The Canadian Sportsman
Sunday in Stockholm, Arch Madness hopes to “close the book” on the prolific stallion career of Balanced Image (pictured, Dave Landry photo).
Should Arch Madness win the Elitlopp, it will come seven years after Balanced Image died, 19 years after Balanced Image’s son Billyjojimbob won the Elitlopp and 28 years after freshly-minted Hall of Famer Bob Burgess brought Balanced Image to Canada
Click on the words “Guelph Mercury” to read the article in its entirety.
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December 09, 2010
Given the year Randy Waples has had and the fact he loves the spotlight, it is amazing how little attention the harness racing driver has received in 2010.
The 45-year-old has been somewhat overshadowed by a terrific comeback year by driver Mark MacDonald of Cambridge and the arrival of two young bucks on the scene — Guelph native Doug McNair, 20, and Scott Zeron, 21.
Waples, meanwhile, quietly went about amassing one of the best years in his 27-year career both in terms of stats and when it comes to the horses he drove.
He drove much-loved older trotter San Pail to a second consecutive win in the $750,000 Maple Leaf Trot in July at Mohawk. He was the pilot for Canadian horse of the year candidate Dreamfair Eternal, the winner of the $375,000 Milton Stakes at Mohawk and the Breeders Crown for older pacing mares in Pennsylvania. He drove two of the eight $300,000 Ontario Sires Stakes Super Final champs and two $100,000 OSS Grassroots Championship winners. Plus, he won the $300,000 Battle of Waterloo at Grand River Raceway for the second straight year and the fourth time in the race’s 13 years.
There was a time when Waples relished being harness racing’s ultimate rebel. But since he returned from a serious racing accident at Mohawk in July 2006, Waples has been more quiet than rowdy…
Click on the words “Guelph Mercury” to read the article in its entirety.
December 06, 2010
I am beginning to wonder if Jon Hanson was kicked in the head by a standardbred as a child given his rather obvious loathing of the harness racing industry.
It would explain a few other things.
Perhaps, as some suggest, Hanson, a real estate man and henchman of New Jersey governor Chris Christie, is trying to orchestrate a hasty demise to the standardbred industry so he can personally profit from building a casino at the Meadowlands and not have to give the standardbred industry a cut.
That wouldn’t surprise me, but I’m not sure even I’m that cynical.
While I have strong suspicions the powerful Atlantic City lobby has played a role in trying to have the Meadowlands whacked — and what better way to do it than with the most powerful man in the state and his chosen hitman on your side — it’s a pointless exercise for the standardbred industry to try to figure out Hanson and Christie’s motives here.
The sad, awful truth is we don’t have many bullets in our gun and Hanson and Christie know it.
That’s the trouble with being in a small, relatively-unknown, unpopular industry with just about zero political clout. We’re easy pickings when tough choices have to be made.
Ask yourself this: given the economic climate and the fact New Jersey is facing a huge budget deficit, if you were a citizen of that state without any ties to horse racing, would you want your tax dollars spent on the industry?
On the surface, the answer is a huge “no.”
That doesn’t mean a convincing argument can’t be made for saving both the Meadowlands and, by extension, the standardbred industry in New Jersey.
As I said before, the obvious solution is to put a casino at the Meadowlands, give the horse racing industry a cut and have the casino interests already established in Atlantic City own and operate it.
Why should the taxpayers of New Jersey get on board with this plan? Look across the Hudson where in just four years the slot hall at Yonkers Raceway has injected $1 billion to education in the state of New York. That’s billion with a big “B”.
But wouldn’t it be better to get rid of horse racing first and then you don’t have to give them a cut from a casino at the Meadowlands?
Maybe, but I doubt it.
First of all, kill the Meadowlands and you kill harness racing in New Jersey. With it goes millions in tax dollars that come from the industry. And, yes, I believe you hasten the disappearance of cherished green space in the most densely-populated state in the union.
Put a casino at the Meadowlands and cut the horse racing industry in and purses will boom, increasing investment in the industry in the state and the taxes the state earns from it. I believe that will more than offset giving the industry a cut. Besides, with racing included, I believe slots could be up and running much, much faster than the years it would take to kill horse racing first. In a state in desperate financial straights, that means something.
Then the state of New Jersey can turn around and use most of its proceeds from a casino 15 minutes and easily accessible from midtown Manhattan to invest in education and cut property taxes.
Believe me, I doubt the average tax payer receiving a cut to their property taxes is going to quibble it could have been a larger cut if horse racing wasn’t in the mix.
For everyone other than perhaps Atlantic City, it’s a win-win-win. Besides, killing horse racing isn’t going to save Atlantic City, not unless Hanson and Christie have an evil plan to take out the racetracks and casinos that have sprung up in surrounding states.
That’s part of the point here: casinos in neighbouring states have been cutting into Atlantic City. Nothing much the people of New Jersey can do about that, except fight back with a casino ridiculously close to the biggest city in America.
As for harness racing, the state got into the game with gusto in the 1970s by building the Meadowlands and then spent 30 years undermining its own business with every conceivable form of competitive gambling they could throw out there. Great strategy, fellas.
So, why should the state of New Jersey save an industry that has failed to save itself? It’s the right thing to do, that’s why.
Governments pay for lots of things that hold value for its citizens or enhance the quality of life — the arts, for one — for which they don’t receive a direct return on their investment.
I argue that in New Jersey, harness racing is important enough to make the list of things worth keeping.
Besides, this isn’t some woebegone, bygone era racetrack we’re talking about. This is the Meadowlands, the biggest, best harness racing operation in the United States where the betting handle still outstrips all other harness tracks in the country by a wide margin.
Why is there not more pride in that in New Jersey?
While history is mostly irrelevant in a quick-change world, it’s certainly notable that for the first 30 of its 33 years, the Meadowlands was a profitable operation that, in the beginning paid for the other facilities that helped lure two NFL teams, and an NBA and NHL franchise to the site.
Despite the huge decline in popularity of open-wheel racing, I can bet you if the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a state-run facility Indiana would put a casino on site if that’s what it took to preserve the vaunted Indy 500. Why isn’t the same case made for the Hambletonian and the Meadowlands Pace?
Please don’t give me Hanson’s suggestion of a six-day Meadowlands meet so they can keep the Hambletonian. That’s worse than insulting.
I am well aware even a casino at the Meadowlands is little more than a bandage on a pretty deep wound. Long-term, we’re in trouble if we don’t make serious changes. And, yes, I do believe the Meadowlands needs a much shorter meet similar to the ones the thoroughbreds had in 2010 at Monmouth. But, let’s save those old rants for another day.
All energy should be focused on making a compelling argument to the governor Christie that a casino at the Meadowlands with horse racing intact is the best deal for all of the citizens of New Jersey — John Hanson excluded, of course.
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