What’s more important…speed or earnings?

Some of the greats in harness racing were at Sunshine Meadows Equestrian Village on Saturday, November 4, to witness the first day of the FSBOA’s Sunshine State Stakes.

Fred Grant was there…Tom Artandi…Peter Blood…Jimmy Mattison…Wally Hennessey…Mickey McNichol…Jim McDonald…Kevin Wallis…Marc Major…Marshall Makin…Dave Myrick…Joe Pennacchio…some famous…some not-quite-as-famous…

But they are all members of the “old guard” and go back to the “glory days” of our sport when the 2:00 mile was king, and drivers sat up straight in the bike with stopwatch in hand attempting to put one over on the competition.

The conversation amongst them was not necessarily about speed but, rather, about winning.

“What’s more important? Is it winning a $20,000 race in 1:58 or finishing 8th in a 1:49 mile with the horse, as the USTA has it, having the “fastest time by track size” in 1:50.2?

Unanimously, the choice was winning the $20,000 purse.

“Time, to me, means nothing,” said one. “When you have an investment in a horse, whether it’s at the yearling sale or the monthly training costs including feed, keeping it healthy, shoeing, equipment and your time, the answer is, WITHOUT QUESTION, winning.

“To watch the masters—and I really mean the masters—like Dancer and Haughton and Delvin and Ervin glance down at their (stop) watches trying to get three-eighths (of a mile) in :47 and a piece was beautiful, especially if you had $20 on them.

“Even during a training mile, if Dancer and those guys wanted to go a mile in “8” (2:08), they didn’t even need a watch. They had a stopwatch in their head.”

Yet another said, “Speed is irrelevant. Winning is everything! It’s the whole ballgame.

“They’re all speed crazy today but, in reality, being timed in 1:50 these days does you no good if you’re back of fifth…and, if you’re back of fifth, you kind of lose interest in being in the business knocking heads with those same folk that have the money to outbid you at the sales and then beat you up again and again on the racetrack.

“Then, the only ‘fifth’ you want (laughing) is the ‘fifth of whiskey or gin’ to soothe your pain!

“I’m sure some have wound up in the garbage can…Put a bottle of gin there, they’ll get in there!”

But it really is no joke as we see ownership dwindling as the on-track fan base melting, as well.

Speed benefits only about six percent to eight percent (in plain numbers, 6% to 8%) of owners—many repeat owners—in the winner’s circle and 30% to 40% of all owners finishing in the money—the top five.

“Look at it this way,” said one astute gentleman. “The slot people say they pay out 90% to their players. So, their $100 becomes, hypothetically, $90, after first round in a perfect world. Of course, you might only have $20 left if you’re not lucky at all…but, then the $90 becomes $81 and then $73 and then $67 until you have nothing left!

“If an owner continually is in the red, the love of ownership becomes quite thin and then you lose that owner, no matter how much he or she loves horses.

“What’s it cost? $3,000 a month to cover everything, if you don’t have any emergencies? That’s a tough nut to crack for the vast majority of owners.

“I’m not talking Yonkers or Kentucky or Ohio or Indiana, necessarily but even there, you’d better be in the top three most starts to turn a profit….and it’s not an easy task.”

“If the purse $20,000 and you race three times a month and get a third, fourth and fifth, you have banked “$5,000…less trainer fees and driver fees taken out, so now you’ve got $4,000…barely break-even…and that’s finishing in the top five every start, without drawing an outside post!”

Another chimed in saying, “Speed will take such a toll on our sport that we’ll be only be able to fill half of the races we’re filling now.

“You can see already that there are tracks that have seven or eight races a day. I bet that the number of horses even eight-years-old and up racing is getting lower and lower every season as the speed gradually takes its toll on their anatomy.”

Yet another veteran with 50 years in the business said, “This doesn’t affect thoroughbred racing as much as they don’t have that many ‘aged’ horses racing.

“You don’t see many horses ‘eight and up’ racing and, certainly, none 13 or 14.

“I think that their emphasis is on winning not speed…after all, you don’t see many track records falling in that sport—hardly any ever.”

One Hall of Fame horseman echoed the sentiments saying, “Speed is a killer, and a horse only has so many of those miles going 1:48.

