For photos from the Meadowlands contact Lisaphoto@playmeadowlands.com

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Time to Go Back to Our Roots?

While the Breeders Crown and a couple of other stakes are being held this weekend at the Meadowlands, the eyes of the standardbred industry is on the Grand Circuit which is now working its way to a crescendo as it progresses through the Midwest. This week, the Roarin' Grand stops at Springfield, Indianapolis, and Indiana Downs; then moves on to DuQuion, Mohawk (a brief detour), Delaware, and The Red Mile.

Except for people directly involved in the industry or the very hard core harness racing fan, if you don't live in the Midwest, these races will be conducted in relative obscurity. The industry on a whole does nothing to promote these events on a national level. While the Hambletonian which draws 25,000 people is highly promoted with national television coverage, the Little Brown Jug which draws 50,000 people gets no coverage on a national level. Yes, I know the Little Brown Jug is held on a Thursday afternoon which makes it hard to get national coverage, but do we need to ignore it?

Harness racing's strength has always been middle America. Our sport more so than the runners has its roots in the farming communities and small town America. How many of racing's driving and training stars come from families that have their roots in farming/agriculture and cut their teeth on racing at the county fairs? Do we celebrate this? No, we take the Hambletonian out of Southern Illinois and we move it to the shadows of downtown Manhattan. We race the Breeders Crown races exclusively in Toronto and East Rutherford, homes to the largest media outlets and in 2010 we move the races to Pocono Downs which is still in reach of the NYC media market. Our biggest equine stars used to appear at all the Grand Circuit tracks and now they selectively make an appearance at certain stops if at all. We have people who if they had their way would move the Little Brown Jug to a Saturday so there could be more media coverage despite the fact the race is extremely successful being raced on a Thursday afternoon, double the attendance at the Hambletonian. Heat racing has virtually disappeared, all in the name of making the product more appealing to the mass market.

No, we are not debating the merits of moving the Hambletonian to New Jersey or heat racing; that horse has left the barn and there is no going back. It is not any one individual move which has been made which matters, it is the over all trend. The point is we sold harness racing's soul in an attempt to bring racing back to its glory days.

Sure we want the sport to prosper and we recognize the need to get as much media coverage as possible. Being at this point racing is paying the production costs to get on television it makes sense to bring races to the big city to cut down on production costs. However, when the media comes to the Meadowlands to broadcast the Hambletonian, what are they seeing? They see 25,000 people at the track, great numbers for sure these days but a quick look at the grandstand shows a building half empty. This can't be impressing the media. What can we do to get a more positive spin on racing? It is time to pay tribute to harness racing's rural beginnings by getting the Little Brown Jug on television (cable or commercial).

In the Little Brown Jug, harness racing has a true jewel which we are not using to promote the sport. Other than the day the race is held, this race has everything we could ever want for a showcase event. It has 50,000 people in attendance (a full house); a ready made broadcast team in Roger Huston, Dave Bianconi, Sam McKee and Ellie Sarama; a race rich in history; a bit of Americana. More importantly, we have a successful event. How many of these do we have?

While it would be ideal if we could get the Jug on live television, it is not essential; a taped show would be almost as effective. The simulcast show the Delaware County Fair puts on puts any other racetrack's in-house/simulcast show to shame. By all means, if we can get a cable channel to cover the racing live it would be great but all we need to do is edit the simulcast show to limit the coverage to the 'major races' (Jug, Juggette, Old Oaken Bucket, Buckette, Ms. Versatility) and package it for showing on ESPN or other cable channels. Let the public see great racing, a great show and let them see racing over a half mile track with three wide moves and the excitement you can only see over a half mile oval. More importantly, let them hear the roar of the crowd and let them see a standing room crowd with a full grandstand. The message will be clear, harness racing is exciting but more importantly, it is cool. If this becomes successful, maybe we can get stops at The Red Mile, Springfield and DuQuoin on television as well.

Let's not ignore our strength; let's embrace it and show it to the world.

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