Harness: Handicap means the best start on the outside

The late Hank Stram once uttered, “how could six of you miss a play like that?” when arguing with officials following an obvious (to him) missed penalty in Super Bowl IV as coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.

Stram’s words had to be in the mind of Saints coach Sean Payton after witnessing every referee fail to notice what replay would show to be an obvious pass interference call.

Watching this past Saturday’s (1/26) Open Handicap at Yonkers Raceway, those words came back to me. How could all of those responsible for creating a racing program at the track possibly miss what every handicapper could plainly see? Bettors Fire N was actually assigned post two in the $44,000 contest and before the betting public began to take interest, that very fact had to be cause to wonder why a flag hadn’t been thrown and a group of officials meet to discuss the issue.

Bettors Fire N was an impressive third closing from post eight just a week earlier in an Open event while overcoming many obstacles in his way at a healthy 62-1 number. The 11-year-old import had previously won his first five races at the end of 2018 after arriving on these shores with an impressive 40 wins Down Under.

Bettors Fire N was sent off as the 6-5 favorite and went down the road followed by Air Strike (post 4) the entire way. Weona Sizzler A, who was assigned post eight on the basis of two Handicap victories in December, was sent off as the third choice. Like many who have come before him, he accepted the handicap with disdain for the betting public and followed horses from the back to a distinguished seventh-place finish.

What the outcome of this race sets up is what has become obvious to those watching Yonkers Opens and Handicaps for years. Horsemen take their punishment for being handicapped but bettors pay the ultimate price. While Weona Sizzler A’s non-factor status on January 26 may cause the racing secretaries to offer some concessions in weeks to come, those who backed him at 7-2 based on legitimate form won’t get a better deal the next time around.

It’s even fair to say that when doing the handicapping to create this past Saturday’s farce, too much weight was put on the fact that Bettors Fire N was a 62-1 offering from post eight and not enough was likely put on just how strongly he raced despite the public’s backing.

As stated in the past, we have a system in place that is obviously broken. While some may argue that the fact that the favorite won the race is indication that the bettors were served, in reality creating any race where there is more incentive on the horsemen to take back as opposed to go forward is counter productive to a quality race. Handicapping is allegedly supposed to reconfigure the starters in a particular race in a manner that produces a more fairly balanced affair. When the two longest shots in a handicap start from posts six and seven, as they did this past Saturday, we are witnessing the opposite impact.

Perhaps less obvious to the horsemen and the race office is that in filling the top class handicap each week instead of omitting it occasionally all too often the product has soured. This is in my mind the worst we can offer as a sport. If the largest purse offered in harness racing can’t attract a competitive field with all eight or perhaps 10 or 12 horses with a serious chance to win, then why bother?

Of course we know why the horsemen bother, they want to get paid, but isn’t it time we considered the gambler and attempted to revamp this system that has yielded no dividends to the public we are attempting to entice?

With $44,000 guaranteed to be available for at least 50 weeks a year and most horses only starting 30 or less, realistically there will always be a chance to make up for any missed opportunity.

There is an easy way to fix this issue and many more if the race office really wants to take the time to change things or for that matter wants to really publicize a “feature” event. I would set up monthly mini-championship events with just $25,000 up for grabs the first two weekends of the month. Put together as many races as can fill with horses required to have a minimal amount of either seasonal or life earnings to qualify to enter. Take the top point or money earners from the first two weeks and have the top 12 horses return for the final weekend of the month for a purse of $150,000-$200,000.

Here’s a chance to make the first two weekends of the month far more competitive and then give all of those who earned a spot a real chance at serious money as well as something that could actually be publicized across the country and abroad. Far more important from a betting standpoint would be a better guarantee that horsemen will be going forward at least three times in four weeks, a percentage that has rarely been achieved since this antiquated system became the norm.

That 51 percent of races are being won by favorites at Yonkers this year is not something to hang your hat on. It suggests races have no balance whatsoever. When horses are poorly handicapped by the race office it does not broaden the variables for handicappers but shrinks them instead. That is how the inside horses became the favorites and the Yonkers line-up became the showcase for what should be the “best” race of the week.

This sport doesn’t need instant replay to figure out this problem, but we could use instant reply by the race office to get the job done.