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Hambletonian this week - any harness racing fans out there?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by mrbio, Aug 2, 2011.

  1. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    I don't think it is doing too badly here in Ontario. There have been some new tracks built in smaller centres - supported, like Woodbine and Mohawk by slots - and I believe breeding in the province remains pretty strong. But your example of what is going on in NY shows that Ontario is probably the exception and hardly the rule these days.
     
  2. mrbio

    mrbio Member

    Yonkers used to stage some pretty big races - The Cane Pace, Yonkers Trot, etc. Do they still have those big races? I remember the first time going there in 1983 what a thrill it was to see it for the first time from the Deegen, then walking in, it was kind of like Yankee Stadium, with the old architecture. Just a magnificent special place. Awesome.
     
  3. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    State lotteries and the opening of more and more land-based casinos closer and closer to major population centers outside of Nevada have wounded all forms of racing to varying degrees, in terms of handle. Horsemen in many states aren't suffering too badly, as slot subsidies to purses have proven lucrative to many -- but what happens when that ends?
     
  4. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    There's no doubt that horse racing in Ontario would be in very dire straits without slot revenue to renovate tired race tracks and jack up purses. The Toronto sports scene would be almost unthinkable without Woodbine which has been such a huge part of it for ages in its various locations.
     
  5. holy bull

    holy bull Active Member

    The slots panacea looks great now, by bolstering purses and subsequently field size, and, by extension, handle, but there's no evidence that this process actually creates new fans. It's a bandaid. One question I always have whenever I hear about new slots emporiums being built is, at what point do we reach oversaturation? Also, there's a point of diminishing return when a regional economy is dependent on gambling, but whatever economic benefit there may be is matched or outweighed by the resultant socioeconomic/crime/addiction costs.

    As to the harness question, I'm a thoroughbred person and just can't get into harness, despite the presence of a tremendous trotter facility in Saratoga. The racing just isn't that interesting, and the action of the horses seems unnatural. It's sort of like the concept of racewalking. I go there for simulcasts. The slot area is depressing, all those zombie-sheep staring at the blinking lights and mechanically feeding money into the machines.
     
  6. mrbio

    mrbio Member

    Well said in the first graph hb.
     
  7. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    For the past few years Woodbine Entertainment has been airing thoroughbred and standardbred shows through the week on one of the sports channels where they show a handful of live races and features on horses and other personalities. (On Sundays they show Woodbine's live thoroughbred card and races from other tracks.)

    The last several months the weeknight shows have focused on attracting new fans - and bettors - to the sport, turning it into Horse Racing 101 with features on how to bet, the different kinds of wagers, how to read the DRF or program, what the different class levels mean etc. Obviously slots are propping up their tracks but I guess they know they need to go out and find some new fans to actually bet on the horses.
     
  8. Ben_Hecht

    Ben_Hecht Active Member

    Woodbine puts on a nice presentation, with big fields and accompanying attractive odds menus, but the synthetic main track puts a crimp on the basic performance dynamic of the stars of the show. Gimme
    Saratoga, Monmouth and real dirt, thanks.
     
  9. mrbio

    mrbio Member

    My Biofile this week with trainer of Hambo contender Pastor Stephen, Jimmy Takter:

    http://www.examiner.com/sports-profile-in-national/biofile-interview-with-jimmy-takter
     
  10. holy bull

    holy bull Active Member

    I visited Woodbine for the first time last month, and I agree about the synthetic. Besides the difficulty I have handicapping, I like the sound of horses running over a dirt track. Trip to Mohawk that night, even though I'm not a harness person, fell through.

    Woodbine does a nice job, though. Clearly, slot machine money at work there. Planning to perhaps make my Monmouth debut this year.

    Nice and sunny here today at ... the Spaaahhh.
     
  11. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    Woodbine was rapidly becoming a dump until the slots saved it and the money they have put into it has to make it one of the best facilities in North America.

    My brother, who can read the ink off a Racing Form, bitches about the Poly track all the time too and says it is a familiar lament among the punters out there. The turf course is pretty impressive to see.

    My old man, who died in 1992, drove the ambulance at Woodbine for many years way back in the day. He wouldn't recognize it today: free parking and admission, betting online, forms and programs you can download, plenty of places to get a cold beer or something to eat, a beautiful paddock and walking ring, loads of TVs...in other words all the shit that place never had before.

    Georgian Downs, a harness track about an hour north of Toronto, has a yearly card where they mix it all up: they have sprints, massive, 18-horse fields, they run two-mile races and run some of the clockwise. My brother has been there and says it is kind of interesting to see but it doesn't seem to have caught on anywhere but there. Apparently it brings the fans in, for one night at least.
     
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