Less is more, a simple formula that could give a boost to harness racing...

[JuiceJunkies]

The formula less is more should be considered a substantial part of the corrective action needed to fix a close to dead game.

Less Race Dates find a way to make highly competitive fields.

Less Breeding, we already have enough "bad" horses, the people with the big hearts are becoming overwhelmed.

Less wagering options, fine tune the exotics, make people crave the large added pool pick 4, 5, 6.   Guarantee #'s in tri's exacta, and the rare pick 3.

[Yimmy]

Fewer AE conditions for races, fewer late closers and "Series" races, fewer optional claimers...

[Yimmy]

"Because it does not end in a ski means a person polish descent cannot have the name ?"

That was ENGLISH?  Try again.

(Martha Kostyra.  Karol Wojtyla.  The absence of the "ski" ending means nothing).

[rycommon]

I disagree with fewer horses bred.  fields are too short as it is.  cheap races are still betable if it is competitive. 

[JamesWR]

(Martha Kostyra.  Karol Wojtyla.  The absence of the "ski" ending means nothing).

Never thought I'd see the Pope mentioned on BTW.

[Illinois sucks]

Typically thread on any of these sites good topic to talk about you get two comments on the
situation then a bunch of banter for the next comments.  I posted this elsewhere about lumping
the Thoroughbred and Harness together and the reason I point it out I watched the replay of the
Fountain of Youth a stepping stone to the Florida Derby then Kentucky Derby you had 8 enteries
with 3 viable contenders to move on and one of them was scratched the total pool for that 1 race
was 2.06mln dollars.  What the Thoroughbred game has and harness doesn't is a 3 month window
from Feb, Mar, and Apr with big races for 3 yr olds leading up to the Derby it may wind down after
the Belmont but they have a slew of races thru the summer that ramp up again for the Breeders
Cup harness builds no excitement for the Hambo, the Pepsi Cup is in Ont., and the Breeders Crown
does just ok.  The racing fans are their atleast for the flats so wagering is a place to start Juice but
the bad thing for purse accounts in racing they get very little for the exotic wagers the tracks make
out and the gambler in most cases gets hit with a big takeout and on top of that a IRS hit.  Maybe
that should be a change it's 600 for a dollar bet make it 5,000 for a dollar bet.  Love as far as less
series races and one other you mention the owners need those in the game to recoup some money.

[Illinois sucks]

Back from being yearlings especially if they didn't make the track as a two year old.
There needs to be less claimimg and odd writen condition races a better way to find
added money in races for 2 yr olds if they can't compete with the 1st or 2nd tiers so
you keep the breeders and owners around long as they are the ones who pump money
into the product and then have something to attract a 3 month race sch. leading up to
there 3 yr old big races to create a buzz.  Getting the gambling dollar back is if won't
cure the ill of harness but need something to bring back the young fans and thats what
this slot money should have been doing instead of letting the greedy cheaters take it
all pa. and ny.

[rycommon]

15% take out,  fine dinning and entertainment for the whole family,  that what was needed instead of these inflated purses.

[Yimmy]

I hate to say it, but in this instance the interests of the owners and the bettors may well be diametrically opposed.  To me, baby stakes of whatever magnitude mean short prices and most of the money going to a few near-monopoly trainers whose babies routinely get blasted off the board.

I like the mix-with-t-breds idea, but I don't think the harness racing powers-that-be would. 

[Illinois sucks]

I get the whole 2 yr old especially for wagering but here is the thing you want harness to excell and get the
fans back but it has to be the owners who keep the game atleast going and I as one buy yearlings with hired
consultants to do the pedigree work since I can't afford the 100k and up horses I need to settle for 25k-40k
so needing as much info as possible.  Now as regards to the baby races out east especially trotters always
have a lot of breakers so makes it tuff for the gambler but these races are needed to keep the owners in the game
and if these trainers are messing with the progression of the 2 yr old you are only going to ruin that horse.
Thats why i like trotters you hardly see the Burkes, Pena's, the who who of drugging at this point.   Standardbreds
for some reason seem to make track at age 2 verses the Thoroughbred so getting 9-10 starts a year for them
is a nice foundation coming back at 3.  All I'm saying these races need to stay and maybe someof them maybe
non betting at the beginning of the card although like to bet my horses. 

[Yimmy]

I appreciate your position, as well as the fact that you and people like you are still investing money in it. That said, I still disagree.  Harness racing is not to my knowledge plagued by a shortage of owners, but it is most definitely weakened by the large-scale departure of bettors over the last few decades.  My sense of it is that you have to do something to start getting the bettors back.  2yo trots are fun to watch, but IMO, they are almost always appalling betting propositions.   

[JuiceJunkies]

Good discussion.    I'm of the notion that fewer tracks, fewer races     big bigger purses and competitive fields can alleviate many of the woes.   

[BabyFireFly]

I disagree with fewer horses bred.  fields are too short as it is.  cheap races are still betable if it is competitive. 

