Harness: COVID-19 brings forth a social media explosion

Every situation has a bright side for those willing to view things in a positive light. Within the Harness Racing community, the overwhelming shining moment amid the sickness and death brought on by COVID-19 has been the imaginative and informative content brought forth by its participants.

The creative juices have truly been unleashed as trainers, drivers, broadcasters, photographers and many more have taken to social media to entertain, inform, stimulate the mind, and simply fill the mountain of free time available as we physically isolate to prevent the spread of the virus. The range of content spans from comparing the great horses of various generations to in-depth live video productions highlighting the many personalities of the sport.

The most engaging content for those of us starved for our fill of the Standardbred world comes from the Central Ontario Standardbred Association (COSA) in the form of hour-plus live videos where host Greg Blanchard does a spectacular job of interviewing a group of industry participants. The CUJO Entertainment production provides viewers with a high-quality view of all guests and Greg while he peppers them with questions from those watching the broadcast as well as showing and discussing past races.

COSA announced in late December 2019 that it was launching a new marketing initiative aimed at promoting the Harness Racing industry and its participants. The recent COSA TV broadcasts on Facebook and YouTube featuring trios like John Campbell, Bill O’Donnell and Ron Waples or Yannick Gingras, Matt Kakaley and Tim Tetrick, are an acceleration of the original mission according to Blanchard.

"The switch to this virtual format certainly evolved from the fact that Curtis (MacDonald) and his team (CUJO Entertainment) haven't been able to shoot video on location due to the COVID-19 situation," said Blanchard, referring to the many videos previously shot at barns and training centers. "They have a lot of experience with the Facebook Live platform so it was an easy transition for them to make. It's fantastic that COSA has supported this and that we are able to utilize the available technology to produce new content for the harness racing audience."

After watching the April 5 broadcast with Gingras, Kakaley and Tetrick, it was impossible to come away unimpressed with the effort put forth by Blanchard and the behind-the-scenes crew. The interaction between host and guests along with the introduction of outside video is seamless. Clearly there is plenty of preparation involved.

"COSA TV has been putting out two of these shows a week (Wednesday and Sunday nights) so it's a quick turnaround and there is definitely some work involved in compiling video footage and photos, and any relevant research," said Blanchard. "We will create a rough outline for the show order but that's about it. It certainly isn't as tight as a network production but that’s part of the authentic appeal of this format and I think that the audience understands it won’t have that overly polished look."

Blanchard said viewership has been growing with each episode and best of all, he expected the series to continue in some form even when live racing resumes.

The latest show airs on April 12 with David Miller, Mark MacDonald and Blake MacIntosh. Readers can visit the COSA Facebook page or YouTube channel to watch it live or at any time.

While COSA TV may be leading the way, the number of interesting Harness Racing options on social media right now is impressive. Many trainers have been posting live videos of 2-year-olds and other stable stars.

Nancy Takter posted a number of videos highlighting her babies last week (March 30/31) on Facebook. She even brought us on a tour of her outside barn and introduced many of the people behind the scenes. Casie Coleman played videographer on April 7, providing us a look at her crew of Betting Line-sired and other 2-year-olds. We also caught videos from the Per Engblom, Marcus Melander and Tony Alagna stables.

Award-winning photographer Chris Gooden has done daily Facebook Live broadcasts from the desk where he works and brought in a number of guests to discuss racing and life. Diamond Creek Farm took us behind the scenes a number of times in the last week to demonstrate stallion collection, how they breed a mare, and even farrier work.

The number of daily conversations on the history of Harness Racing have also seen a huge jump since COVID-19 has forced most of us to spend the majority of time at home. Hall of Famer Roger Huston put forth his all-time trotting race while people chimed in with comments. Harness Racing Fan Zone and PMU Hippique both put up 32-horse brackets on social media asking people to vote on the best horses of all-time and top Prix d’Amerique champions in history, respectively.

"I think that people in the harness racing community are trying to keep themselves occupied and entertained like everyone else is, so shows like [COSA TV], along with the other wonderful related content that’s being produced, helps fill that void," said Blanchard.

The content from all sources throughout the sport has been tremendous and truly uncovered the vision of the industry players given a bit of free time to explore their inner talents.