{"id":452043,"date":"2025-09-26T05:08:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/452043\/"},"modified":"2025-09-26T05:08:50","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T05:08:50","slug":"the-bdhc-members-speak-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/452043\/","title":{"rendered":"The BDHC members speak up"},"content":{"rendered":"

by John Berry<\/strong><\/p>\n

While making a return visit to my favorite venue, the BDHC (Broken Down Horseplayers Club), located in the heart of our simulcasting arena, I found some of my favorite punters willing to contribute their worthy two cents on their thoughts on the \u201cState of the Sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smitty, now retired to Florida after a long career in the field of education, is especially well-read and well-spoken, and articulates thoughts that are worthy of notice.<\/p>\n

Billy The Drummer has been betting on anything and everything for over 40 years and has survived to a point that he can still contribute to the pari-mutuel system to this very day \u2014 quite an accomplishment in itself.<\/p>\n

Major Huey has shifted somewhat from the pari-mutuels to the quicker action of sports betting, especially now that football season is upon us.<\/p>\n

And, finally, the main man, R. Phil, has joined in with some thoughts on how harness racing can gain a bit more steam at the windows.<\/p>\n

Smitty is up first:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have followed our sport since the old Sportsman\u2019s Park days; the \u2018glory days,\u2019 you might say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI read a lot of stuff on all the sites that carry harness racing and, since you, J.B., have joined the Update site, I read the contributions of just about all. You have come up with some great ideas, as do many HRU personnel that have really uncovered the good, the bad, and the ugly in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Looking at the Harness Racing Update website], you have [Garnet] Barnsdale, [Dave] Briggs, [Frank] Cotolo, Bill Finley, [the late Ron] Gurfein, Thomas [Hedlund] from Europe. Hollywood [Heyden], quite amazing, Debbie [Little] is always entertaining, and the Grassroots guy [Chris Lomon].\u00a0I even catch great stuff by Derrick Giwner at the\u00a0Racing Form, and I am sure that there are many others, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cI read all their columns \u2014 I do have a lot of free time in retirement \u2014 and, to tell you the truth, while their words and wisdom ring\u00a0loud\u00a0and\u00a0clear, they fall on\u00a0deaf ears, if and when it reaches the top of their ladder. That is the problem with harness racing, NO dedicated TV station, NO lottery style lure, too much modern competition while we have been stagnant over the past 40 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still bet. The challenge still intrigues me, but the majority of guys on the phone betting are not betting harness racing. They are betting football. Look what\u2019s happened, college football Saturday, NFL Sunday, even some as early as 9 in the morning, until late night, they have an audience of 13, 14, 15 hours with constant action.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a sport that moves quickly for two minutes and then has a drag of 20-25 minutes until the next \u2018snap,\u2019 so to speak.\u00a0I do\u00a0not\u00a0bet football or other sports, but I am in the vast minority as we speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll say this to close it up, the words in a book are useless if the book is not read; the words in a speech are useless if nobody listens; the brilliant columns on\u00a0Update\u00a0are useless if the personnel that guide the future of our sport do not act upon the ideas set forth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope somebody \u2014 make that\u00a0some body\u00a0\u2014 in our sport will take action before there is no action to take!\u201d<\/p>\n

Next, Billy The Drummer:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we need to take some really novel ideas to use to bring back and produce new fans. We have totally forgotten about this being a spectator sport and, through attrition and death, we\u2019re losing fans as fast as we can swat a fly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have now made races Grade I and Grade II, so now it\u2019s time to take another page from the thoroughbreds to see if that will work \u2014\u00a0different distances!<\/p>\n

\u201cI say, on mile tracks or seven-eighths, card some seven-eighths, six furlongs, 5\u00bd\u00a0and five and 4\u00bd\u00a0furlongs. Maybe even 1 1\/8, 1\u00bc\u00a0and even 1\u00bd\u00a0mile marathons on occasion with lofty purses.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn half-milers, how about quarter-of-a-mile sprints, maybe five-sixteenths. On five-eighths mile ovals, maybe some half-mile sprints and some marathons.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat might spice things up a little and trainers can pick and choose as the race secretary writes good purses for these odd distance events. We have nothing to lose and the novelty might prove to be worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith some guaranteed purses on these events, we might draw a little interest and, maybe, a special incentive could be thought about to draw people to the track, dollar hot dogs and soft drinks, drawings for cash or casino free play, if a casino is in charge at the specified track. Anything!\u201d<\/p>\n

Major Huey then said:<\/p>\n

\u201cTo tell you the truth, I think it\u2019s too late to make a difference. Sports betting and the lottery just have too big a grip on things now. And with the lottery machines draining the pockets of the mass, pari-mutuel racing, especially with its 17, 18, 19 per cent rake on the tote board [win, place, show] bets is much too steep to be competition to all this other stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, the lottery has a\u00a0huge\u00a0rake, but the multi-million-dollar lure for a buck or two is just too strong for the millions of people who spend a fin [$5] or a sawbuck [$10] to play, especially with an outlet on just about every street corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to play the ponies big time but it\u2019s all about sports betting and props for me these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, R. Phil:<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to see much shorter space between races \u2014 maybe 12 minutes or so \u2014 with no drag. I think the tracks should really listen to their remaining folks who still play and take some advice from them. If they aren\u2019t going to do that and just cater to the horsepeople, then it\u2019s the horsepeople that have to support the betting at the windows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big scare is, when the casinos and legislatures see there\u2019s no public support, the money flow is in danger of stopping and, then, game over.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at what\u2019s happened in Illinois. It was once one of the most important states for harness racing [thoroughbred racing, too] and, now, Hawthorne was only 46 days, barns are rotting away at Balmoral, which has been closed for years. Maywood is gone, Sportsman\u2019s is history, Washington Park is long dead and buried; in fact, they just opened a casino near where it was, and we\u2019re on life support in Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis whole thing is tragic for us who loved harness racing, and\u00a0nobody\u00a0is doing anything. They are just letting it die. We still do have a heartbeat, and it\u2019s in the heart of America: Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s really it.<\/p>\n

Tim Finley and Rick Berks see the handwriting on the wall. We need 1,000,000 more!<\/p>\n

MAY THE HORSE BE WITH YOU<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by John Berry While making a return visit to my favorite venue, the BDHC (Broken Down Horseplayers Club),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-452043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115268875996701599","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}