Have to disagree with this one....short fields and the number of horses being bred have nothing to do with one another. For every one that makes it to the track and can stay competitive past it's 3 year old year, there's five or more that don't make it. Proven sires vs. the flavor of the month monsters who pace in :50 as three year olds, but would never hold up. I wish we had issues like small fields around here, this time of the year you are lucky to get in every other week in some classes. The whole class system is a JOKE. If you want to be competitive every week you have to race in claimers, but half the claimers are stuffed because people don't want to claim "hot stuff." Then you have people who get suspended and farm their horses out to their buddies and end up making out double when they have two horses in a race, finishing one-two. Where's the punishment in that?

[Balls ona Heffer]

 [bw]So very true

[Yimmy]

I 'unno... many causes for short fields in conditioned races, but in many instances, you'll find a lazy or unimaginative racing secretary.

[Illinois sucks]

See know we are getting somewhere Love just 1 more point for the owner on plaque of shortage of owners posted this somewhere
else in 1986 USTA had 50k members in 1991 dropped to 41k owners as of 2011 there were 19,600 owners reg. with the USTA SO
60% IN 25 years.  So not only are the gaming dollars leaving so are the owners along with breeders because they can't recoup there
money from raising babies and not getting close to the stud fee's on some of these babies.  A breeder once told me in order to make
money you need 3 times the stud fee hard to do sometimes with 15-20k fees.  Hard to gauge on how you bring back betters the whales
have gone to the flats deeper pools, the big money only seems to come back when roll overs occur in exotics, youhave to look at harness
racing and find a strength then capitalize on that so I will ask you guys give me a strength and go from there.  Mine standardbred horses
are easy to be around, owners can jog them, and kids can be around and feed them doesn't help handle but maybe there something to it.
Will wait to see responses.

[Yimmy]

"1986 USTA had 50k members in 1991 dropped to 41k owners as of 2011 there were 19,600 owners reg. with the USTA SO 60% IN 25 years."

Interesting, though not necessarily significant; a lot of US tracks have closed down since then.  Source/link for the stats?

My 2 cents, when in a very troubled sport, a yearling sells for 825K (as the Donato Hanover brother recently did), a shortage of owners is not the problem. 

[Yimmy]

Found the (apparent) source:

http://www.harnessracingupdate.com/restricted/pdf/hru/hru022412.pdf

Problem is that many, many people are members of the USTA, but not horse owners.  As interest in the sport dropped off, USTA membership naturally dropped off as well.

[Illinois sucks]

Well the two brothers who paid a lot for yearlings at lex. And har. Because
They decided that buying drugged up raceway horses for a lot of money
Decide to buy yearlings those owners are few and far between the Europeans
Have been a factor in buying trotters.  Yes the grand circuit owners will always
Be around because they will win enough to continue to reinvest.  But again
Look at what this product has in past and present versus the thoroughbred
They got a movie out of a horse in the 30's Sea Biscuit, then Secretariat, and
Now a hbo show called luck which has yet to bring out a good side but I guess
They need viewers.  Any way as a owner can only have a couple more of
100k down years with buying and paying all the bills before I pull plug and
Go onto something different.  Handle at balmoral been better but product still
Sucks and no one goes to the track to much access to computers these days.

[Illinois sucks]

Yes i receive that it is very good reading andrew Cohen has since left
Always had good articles.

[Yimmy]

I feel bad for you, IS... as an Illinus, you are getting the short end of the stick, to wit, shitty purses unenhanced by slot revenue diversion.  I admire your persistence and dedication.  But I think a lot of the owners who are pumping money in at the sales (especially on older stock) are doing so because the slot-enhanced purses are wildly inflated.  This is fine as far as it goes, but the goose ain't gonna be layin' those golden eggs forever.  Corbett in PA is supposedly cutting the subsidy to the tracks, and if McGuinty in Ontario follows suit and either chops or kills the Ontario subsidy, there's gonna be a bloodbath.       

[Illinois sucks]

Your right and I left racing in Illinois a year ago but the Illinois sucks is
More for the politians having to live in th 50th worst state in the U.S.
And a little for the driving colony here.  Yes pa and ont in deep trouble
That's what happens when you don't reinvest in your own sport and let
Greed run ramped.

[Yimmy]

Never thought I'd see the Pope mentioned on BTW.

Hi James; passed your track twice over the last few days... hope to see you at the upcoming meet.  The late Pope John Paul II was mentioned, admiringly, on LL as well.  Thread got zapped, unfortunately.

OT a bit, but see if you (or anyone) can read this amazing piece by Roger Cohen without shedding a tear or two:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/international/worldspecial2/06krakow.html?pagewanted=print&position=

He was truly one of the giants of the 20th century.

As for the endings of Polish names, they are many and varied.  if you want to see a fun argument, sit down with a few  Polish guys and ask whether the -ski ending denotes royalty.  Then of course there was Henryk DeKwiatkowski (Woody Stephens' big owner for decades, and the purchaser of Calumet Farm), who somehow got a "De" in front of his surname.  But the name most associated with Polish royalty is "Radziwill" (I bet even you could not pronounce it correctly  ), which conspicuously lacks the -ski suffix.   I know Polish folks whose names end in -zec, -aic, -osc, -eta, -icki, -iecki, and -ysz, among umpteen others.   Martha Stewart was an -yra. 

[Illinois sucks]

Very nice article my Grand parents were in camps in Germany obviously it turned out ok for
them and onto America they went ending up in Chicago which I guess was a spot for a big
Polish community.

[Yimmy]

Na zdrowie!