In The Sulky Forum

Wiggle going to win it

In the continuing saga concerning the slow death of Freehold Raceway, I offer this entry today.
The Dexter Cup Qualifying Round was held today with a purse of $48,000. There were 18 entries. The best way to handle this to satisfy the fans and the horsemen would have been to have 2 nine-horse divisions with the best four coming back for the final next week. This would have provided two competitive betting fields with purse to the horsemen of $24,000 each. What does Freehold do? 3 boring six horse fields with purses of $16,000 each. Needless to say, the top two betting interests in each race finished 1-2 and the biggest exacta payoff was $14 with the 2nd favorite beating the 3/5 shot.  The other two exactas paid $12 and $8. Instead of providing an exciting couple of races with large fields and a long shot possibilities, they provide us with a parade of chalk, and in the process pay less out to the winning horsemen as well. If you're looking for fans, this is NOT the way to do it..

Harness racing continues to move towards life support...

And that's why Bernie Sanders is a better choice if you're a Democrat. At least he's not a proven criminal...

They don't care about the racing in New Jersey anymore. They built a new grandstand and it's more like a nightclub than a racetrack.

The biggest problem with the passing lane is that it has taken away the aggressiveness of the drivers and has altered the racing strategies. They all would rather sit it and wait for the passing lane rather than have to think and put their horses in position to win.

Being an avid harness racing fan and participant for almost 50 years, I sometimes wonder about the advent of the passing lane and think about its effect on racing as we knew it. It was, as we all know, put in place to give the inside horses the advantage of being able to get clear in the lane instead of being boxed in, in theory making the racing more competitive.
That was a great concept, but after seeing it in action for many years now, my opinion is that it actually has had a negative effect on racing, especially so on the 1/2 mile tracks. Anyone who was around before the advent of the passing lane can recall having the best horse in the race crying out for racing room in the stretch only to be locked in by a horse that went "first over" and either won the race, or behind behind a dead front-runner and not being able to get out from behind. While the passing lane has been able to reduce these scenarios significantly, the negative is that it has taken away the aggressiveness of the drivers in order to get or maintain position in the race. Often, before the passing lane the horse sitting third or fourth would pull to the outside and go 'without cover' so as not to be boxed in. Others would follow and you'd have an outside flow. This is something that rarely happens these days as the first four usually sit in. Sometimes one of them will pull down the backstretch on the 1/2 mile track but in many cases the race has already been decided because of a relatively slow first half mile because of no challenges. In the past you'd have horses going "3 wide" into the final turn especially if the horse without cover was not moving up. This almost never happens anymore with everyone waiting for the top of the stretch. Drivers now hope to make one run coming down the stretch, but again because of race tactics and lack of aggressiveness many races have been decided long before the field hits the top of the stretch. The real answer to this is to take away the passing lane away, go back to the straight lane in the stretch and force the drivers to actually make decisions about where to position their horses and when to make their moves. This will lead to more competitive racing and more excitement for the fans.