The Canadian Sportsman
A pessimist, or someone who practices the dark arts of humour, could distill our Round Table Discussion down to: We’re all going to die. Soon.
Sure, some of it was bleak. But, much of it was helpful in terms of identifying our biggest problems and offering suggestions for proactively tackling some of them. I encourage you to read the entire booklet (download a pdf by clicking on the “Learn More” section in the bottom left corner of our main page). It’s worth your time. Don’t be scared off by talk of our imminent, painful death. By necessity, some racing leaders have become like doctors berating patients who refuse to quit smoking.
The premise was to have nine bright minds come prepared to each discuss two ideas for saving harness racing. No other direction was given.
There was a little duplication of topics, but not much. In effect, 15 different subjects were discussed — some on the micro, some on the macro level.
On the micro level, there were a number of good, small ideas similar to those found under the Small Victories section that could be implemented immediately with not a huge expenditure.
Chris Roberts from Georgian and Flamboro Downs suggested tracks should partner with a county fair to keep racing alive at the grassroots level.
Awesome. DO IT.
Clay Horner suggested moving many stakes races to weeknights. “My personal experience is, when we invite people to come to the races with us on Saturday night, we frankly have a relatively low uptake, because people tell you about what else it is they have to do on Saturday night, either with their family or their other hobbies or their cottage or whatever it is,” Horner said. “On the other hand, if you said to 10 couples, ‘We have got a horse racing in a big race on Tuesday night, would you like to come and be our guest at the racetrack on Tuesday night?’ They would all come and they would all have a very good experience, and they might be likely to come back.”
Great. DO IT.
Drop purses five per cent and build up a war chest.
Incredible. DO IT.
Those are just three examples, of many small ones. The catch is finding enough people bold and motivated enough to implement some of the ideas not tomorrow, not soon, but now.
Yet, what struck me most from the discussion was something that came near the end, after everyone had digested what was said.
In essence, enough people concluded a huge asteroid was poised to obliterate all of harness racing and then started busting out some pretty wild schemes to save our world.
What if we landed on the asteroid and drilled nuclear weapons into the asteroid’s core? What if we build a giant rubber band and fired it at the asteroid to throw it off it’s trajectory? What if we build a giant force field out of cellular phone signals?
In the harness racing example, the opinion was that we’re so thoroughly effed that we should ask the government to implode harness racing as we know it and rebuild it from the rubble.
Now, I’m not going to quibble with the part about being in serious trouble. The numbers don’t lie. But, I agree with Alan Kirschenbaum who tried to put the brakes on the runaway train of self-loathing.
“Does anybody get a little queasy about the notion of going to a government who has already given this industry tens of millions of dollars in what is basically a handout and saying, ‘Oh, and by the way, we don’t know how to solve our own problems and we would like you to help us to solve them. In addition to all the money, we need you to solve our problems, too,’” Kirschenbaum asked.
I’m queasy about it, for sure.
It’s a little bit like your dad giving you, oh say, A BILLION-DOLLAR allowance, you losing all of it and then going back and saying, “Uh, dad. You know that billion dollars you gave me? Yeah, well, I lost it. Can I have another billion?”
Besides as far as cautionary tales go, we need look no further than Quebec, where harness racing got in bed with government and got thoroughly screwed.
Though, I get the general point. Horner compared racing to the domestic auto industry, which needed to be rebuilt with government assistance to better deal with its competitors. In many ways, that’s an apt comparison.
So, I offer the following compromise idea. In Ontario, at least, we have something of sympathetic ear at the Ontario Racing Commission (ORC), which despite many ills does more than most racing regulators to affect reasonable change.
In Ontario, we also have been — as a couple of Round Table speakers said — anesthetized by slot machine revenue and loathe to implement much-needed radical change.
I ask the ORC to schedule a week-long conference where mandatory attendance is required by ALL tracks and major industry shareholders (horsepeople, breeders, owners).
Don’t attend, and the ORC will pull your racing license.
Since inaction and the lack of legitimate strategic plan are another major crisis afflicting the industry, another condition of license will be that out of the conference come a signed document — a constitution, perhaps — that is arrived at by a two-thirds majority of conference attendees.
Beyond a general framework for the entire industry, including exactly how everyone will work together — Dean Towers said the tracks don’t even report their business numbers the same way. Incredible.
Some possible topics to address at the conference: reducing takeout; purse pooling; dropping purses marginally to grow a fund to implement necessary changes; improve the televised product; lobby the Canadian Pari-Mutuel Agency (CPMA) for more flexibility in wagers; improve distribution; lobby the federal government for the legal right to offer Internet wagering on other casino-type gambling; investing even more in integrity matters. And so on.
Of a list of smaller initiatives, the ORC could, again, make it a condition of license that 70 per cent of the items be fulfilled within a two-year window.
For God’s sake, don’t go with hat in hand to Queen’s Park at large or the Ontario Lottery and Gaming corporation (OLG) which is much more a competitor than an ally. That’s not politically savvy.
The ORC at least understands the industry has fallen off the wagon — still drunk on slots 10 years in — and has a big enough gun to force us into rehab.
