When the Babies took center stage

Kassa Branca.  Sam Francisco Ben.  So Cozy.  Concertina.  Do you feel old?  Tell me, what do these four harness racing Standardbreds have in common?  Kassa Branca and Sam Francisco Ben were colts, the latter two, fillies.  So that’s not it.  Only Kassa Branca and Concertina were the same age.  So, that’s not it either.

Do you give up?

All four were winners on Million Dollar Babies Night at the Meadowlands.  That’s right, Million Dollar Babies Night.  Remember the program with the baby carriage on the cover which came around once a summer?   It was a spectacular night of racing which ran from 1986 to 1989 and put the spotlight on the sport’s youngest stars.

Million Dollar Babies Night featured five stakes all on one card – Woodrow Wilson Pace for 2-year-old colts, Peter Haughton Memorial Trot for 2-year-old colts, Merrie Annabelle Trot for 2-year-old fillies, Sweetheart Pace for 2-year-old fillies and Mistletoe Shalee for 3-year-old pacing fillies.

An action-packed night filled with the future equine stars of the sport, where did it come from and where did it go? Just like the lyrics of the fun filled, upbeat country song which ask about Cotton-Eye Joe, I wanted to know how it started, and why it ended.

The promotion was the brainchild of longtime Meadowlands Publicity Director, Allen Gutterman.  “The idea came to me while lying on a beach in Cape Cod,” says Gutterman.  “Our ad agency, Kohm Associates, created a cool logo of a horse pushing a baby carriage and it gave us another big event to promote without (Racing Secretary) Joe De Frank needing to create a new stake race,” he continued.

The inaugural Million Dollar Babies night featured over $5 million in purses headlined by the $1.5 million Woodrow Wilson, won by Cullin Hanover and Buddy Gilmour.  By the final Million Dollar Babies night in 1989 the Wilson purse was under $1 million, but the stars were still bright with Sam Francisco Ben and Ron Pierce capturing that year’s edition.

By the mid to late the 80’s the Simulcast Era of racing was born and racetracks across the country began to see on track attendance decline. “The idea (of Million Dollar Babies Night) was well received by the media but I don’t recall any huge attendance figures,” says Bob “Hollywood” Heyden, Meadowlands Track Statistician until 2019.  “By this point, the Meadowlands was at a crisis point.  Series and innovation were replaced more by survival and a changing business model.”

With Million Dollar Babies Night just a faint memory, the Woodrow Wilson, the headliner of this grand night of racing, isn’t even held any longer.  The Wilson last won by Captaintreacherous and Tim Tetrick in 2012.  The Sweetheart and Mistletoe Shalee are still held annually at The Big M, with purses a far cry from the $915,000 and $593,000 that they were in 1986.  These races were staged with purses of $268,000 and $150,000 respectively in 2022.  The Peter Haughton and Merrie Annabelle have trotted their last race at The Meadowlands in 2022, moving to their new home, Hoosier Park, for the 2023 editions.  The Peter Haughton will even have a new name, The Jim Doherty Memorial Trot.

“It was not like the other two big days,” says Gary DiLeo, current member of the Meadowlands on-air broadcast team, comparing Million Dollar Babies Night to Hambletonian and Meadowlands Pace cards.  “It might make a comeback someday, but never at those purses,” DiLeo continued.

So why exactly did Million Dollar Babies Night disappear into the ether? No one was able to give me a definitive answer.

“It was aesthetically successful, but nothing along the lines of the Meadowlands Pace,” says Gutterman.  “As a means of improving handle, it’s tough to get fans to bet serious money on 2-year-olds, especially 2-year-old trotters, no matter how you package it.  I’m not sure why it ended, probably budget cuts,” he wrapped up with.

The Meadowlands has long changed hands since the babies charged down the stretch on those four mid-summer, late 80’s racing cards, now operated by New Meadowlands Racetrack LLC, with Jeff Gural as its CEO and Chairman.  Gural was reached out to for comment on a possible revival of Million Dollar Babies Night, but did not respond.

Jason Settlemoir, COO and GM of New Meadowlands Racetrack, however, did return my correspondence, “We don’t plan on it at this time, but you never know what the future holds.”

Here’s to the Million Dollar Babies and their special night…

“If it hadn’t been for Cotton-Eye Joe, I’d been married a long time ago.  Where did you come from, where did you go?  Where did you come from Cotton-Eye Joe?”

by Jason Rogers, for Harnesslink