So, here is the plan for harness racing

Since my article on global warming and its effect on harness racing and subsequent appearance on the Harness Racing Alumni Show, I have received many comments—mostly pro and a few con—with the “pros” wishing to know more of any plan to save our sport from further global warming in the future.

As for the “cons,” well, that’s the problem in a nutshell as pessimists have never proven to be successful going back during our lifetime when breakthroughs in technology and medicine, among the many other things, have revolutionized our world.

After all, mankind, as we know mankind today, is, probably 50,000 or 100,000 years old.

If the first man held hands with the second one and so on down the line to today’s version of mankind, maybe 2,000 would be holding hands…and—just a few examples—only the last three of those 2,000 benefitted from the invention of the X-Ray. Only the last three could drive a car or fly in an airplane. Only the last two have had the luxury of using a Xerox machine or having the protection from Polio with a vaccine.

Only the last one had cable television or a cell phone…or the internet.

Medications have been invented during just the past year or so to treat or prevent diseases of all kinds—the latest being Covid and Monkeypox.

To me, the plan to save our great sport begins from the inside looking out and not the outside looking in.

It’s all well and good to try and get new fans to the track with advertising dollars, but the cost would be met with unwillingness by casinos “stuck” with racetracks to have the burden of such on their shoulders when racing is unable to add anything to the “bottom line,” especially when many casinos are burdened with a heavy debt load.

So, to survive, we have to help ourselves.

This plan is to replenish harness racing with caretakers, trainers, drivers which, in turn, will replenish owners and fans.

Not every high school junior or senior wants to go on to college.

They, quite simply, want to get out in the workforce and earn some money…and we have a most attractive product to offer.

Harness racing is an industry that offers young folk unlimited potential.

It’s an opportunity for them to make a decent living—more than they have ever earned.

It starts with the development of a curriculum glorifying what all of us know right now ranging from, first, the aforementioned earning potential to the thrill of the winner’s circle, travel, glamour and the caring of the magnificent specimen of horse known as the standardbred.

That would be Chapter One—a hook to get them interested.

Put a “bit” of enthusiasm in the mouths and let them “grab on.”

Other chapters would include anatomy, equipment, shoeing and care with the thrill of hopping in a jog cart for training…and anything else that our horsemen and women can suggest that will help and entice our youth.

There are two ways to accomplish this—either the trainer/driver would come to the school—with a horse—or, having field trips to the track or training facility.

School kids LOVE field trips, you know.

The focus would be in areas where there are pari-mutuel, fair tracks or training facilities.

For example, at Harrah’s Hoosier Park, there are 11 high schools in Madison County, three of which are in Anderson—Anderson High School with 1,892 students, Anderson Preparatory Academy with 847 students and Excel Center Anderson with 347.

Anderson High School is 3.6 miles from the racetrack, the Prep School is 3.4 miles away and the Excel Center is 5.7 miles (or 11 minutes) from the track.

There are 3,000 students right there and, if as few as 2% have an interest in a career in harness racing, you’ve got 60 new participants—with parents, relatives and friends.

And that doesn’t even take enough ice off a melting glacier for an ice cube!

In Columbus, Ohio, there are several times that number of schools, many near Scioto Downs.

Toss in Northfield, Miami Valley, Delaware, Dayton and the great buffet of fair tracks and you’ve got, literally, hundreds of thousands of high school kids, many of whom may not want to go to college and would be prime candidates for harness racing’s revival.

And just imagine the numbers of students in New York near Yonkers or Saratoga or Tioga or Monticello or Goshen, right on the grounds of the Hall of Fame.

Throw in The Meadowlands and Freehold next door and, all of a sudden, you’ve tapped into a million students.

Illinois, especially the fair tracks, is another possibility, along with Pennsylvania, Northern California, Maine, Iowa fair tracks, Delaware, Kentucky, Michigan and Minnesota.

If just the aforementioned 2% take hold of the “bit,” you’ve got more than enough manpower and womanpower to help revive our great industry.

There is a bonanza of talent untapped which could develop into new participants in many facets of the industry.

We need just a handful of drivers and trainers at each track to step up to the plate and help develop this curriculum and teach it…and take a “bit” of time so our industry survives.

Since Yankee got things rolling in 1806, trotters and pacers have given all of us just what we’ve described earlier—a livelihood filled with unmatched excitement, unparalleled beauty filled with compassion for our beloved standardbred.

It’s time to save our treasure for the next generations.

by John Berry, for Harnesslink