Over the past decade, one would be hard-pressed to find an individual in harness racing outside of trainers or drivers who have logged more miles than Gabe Prewitt. This past racing season he took his talents to Anderson, Indiana, as the new Vice President and General Manager of Harrah's Hoosier Park. Wherever Prewitt has gone, whether it be The Red Mile, Pompano Park or anywhere else, wagering handle has followed. Hoosier Park in 2025 would be no exception. With the meet recently concluding, the total handle in 2025 for Hoosier Park checked in at $131.4 million, which was more than a 30 percent increase from the $101 million from the previous racing season. The average handle per-race also increased from $48,322 to $61,637, an increase of 27.6 percent. In a year where handle success stories in harness racing were few and far between, it was worth a conversation with Prewitt to hear his insights as to what sparked this handle explosion at Hoosier, especially considering that Prewitt stated that the increase was in retail handle, not computerized wagering. After all, through December 10, wagering handle on harness racing in North America has declined by $171 million, a decrease of over nine percent compared to the same time period in 2024. When you factor in Hoosier's success, that means the rest of harness racing is down over $200 million. So, perhaps we should all listen to what Prewitt has to say on the subject. "I came into the role wanting to shake things up," said Prewitt. "I wanted to be a part of a fresh look, I am definitely not from the school of 'this is the way it has always been done.'" So what changed? "We changed almost everything. We made a bold maneuver with a post time and moved first post up to 5:30," said Prewitt. That was not a move made just on a whim to see what happens, it was an analytical move. "We saw handle really dropping off on the back-end of the card. It seemed years ago it was the opposite. When I was at Pompano, those last races late in the evening would typically do very well. But we had to adapt and this was the right move to make," said Prewitt. The totality of the meet was also a subject we discussed. "We opened earlier and for a couple of months we had fewer horses. We had a rough winter and we were down races and down field size early on. We examined how many nights we could race, and the meet stabilized when the 2-year-olds hit the track in May and June," said Prewitt. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter Prewitt also cited race placement as an important element to the strategy. "Where should the big fields be on the card? That was an important question and I was actively involved in the draws each day to help our race office maximize our potential. Joe Zambito did a tremendous job husting for horses and did all the leg work putting together the fields and we worked very well together organizing the program each night," continued Prewitt. The coordination of post times was also a part Prewitt's strategy. "There were obvious races we wanted to stay off. Of course, we don't want to be racing on top of the Meadowlands or Woodbine Mohawk. Some tracks we actively and directly worked with on post times and others we just watched and managed," said Prewitt. During our conversation I cited my first year as Director of Racing Operations at the Meadowlands. In similar fashion, we made many changes heading into the 2013 racing season that led to a 32 percent increase in wagering handle compared to the previous year. We made similar adjustments to Prewitt, but I admitted that we may have done too much and been too successful. After year one, we had made so many changes we were challenged with the reality of "now what do you do to keep this momentum going?" Prewitt spoke to that point. "I didn't empty the arsenal," said Prewitt. "I feel like we have some more cards up our sleeve. Thankfully, we have a great relationship with both the horsemen and the racing commission, and we are all working extremely well together. We have to race 160 days, and we are going to be very strategic in what each of those race days look like." Prewitt will face a lot of headwinds in 2026. The industry overall is struggling to compete for gambling dollars as evidenced by the steep declines in 2025. It would certainly make Prewitt's job easier if the industry showed overall growth, rather than Hoosier having to buck a national trend. The Meadowlands, which is the most impactful Standardbred signal, is off just three percent, or $8 million, which can be attributed to their post time drag experiment. During that time period, which lasted from mid-April to mid-May, handle at the Meadowlands declined $10.4 million or 32 percent. Thus, outside of the post-drag experiment, the Meadowlands has seen a slight increase in handle. In 2024 the Meadowlands was just under 15 percent of the total Standardbred market in North America. That number climbed to 16 percent this year because of the declines elsewhere in the industry. Of the $171 million handle decline, 15 percent is the loss of Freehold, over 30 percent ($53 million) of that decline can be attributed to the state of Ohio, which is pretty alarming given the recent success of the breeding market in that state. Another 25 percent ($43 million) of the decline are Canadian tracks. Therefore, more than half of the Standardbred handle decline belongs to Ohio and Canada, and if you remove Freehold, which is closed, Canada and Ohio are 66 percent of the remaining decline. Sure, those are two large jurisdictions, but the largest contributor to handle, the Meadowlands, is only 1.7 percent of the decline. It's hard to pinpoint for sure what has happened this year with harness racing handle. But Gabe Prewitt seems to have Indiana and Hoosier Park on the right path. Hopefully other racetracks follow suit, examine their wagering menu, and try to make some changes to help the industry grow in 2026.