and Austin, among others. From. Walla Walla, Washington to Topeka, Kansas…Marshalltown, Iowa (of The Music Man fame) to Independence, Missouri (President Truman’s residence for 64 years), harness racing has history in hundreds of cities.

This sport needs lobbyists to take our grand, historical sport to the State legislatures west of The Mississippi River and tell them about the positive economic impact of harness racing on their economy from job creation to revenue to the uplifting of their very existence as a city of historical importance and positive impact on daily lives.

The ground seems to be saturated for new growth in the east, so we need new racetracks out west.

It will take time, of course, but just as we are addressing climate change for our children and grandchildren and beyond, it’s about time we address how the future of harness racing will survive and thrive.

by John Berry, for Harnesslink