Horse Racing Does Anyone Else Have a History in Harness Racing?

I spent my College Years Working for George Phalen at Roosevelt Raceway 1987-1982. First as a groom then as a trainer. From all of the posts in this thread, I see only thoroughbred posts. Any Harness people here?

 

Longtime harness handicapper here, never involved hands on with them like you were though .

 

I would go to the meadowlands every week they had harness racing from 1978-1997 before moving to Ca.
Those were the days of great crowds, trackside restaurant, pegasis fine dining , food court for the regular paying crowd.
Full cards of 10 horses every race.
Big crowds for the Hambeltonian in august.....actually massive crowds.
Great drivers, and well known trainers.
I would also go to the much smaller track in Freehold. Nice hometown atmosphere. Billys room where yyou can sit and have a sandwich..no big crowds. Only a half mile track though.
And there was even a small harness track in cherry hill..I think it was called garden state race track where I would sometimes go....sparse crowds.

Wife and I went to visit NJ and tthe meadowlands in 2003.....it had deteriorated to the point where the foodcourt was closed down. Half the grandstand was closed down,...races were 6-7 horses.....sparse crowd....depressing.

 

I was at The Meadowlands once, for 3 or 4 nights for Meadowlands Pace week. It must have been 15 years ago though, I can't remember for sure . I was impressed as all get out though. My hangout was Raceway Park, so there was quite a bit of difference between the 2 tracks. You were lucky to have experienced the good horses and races for such a long time.
I believe the Meadowlands has gotten completely rebuilt since you have been there last though. Seemed to be going thru a resurgence in popularity last I had heard. I don't follow the races so much anymore, since they bulldozed the track here. Goddamn casino made them put an end to racing when they got here. Its a little more involved than that, but that's it in a nutshell, basically.
I tell you what, I miss it. I was hooked on the whole atmosphere of the track. The horses, the racing, the characters at the track, studying a card for a couple hours. I loved it. And it was a better bet than what a casino has to offer in my opinion.
So you went every week for almost 20 years ? You must have loved it as much as I did.

 

Yes it was amazing. Cant say I came out ahead during that time. But my generation has no problem sitting between races studying a program.racing form and doing analysis. Now people seek a spin of the roulette wheel every minute, or a new hand of blackjack ever 30 seconds, or a new spin of a slot machine ever 10 seconds.
People can even bet on horses from their homes making a visit to the track un-needed.

But I am thinking that freehold track was probably more similar to raceway park.It was a small old time track....with often the same jockies during the day that appeared at the meadowlands that night.

Yes the meadowlands grandstands were totally knocked down, and a smaller venue was built on the opposite side of the track. So new people going would never know how it used to be. The meadowlands during my days of going had a restaurant called pegasys which was very expensive, and you needed advance reservations since it was alwyas packed. You could easily spend 100 dollars back then for a meal without drinks...which was alot of money back then,,especially for track dining. They also had a regular trackside resteraunt where you could spend 20 dollars a person for a meal. And of course food for the regular bettors had nathans, duncan donuts, pizza, carvel, a boston markert type booth, clam chowder, knishes, corn on the cob....besides the regular dogs and beer.

And there was great places to sit. Tons of tellers.
You are right...I am a people watcher too..and got a kick out of some of the regulars that I could count on seeing every time.
The parking was free and the admission was only a dollar. Programs a dollar.(when i moved to california in late 90's....golden gate fields was 3 dollars to park and 5 dollars admission).

I think casinos, and online sports betting and online horse betting killed those great days..they wont be coming back as more and more folks my age die off.

I havent been to the meadolands since they leveled it and rebuilt it. I read how it was not financially solvent for years, and the state abandoned it, while a private venture took it over. Maybe for the smaller venue it looks well atteneded.....but nothing like the huge building that was packed on weekends that I was used to.

 

Admin
thanks for not letting this thread get hijacked.

 

Hi. Are you still active in this subject. Been Harness for years but now it's struggling. I am actively looking for harness handicapping computer programs that aren't charging obscene amounts to buy. And some way to input the daily race forms into computer without the third party companies now charging large fees as well.
Thank you.

 

I'm a thoroughbred guy and a member of paceadvantage.com lots of very sharp people there and there is a harness section.

 

Trackmaster has a bunch of stuff at their site also and I didn't think it was too pricey. I never got into that stuff much though. I just always use angles. Al Stanley's stuff. Tried and true. But I will admit that last year when I was down in Pompano I was having a rough go of it, and decided to try that App that trackmaster has. Worked pretty darn good. It gave me a few horses that I wouldn't have otherwise considered.

 

Thank you both. I'm trying to find some way to just upload a days race schedule more efficiently. The internet things want you to pay to download what you can get for 2 bucks from a racing form in the first place and some don't have local. I'll check those sites out. Thank you.