In the meantime, don’t cower in the corner. We’re not going to die, at least not imminently, unless we refuse to stop smoking and drinking and fail to remove our collective heads from our posteriors.
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July 21, 2010
The expected decision by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to sell or implode the Meadowlands Racetrack is infuriating because it makes zero logical sense.
Oh, I understand political logic just fine. Money is blood to politicians and the Atlantic City casino lobby has it. The horse racing industry does not. Bye, bye Big M.
But it all smacks of blood money to me. Here’s why: this whole thing could be solved so easily.
I realize I have a bias toward saving the Meadowlands. Anyone in their right mind or with even a passing interest in harness racing should share that bias.
But strip away the harness racing part of this for a second — and, by extension the huge mistakes made at the Meadowlands in recent years (a topic for another time) — and just think about what’s best for the people of New Jersey.
First, let’s be frank about Atlantic City. It’s not Las Vegas, for one thing. Meaning, it’s not on many people’s list of gambling destinations. Atlantic City is also surrounded by casino gaming in the neighbouring states of Pennsylvania and Delaware and statistics prove those people are staying home, en mass, to do most of their gambling. Atlantic City is now too far from New York City, especially in an age where casino gambling is readily available closer (Yonkers, Connecticut, the Internet).
So, even if the state takes over jurisdiction of the Atlantic City casino district (which is highly questionable in itself), there’s no chance Atlantic City will ever become Las Vegas or Macau or even the Bahamas. Why pour more money into it? Leave it alone. It has its fans. Besides, it’s not like someone is going to build a better casino in Atlantic City that’s going to solve all the problems. There’s some fabulous ones there already.
Here’s where the Meadowlands comes in. It sits on a parcel of state-owned land 15-20 minutes from midtown Manhattan, connected by major freeways and both rail and bus service. Eight million people live in New York City. Many millions more live in northern New Jersey. For that reason, putting a major casino, hotel and conference centre beside both the Meadowlands Racetrack and the New Meadowlands Stadium makes all the sense in the world.
Casino gambling is already legal in the state. The swamp is not near a residential community. Most importantly, the state has the land, the transportation and easy proximity to the largest city and population base in the United States. Why not maximize that for economic gain?
In a state facing severe economic woes, why would you not want an annual injection of hundreds of millions of dollars?
But won’t it hurt Atlantic City? Sure. That’s why you open the bids up only to current Atlantic City casino operators. Have one of them run the new casino at the Meadowlands. Hell, create Atlantic City North. Have a couple of casinos there.
Can you imagine the casino business you’d do before or after a Giants game or a Bruce Springsteen concert? That’s another thing the Meadowlands has over Atlantic City — constant, massive traffic to the site for other entertainment.
So, what’s the cost of entry to the biggest market in the country? A hefty licensing or land-lease fee, a paltry 15-20 per cent to the horse racing industry and taxes to the state. Then, turn around and take that money to balance the state budget. Anything left over goes to lowering property taxes in the state.
Everyone wins, including harness racing.
Then, the Big M, the economic engine that drives harness racing, keeps chugging and the people who have invested the most — the standardbred breeders — stay afloat, which, in turn preserves the much-needed green space in the country’s most densely-populated state.
Sounds pretty easy to me.
Ah, but I forgot. This isn’t about sound reasoning or fiscal logic or even doing what’s right for the people who elected you.
This is about money and politics. It's just the latest example of what a nauseating, unseemly game that is.
July 01, 2010
Despite an influx of top U.S. horses and their connections, the locals — led by trainer Casie Coleman and driver Mark MacDonald, both of Cambridge — dominated Saturday’s rich Pepsi North America Cup card at Mohawk Racetrack in Campbellville.
Coleman and MacDonald became the first trainer/driver tandem to win both the $1.5 million Pepsi North America Cup for three-year-old pacing colts and the $660,000 Fan Hanover for pacing fillies in the same year in the 27-year history of the Cup. The dynamic duo won the NA Cup with Sportswriter and the Fan Hanover with Western Silk.
MacDonald alone is just the fourth driver to win both of the nation’s richest sophomore pacing events in the same year and the first to do it on the same night.
In the last 20 years, the NA Cup has been won by U.S.-based drivers 15 times, though the tide appears to be turning. Canadian-based reinsmen have won three of the last four Cups, counting MacDonald this year, Guelph’s Paul MacDonell in 2008 with Somebeachsomewhere and Cambridge’s Jody Jamieson in ‘07 with Tell All.
Meanwhile, Mohawk-based drivers won all four major stakes on Saturday’s card. Besides MacDonald’s two wins — which accounted for over $1 million in purse earnings (of which, MacDonald kept five per cent; over $57,000 to be exact) — Jamieson won the $387,000 Goodtimes Stakes for three-year-old trotting colts with Sing Jesse Sing. Jamieson also won last year’s Goodtimes with Federal Flex. Trevor Ritchie of Acton completed the local stakes sweep by winning the $557,000 Elegantimage final for three-year-old trotting fillies with Ultimate Cameron.
Click on the words “Guelph Mercury” to read the article in its entirety.
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