“Inquiries” into the future of our sport

There were so many things that hit me these past few days that spawned so many “inquiries” for the future of our sport.

Yes, we’ll have harness racing today…and tomorrow…and next week…and next year…and beyond.

But, in noticing just a few things about what is going on in the rest of the world, I am wondering if harness racing can keep up…off the beaten racetrack!

There were around 16 first time nominees for the 95th Oscar awards last Sunday night—people of which I have never heard—like Austin Butler (no trace in lineage to Adios Butler), Paul Mescal, Bill Nighy and Brian Tyree Henry, just to name a few.

New faces…new stars in new motion pictures…attracting new faces at the box office…and culminating with a 3 1/2 hour television extravaganza showcasing the entire industry with a view of countless stars in their “thought-to-be” magnificent outfits.

Well over 16,000,000 viewers watched the festivities—about five percent of the U.S. population as people hunger for entertainment.

And, make no mistake, there will be repeat performances for years and years to come with fresh, new faces…that we’ve never heard of before.

As the stars of yesterday fade away, new stars emerge and take their place, insuring the future of the motion picture industry…even with hundreds of cable television stations in play 24 hours-a-day.

Meanwhile, harness racing is slowly starving!

Yes, we do have new equine stars every year—no doubt about that—and, just like the movies shown at the theaters, we have racetracks. But, with the new elasticity including betting and watching from the comfort of one’s own home, slowly but surely, the population of participants, both human and equine, including new faces of trainers and drivers is fading away, again, not threatening today or tomorrow, but maybe just a decade or two after I am gone.

So, what woke me up on this particular day?

The passing of Pacey—Pacey Mindlin…and there’s nobody to replace the wisdom of The Wizard.

I’m in the same boat—in the sunset of life—and there are many others, as well, of our age with very few “first time harness racing ‘Oscar nominees’ who are in the “sunrise” of life to carry the torch to insure our future.

Literally, in a couple of decades, there will be nobody to replace Murray and Freddie and Holly and Billy O and J.C. and Mickey and Wally…Even the “Purple Jesus” will be in his late 70’s in 20 years. In 25 years or so, even Pete Lawrence may be forgetting one of his thousand plus stories on the racetrack and in the stable area. Age is the price we pay for life…and it doesn’t last forever!

Sure, there’s the “Mad” Hatter and Jessica and Nathan and Ace and a few others off the beaten track to carry that torch…and Dex and the McCarthy brothers and Brax and Lauren and Brett and a handful of others on the track but, the realization is that, in a couple of decades, Frank Ingrassia will have had to slow down a little at 110 years-old and Lady “J” will curtail her driving a bit at 95. And, no matter how amazing Rick Plano is, I expect he’ll cut down on his driving when he’s 90 or so…(but Jim King, Jr. and JoAnn will still be going strong!)

My first writing appeared in the Horseman and Fair World in 1964 and, since then, I have seen so many greats leave us…Bergstein, Bob Hackett, Weed Rorty, Les Ford, Phil Pines, Walter Latzko, Aime Choquette, Dick Baker, Chase Dean, Murray Janoff…so many more.

They cared so much about our sport and its history.

When they passed, we all lost encyclopedias of historical knowledge…In fact, we lost the whole library!

The breeding industry has produced BLOODLINES beyond anyone’s wildest dream.

Our sport now is in need of just the new BLOOD with futuristic thinking…thinking that keeps up with the times ON the track while preserving such a rich history that it pains me deeply to see evaporating away.

We all should be adding to our grand history, not letting it fade away into the sunset.

Nat Ray won the very first Hambletonian—THE VERY FIRST ONE—an historic moment for our sport and history. Yet, his name has been all erased from history by renaming an event of historic significance with another name.

And Roll With Joe is on his way to extinction, in terms of history, with the renaming of that event.

Want a new stakes event? ADD it, don’t erase it. It will give the writers yet another thing to brag about in our sport.

Yes, we should ADD to history, not erase it.

Casinos don’t care about our history as they have shown…and it’s obvious that not too many people do anymore.

If any of you haven’t been to our Hall of Fame of the Trotter in Goshen, New York, you should go there sometime and spend a day or two walking the hallowed floors tracing our sport back to its foaling days centuries ago.

Talk about chills…

Yes, times have changed drastically, and other sports and industries have accepted change and benefitted from change, including our competition and enemies.

Baseball has sped thing up a bit with a “pitch clock,” larger bases and how many times a pitcher can step off the “rubber” on the mound. Hitters will have to be in the batter’s box with eight seconds on the pitch clock!

What are they trying to accomplish? SHORTENING the average time of a major league baseball game.

In basketball, the 24 second shot clock completely changed the game of professional basketball. And look what the 3-point line has done for the game!

While speed has been a keynote on the track, “off” times have slowed laboriously and, as time ticks away, fans are aging and turning off their lights at 10:00 or falling asleep on their easy chairs.

Casinos have very few “BAR-BAR-BAR” machines these days and their new slots, as much as the horse industry despises them, are high-tech, modern themed marvels that lure the victims and drain their wallets with precision…a drop or two of blood at a time.

Do you think all of these great technology companies like Apple or Microsoft or Oracle or Google, to name a handful, are sitting still resting on their laurels once a new product is introduced?

Of course not! That’s why innovative products they introduced 10 or 15 years ago are obsolete today with the population still yearning for more, more, more!

Why, these companies have “think tanks” for products ready to pop up many years forward anticipating the wants and needs of a new generation.

Heck, a smart phone can measure blood pressure and heart rate, get you from one place to another with precise directions, let you see and speak to anyone around the world, play word games and puzzles, do your taxes, find the weather anywhere in the world—even Verkhoyansk, Russia or Utqiagvic, Alaska—send messages, take video, watch television, look up ANYTHING from harness racing’s founding father, Messenger, to placing $2 on Gabe’s Send It In special!

And, to think, our first phone was a rotary dial, and my first article was written on a typewriter and, shortly thereafter, the Xerox Telecopier came out to send story copy at four minutes per page! (Today, of course, it’s obsolete!)

In other words, we “ain’t seen nothing yet!”

Just as “time” is of the essence to make your $2 wagers a winning one, “time” is really of the essence to insure the future of the greatest sport in the world to so many of us!

by John Berry, for Harnesslink