The Canadian Sportsman

Without a doubt, and I am not sure if this is a rule in Canada as well as the USA, or perhaps if it's even actually a rule per se. I do know, however, that it's the dumbest "thing" in harness racing.

In some major stakes events at The Meadowlands, the connections of the winner of the elimination for that race, assuming there is an elimination, gets to pick their post position in the final.

The reason they do this, or so they say, is to assure that the horse is actually raced to his full potential and not simply taken around the track for a comfy 4th place finish -- saving his energy for the big bucks final.

To me this translates as, "We will reward you with a nice seat next week, if you actually try to win this week."

If a driver goes into a race knowing that he is going to give a horse a nice easy trip, he is deceiving the betting public and were he to receieve the same instructions from a trainer or owner for an overnight event, he could wind up in jail or outta town. Of course we know that this has happened at least once.

Even if the eliminations are non-betting events, the program will still show a darkened form or a so-so performance and thereby alter the opinions of the bettors who keep harness racing alive.

One can piece one's words and try to step neatly around this with horseman's jargon, but in essence, it's illegal. The Federal Gov calls this, conspiracy to commit sports bribery.

I once mentioned this pet-peeve in another forum and I was beaten down by one responder who said that I was a such and such who didn't know what it was like to have to race a horse hard all season and then have that horse all used up. My answer was, "Uh,yeah, I do." Lucky for me several prominent horsemen came to my defense.

All that aside, I did see one event where the horse was obviously being given a leisurely journey and wound up stuck behind a breaking horse. Luckily the driver narrowly missed a tumble and rallied for third place and thereby eligible for the final.

I imagine that this practice will eventually become a rule but right now, as it stands, it's just embarrasing.

Top drivers live to win. They live to win $12,000 eliminations and $500,000 finals. When you get to that level of competition, it's probably a good bet that it's not about the money -- at least not for the driver.

ddm

~ David Mattia