“Yes, you have a ‘Bulldog’ (Hanover) or Confederate once in a blue moon but that’s a long shot. They’d need five numbers on a tote board to post those odds—one in 10,000!

“These two-year-olds going 1:50 on the pace and 1:52 on the trot are ridiculous. The purses would be the same if they went 1:55 or 1:57.

“Speed is beneficial to the breeders and over inflates the prices at the sales, but it makes it next to impossible for the new owner to get out of the red.

“I think, if it benefits any sector, speed helps the fillies not the colts because they have intrinsic value stretching years when bred to a hot stallion.

“And that’s another thing…as the new champs come along the new ones push the other stallions back a notch and relegate them to a lesser role, which dampens their value.

“Speed is great,” said another, “if you like NASCAR or Formula One racing. Many of the fans go to these events waiting to see a wreck on the track and these hellacious speeds make those odds very short—(laughing) probably 3 to 5!

“But a wreck on the racetrack can be disastrous to both the horse and driver. I don’t have to tell you what has happened in the past. We’ve lost dome great ones and in the days where speed wasn’t as great as today. The more speed, the more risk!”

Bettors used to keep our sport alive with crowds between 15,000 and 25,000 or more a nightly event at the major tracks.

Today, bettors—sadly, casino slot bettors—are necessary to keep our sport alive, along with legislators in some States that appreciate the agricultural benefits that harness racing affords its participants—not like the Governor in Florida did.

The percentage from simulcasting is split so many ways that there is hardly any profit for anybody—certainly not the casino.

How can we strengthen our sport to gain back our betting brethren? How about…ELIMINATE THE TAKEOUT ALL TOGETHER! It should be no big deal to them. They can swallow it.

But let’s get back to the nitty-gritty or speed verses purses.

Take Boston Rocks (Boston Red Rocks), for example.

He has a two-year-old mark of 1:54.1 (on a half-mile track, by the way), which isn’t even on the top 50 in terms of two-year-old record and, probably, not even in the top 500 as there is no list that goes down that far!

But he’s sixth on the money list for colts with $352,922.

I asked Peter Blood which is more important—the money or the mark!

He just laughed.

Let’s Go Endofaera (JK Endofanera) has banked $284,900 with a mark of 1:51.4—sixth on the list for two-year-old pacing fillies…and nowhere close to the top 50 with her mark.

Odds on Platinum (Bettor’s Delight) is yet another…mark of a “measly” (in today’s terms) 1:52.2 but with a bankroll of $274,399.

Would the owners of Let’s Go Endofaera or Odds On Platinum trade their earnings for a mark of 1:50?

Of course, these are exceptions to the rule as the fastest tend to be the richest…but not always.

On the trotting side of the ledger, Karl (Tactical Landing) and T C I (Cantab Hall) provided the fireworks in their rivalry late in the season—Karl with a mark of 1:51.4 and T C I at 1:51.2.

But the gelding Tennessee Tom (Long Tom) is next on the colt/gelding list at $458,350…and his mark is MORE THAN THREE SECONDS SLOWER—than the top two—1:55.1

Just how important is that mark?

Just wondering if the Burke Racing Stable, Weaver Bruscemi, Hatfield Stables and Knox Services  will trade, say, $300,000 of it to change the mark to 1:51.1…(I doubt it…especially knowing he’s a gelding!!!)

And how about Chaplind (Chapter Seven), who earned $172,030 on the strength of a mark of 1:58.3.

And then there’s Waterfall (Walner) with a mark of 1:54…and earnings of $10,802.

Just how important is that mark?

On the juvenile trotting side for the fillies, Soiree Hanover (Walner) ($593,675) has a mark of 1:53.1 and, right behind, is Ponda Title (Muscle Massive) ($483,420) with her mark at 1:55.

And then there’s Chartreuse (Greenshoe) with her mark of 1:54.2…and earnings of $11,040.

When owners put up a collective millions of dollars every year to buy these yearlings, there has to be some viable way to get a return on their investments…and there’s only one way to measure that success…money!

Years ago—maybe 40 years ago—I interviewed Ted from New Jersey, and he gave me a quote, “Every year, we get new foals…now, we have to find a way to get new fools to buy and bet on these new foals.”

How true!

by John Berry, for Harnesslink