 

I have been looking for a paperback book I had years ago about harness racing and handicapping. It was titled I think, 'Pace is the Race' and unfortunately lost it. I can't remember the author, but they had system where you looked at the racing form results on each horse. Comparing times in the race and horses that like to start, etc. Pace at the turn etc. It was very successful. The cover if I remember has 3 or 4 horses rounding a turn...and the author was a woman I think. It even talked about doping and checking out the horse before races. Flank muscles and things.

 

I never heard of it, and I have quite a few books, newsletters, manuals, etc. on harness handicapping. About when was it published ? And how did you make out looking for a way to input programs into a pc ? ?

 

My senior year in High School, we moved to the town next to Roosevelt Raceway. There was a free bus from the MINEOLA train station so it became a regular weekend hangout. They were just beginning to make the aluminium buggies and several friends that had taken metal shop ended up working on them on the second floor over a bike shop.
I was 17 and while I had a few wins, I pretty much got my ass kicked. As did most of my friends.
Cable tv was still in its infancy, but Roosevelt was owned by Madison Square Garden and they would show all the sports events from the Garden. Ranger- Islanders games, wrestling, boxing and such.
Went to Yonkers a few times but didn't care for the lack of a stretch.
Merritt Dokey and the Fillions(sp) dominated. I remember the Rangers back up goalie rode there in the off season.
One night, there was a big race-International Trot, or something. The favorite had drawn the one post and I was going to bet $10 on him.
Not thinking I was going to get to the track, I went to OTB and was ready to bet there. They used letters instead of numbers so I was going to bet on the A horse.
Ran into a friend and ended up going to the track. I went to the window and asked for $10 on the A. Clerk gave me $10 on the 8 horse. No refunds, no exchanges. I was pissed but it was my fault.
The favorite broke almost immediately and the 8 horse, Bellino something, went almost wire to wire and paid $38.60.
It was 1976 or 77, I was working part time for less than $3 an hour and I won almost $200. I was rich. RICH!!!!!
Years later, in the mid 90, I worked for an auction company and we held weekly car auctions at the long closed track. It was cool being able to explore the backstretch and areas off limits to the public.

 

I have been looking for a paperback book I had years ago about harness racing and handicapping. It was titled I think, 'Pace is the Race' and unfortunately lost it. I can't remember the author, but they had system where you looked at the racing form results on each horse. Comparing times in the race and horses that like to start, etc. Pace at the turn etc. It was very successful. The cover if I remember has 3 or 4 horses rounding a turn...and the author was a woman I think. It even talked about doping and checking out the horse before races. Flank muscles and things.

Well, I'm thinking I have the title wrong or something. It was interesting as it went from looking at the horse at the track prior, to figuring out the pace of each horse in the race. From the daily form alone, with the parameters to be used per the book, I was doing much better than my usual handicapping tech. I'm going to dig around in my attic in box of books, as well as drilling a few friends whom I may have loaned it out to. The one that comes up that is close is a yellow paperback from 1993 and 1999. But I can't find a internet page that lets me see a few pages into the book. I'm sure there's a listing out there that allows this and that would go a long way to finding this book.

 

I have a question for someone who is familiar with he harness scene. I bet harness from 1978-1998 at the meadowlands one or 2 days each week....and sometimes freehold as well.

Here is the question......as people always ask about "are races fixed"

Before a race for about 5 min, after the post parade. Alot of the horses are taken through what looks to be strenuous "warm up" some using a whip, the horses breaking a sweat. And other horses are just taking it easy,

So I always thought...if a fave wanted to throw a race(or any horse for that matter).....just use up the horse at this time.

Thoroughbreds never work up a sweat before a race. No real galloping or whips. Not breaking a sweat.

Does anyone have knowledge of the ins and outs of this practice?

 

dupe

 

There are a lot of thoughts on this very subject. But the horse, like human athletes, need to warm up their muscles. Also depends if the horse ran a few races that day already.

IMO - Due to the practice of doping still in use, some legal some not so much and the ability of the jockey, harness or Thoroughbred to physically real time control the horses such as standing up in harness and thorough to slow down the mount, there may not be a big need to 'tire' the horse out near the race. There are a lot of subtle things jockeys can do during the race to effect the outcome. Is there honor among jockeys? Do jockeys work together to let a certain horse go to win/place/or show? Certainly possible. Countless times trackside, have I seen a frisky mount, fighting the bit right before the gate. Sure enough, that horse takes off, just wants to run and watched the jockey do things to slow him down. Like run into the crowd, drop behind on the fence, then scrape the fence. Standing up a few times. Whatever it takes. If I remember, jockeys have to conform to standards and conduct. So nothing is done blatantly. But I believe things are done.

 

http://www.barntowire.com/smf/index.php?topic=9242.0

i remember this guy very well...I remember when this first went down. He was in alot of races on freehold and meadowlands daily.

it was shicking at the time...and even more shocking to see him here in ca when I moved out here