There's a sense that over time harness racing has become more insulated from the outside world. We're in a bubble and most of the time talking about our problems and trying to fix them. The beefs we have are generally with ourselves, whether it's about more racing opportunities, treatment of horses, bettering the breed or ridding the sport of drug cheats. There are occasional efforts to seek out a wider audience through television but essentially there is very little in the way of communication with the other world. It's regrettable but nevertheless a fact that the sport is playing to a much smaller on-track audience than it ever has in the past and an off-track crowd that is difficult to quantify given the advent of wagering hubs. It seems long ago when harness racing gave up the idea of growth and instead substituted survival as its mantra. While legislation in many regions has brought the sport back from the abyss, still it would be wise to think ahead just briefly and try to figure out if there are any long-term answers that we can come up with that will expose a new generation to a sport we think is worth watching. During one holiday weekend I found myself with a group of football fans in a living room. The host had a 75-inch television on the wall, and for the first time in my life I was watching four college football games in progress at the exact same time. The audio was limited to just one of the games, but the screens were large enough to capture all the action. It was a revelation to me to see how far the world has come that a sport could be brought into a living room and an audience with various allegiances could all be satisfied not to miss any of game action instead of trying to flip back and forth to specific games being played simultaneously. So, I thought, how could harness racing benefit from this technology? What I came up with is a concept that hopefully utilizes the larger screen to provide a signature event where four races go off simultaneously on a single screen with the outcome providing a lottery-style jackpot payoff. Four races at four different tracks go off at the exact same time with varied distances that allow all races to finish within 30 seconds of each other. The results could be posted in real time, and in the end a dozen numbers would appear on the screen, representing the top three finishers from each event. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter In the past harness racing has tried to showcase the best horses during stakes season on television, but this is something that would hardly be necessary if it was just a special event contested at a time when there is less competition. I can remember some 40 years ago talking to Mickey McNichol about conducting big races in February and March to get the product exposed to more people. The idea now is no different as the time slot between the Super Bowl and March Madness is still a window of opportunity for any niche sport that has something to sell during a time when networks need sports programming. While television was all that mattered 40 years ago, times have changed and the way people enjoy their entertainment is different today. Reaching an audience through social media is key to any "special event" harness racing may conduct in the future and should be the driving force with this or any other concept. For far too long we've tried to make people into bettors by providing "tips" from experts on our in-house shows. It's a necessary evil for those paying attention but for me all efforts should be made on first attracting a new audience to the product before hard-selling them on the concept of betting. Sure, the results of these races will set off a lottery-style payout, but that is intended for a few lucky enough to be holding tickets, not some handicapper or betting hub that cornered the market on the winning numbers. Ideally, I would hope that a one-hour time slot could be purchased on four successive weeks. This way the payoffs can increase each week until the final when the advertised largest payout is guaranteed to be awarded. Trying to make a spectacle of the sport to those that have never seen it is the only way I can think in modern times we can be successful. Competition is fierce and becoming harder and harder to combat. We can continue as we have done to try to showcase only our best horses when the top stakes events are programmed, but on those occasions, we will forever be against the odds battling sports that already enjoy the public eye. It would be great if we could get our best horses to race during that post-Super Bowl pre-March Madness window, but that ship has sailed long ago. The time has come where we must reach out of our comfort zone and expose an audience to a great sport. With four races going off simultaneously we also provide an audience with a unique look at the action. They aren't forced to waste time between races and figure out where to turn their attention. Providing the opportunity for a jackpot return is certainly an incentive for non-racing fans to watch, even for a short period of time. That's the key element here in how we sell our sport and our product. Make the most of an opportunity when people are paying attention. We have been stuck in a rut for a long time doing the same things and expecting a different result. If there is an investment in the future it must be based on the idea that we can sell the public on our form of entertainment. One would have to think that a few gaming companies that currently own harness tracks may have the capacity to seed these programs and sponsor them on network television. Who knows, maybe other people would like our sport if they just got to see it.