Harness: Feeling nostalgic for the glaring bulbs and bright lights

I readily admit to being an aspiring Luddite, My Internet network is called GetOffMyLawn, and I 100% believe Baz Luhrmann when he said, “Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.”

So, it may not surprise you to hear me say that I miss the toteboard. The honest-to- goodness, thousands of lightbulbs, is that horse 1-5 or 15-1, toteboard which showed all pools. A good one gave you so much information – not just win pools and exacta or daily double will-pays, but place pools and show pools. You didn’t have to wait for a pool to come up on a rotating basis. Some tracks still have them, but they are an endangered species these days.

Yes, analog toteboards have their problems. Reading the board during Little Brown Jug week in bright sunshine, especially with sunglasses on, can be nearly impossible. But I had the same issue a couple years back with the jumbotron at Oak Grove.

Although “JumboTron” is a registered trademark owned by the Sony Corporation, Sony stopped manufacturing the devices under that name in 2001 and the word Jumbotron has since become generic, according to Bobby Mercer in his book Manventions.

The classic toteboard showed odds plus win, place and show pools, with rotating exacta/Daily Double displays. Many newer tracks moved to a smaller board that showed odds but rotated the win, place and show pools. Roosevelt Raceway is generally considered to have had the best classic toteboard, and these days on the Thoroughbred side Santa Anita is pretty classic.

Northfield Park installed a video only toteboard in late 2022 and nobody in management had information on when the previous board was installed. I am not a huge fan, but Michael Carter, Manager and Assistant Race Secretary at the track says it has been a hit with customers.

“Fan response has been great,” he told me. “They are glad they can watch Northfield’s races on the big screen outside. It also allows us to broadcast Northfield’s races and other events.”

One of the great advantages of the old style toteboard was the Teletimer, a running timer so you could get splits by the 1/8 mile, instead of having to wait for the video screen to flash a quarter time, as most do.

The Meadows, which recently installed a video screen, found a workaround. Announcer Jeff Zidek told me, “The old board is still there, but covered up and only used for the Teletimer. I haven’t heard anything negative, and it’s been over a year.”

I posed the question – Old style toteboards with all the pools listed or the new Jumbotron video toteboard? – to the popular Harness Racing History Group on Facebook, which has over 47,000 members. The vast majority of responders liked the old toteboard better than the video screens. That’s a non-scientific poll, since most of the members of the group skew older than the overall population. The folks who did like the video board were generally younger.

Poster Ken Gee commented: “Love being nostalgic with the old school infield toteboards. But the new jumbo are better. Just wish that the tracks wouldn’t make them so busy that you can’t see the odds and the pools.”

One idea that interests me is what I call a hybrid board. It incorporates a video screen but also features many elements of a traditional toteboard. Tioga Downs and Running Aces are two tracks that feature this type of system, although the traditional information is not available at all times.

Darin Gagne, Running Aces announcer told me: “I definitely think the board is important for the fans – the odds board of course lets the public see the trends and movement of the odds, which can influence their selections. The video board is important for our fans on the apron because most of them cannot see the action on the backstretch. With the video board they can follow the race better. I think the newest version of the board, which are all digital, are the best, but our hybrid board is the next best thing.”

In my opinion, the video boards limit the information available. But Hoosier Park has a solution. They use multiple screens and although their board is all digital, the odds and pools are presented old-school style on either side of the video screen. The more I watch that, the more I start to like it. And you don’t have to worry about light bulbs burning out.

That’s it for this column. Now check the toteboard and go cash.