There is something about music – lyrical or instrumental – that marks time and hypes you up for an event. Name any sport and there is likely some tune that accompanies it and gets you excited. “Are you ready for some football?” Those six words have been etched in the minds of many and instantly get you in the mood for an evening of NFL action. How about the Fox Sports intro for Major League Baseball? It is just instrumental but it certainly gets you in the mood for the event to follow. The same can be said about the ESPN Sunday Night Baseball music that I grew up with starting in the 1990s. Keeping with the MLB focus, have you heard New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz’s entrance music? If Timmy Trumpet playing Narcos doesn’t get you on your feet, nothing will. As a NY Yankee fan I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Mariano Rivera, the best closer in history, heading to the mound to Metallica’s Enter Sandman. I honestly just got goosebumps watching the clip of his last appearance.   Switching over to basketball, the NCAA March Madness theme is very much iconic, and perhaps slightly less so the NBA on ABC intro. Are you feeling more international? The theme for the Olympics on NBC is something many Americans have heard over and over through the years. What about the entertainment world? When Woke Up This Morning came on before The Sopranos, it was impossible not to be pumped up for the episode. I know whenever I hear the theme song for Star Trek excitement builds inside my body for the show or movie I’m about to view. Tying in some harness racing, do you remember the Racing from Yonkers introduction? I do, even though I was likely under 10 when I watched on WOR TV in New York. Much later in my life I remember The Meadowlands at the old grandstand would always have something playing when you walked up the ramp into the building. For the life of me I can’t remember what it was. I do recall plenty of great intro music over the years during the sign-on for The Meadowlands. Certainly ingrained in my head despite having missed it for a few years is the music that they play over the loudspeaker continuously at the Delaware County Fair during Little Brown Jug week, though I’m not so sure that gets me excited. So where am I going with all of these musical references through the years? The music is meant to inspire and fire up the person watching for what is about to happen as well as creating a unique bond of familiarity. This got me thinking, do we (harness racing) as an industry do a good job of getting people excited about our product before it begins or even while it is happening? Outside of the Call to Post, which is more of a general racing theme than a harness racing-specific one, is anything really recognizable for our sport? I know The Meadowlands and Yonkers do a good opening with music. Personally I liked The Meadowlands open from a few years ago better, but there is nothing wrong with the current one. Every track should do an introduction video or music, just like when the players hit the floor in an NBA game they make a big deal out of it. But after the open, which is typically 10-30 minutes before the races start for the night, what are we doing to maintain the excitement leading up to every race? Certainly on the Elitloppet and Prix d’Amerique days overseas we get plenty of fanfare in the way of pomp and circumstance as well as music. I vaguely recall The Meadows playing the theme to Rocky during the post parade for the Adios Pace. Giving credit where it is due, for the Hambletonian this year The Meadowlands incorporated introduction music just prior and through the entire 2023 post parade to add dramatic effect to the trotting classic. It was a great addition and one I recall in the moment telling Hambletonian Society President John Campbell how much I enjoyed it. Making special events seem special is no doubt important, but could we do more to prop up every race? What I’m going to suggest next will probably make at least one person jump from their seat and declare me insane, but if we aren’t moving forward then where are we going? Perhaps the time has come to toss aside the bugle “call to post” for something new? Or at the very least use it while including something more current and interesting. I suppose Taylor Swift won’t sign on to create a new walk-on song for the post parade but maybe another artist would be interested. If a track doesn’t want to do the legwork, maybe the USTA could take on the venture on behalf of harness racing in the U.S. with the idea of making it available to all member tracks. No, the traditionalists won’t be happy, but I’m sure they weren’t happy when the NFL made it so there are no more kickoff returns or MLB went to the universal DH or the NBA decided defense was irrelevant or PBA allowed two-handed bowling to be legal. While it’s impossible to please everyone, in the end the people who love it are unlikely to be going anywhere because of some music, so we need to have some focus on those who may get some small exposure via company outings or showing up with friends. We need to make the on-track experience as entertaining as possible so they want to come back and tell their friends. Is new walk-on music going to accomplish that task alone? No! You have to start somewhere!