This is a milestone edition of On The Backstretch. Number 300! I’m not sure when I started with a much shorter format back in December 2017 that this column would still be a regular part of the format some eight years later. The frequency has slowed down but there are certainly more personal stories to undercover and hopefully we’ll be celebrating the 400th before you know it. I wanted to find a prominent figure in the industry for this momentous Backstretch edition and Joe Morris was kind enough to step up to the plate. He is the Senior Vice President of Racing for Caesars Entertainment and oversees three harness tracks – Hoosier Park, Scioto Downs and Harrah’s Philadelphia. Born and raised on a farm in Maine and currently living on a farm in Kentucky right next to Keeneland, Morris isn’t your typical executive and enjoys spending time with horses, on-track customers and horse people. The 65-year-old took some time out of his schedule to sit down and discuss his journey in the industry, the upcoming Breeders Crown at Scioto Downs, the possibility of the Hambletonian coming to Hoosier Park, and much more in an interview you won’t want to miss. Enjoy, and have a great holiday season and New Year!   You come from a Maine family that is rich in harness racing tradition. How far back does that go? The farm, which started as the Norton Farm, is the oldest continually run farm by the same family in the state of Maine. It is my mother’s side of the family and it goes back to the 1700s in the Norton line. Mike Graffam has it now. He is a cousin of mine. Nick Graffam, who is his son, and Bethany Graffam still run the farm. It is probably 70 to 80 acres with a half-mile jog track. A group of us grew up there, Bruce Ranger, myself, Mike. We had a breeding operation, a training operation, and got to learn all aspects of the business starting at a young age. So the farm is still going strong? They had a heck of a year. Nick finished third in the driver standings at Plainridge. They race the fairs and Cumberland. Mike got his 1,000th training win this year. Bethany got her training license. It is going strong. They are just a good, hard-working family and I’m so proud of them for keeping it going. Does it race under the Norton banner? It races now under Team Graffam but it is still the Norton farm. Mike is the grandson of Loring Norton, who is the patriarch of the farm. We’ve had some really nice horses there over the years. Steady Brave competed in many stakes races and made about a half-million [$470,209] in the early to mid-1970s. Hurricane Star was a New England Trotter of the Year. We raced from the Maine fairs to The Meadowlands when it opened, Roosevelt, Yonkers. Growing up on a farm, did you think early on that horses would be your path in life? I always have been tied to the horses. I did learn at a younger age that I do like air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter. You don’t get either on the backstretch, so I’ve always had an eye to running a racetrack and I’ve been fortunate enough to work my whole career in the racing business. Eventually you got a degree from the University of Maine in business and finance and went to work at Hinsdale and Foxboro in the New England area. How did that come about? That involved the Sullivan family. There was a guy named Tom Sheehan there. He had been a longtime racing executive. I stopped into have lunch with Loring Norton one day and he said ‘you’re out of college now and need a job. Talk to this guy.’ He dialed up Tom and he said ‘I’ll see you tomorrow at Hindsale for work.’ I started there and worked my way through the racing office. I was the assistant clerk of course and program charter. They had Sullivan Brothers printing where I did some accounting work. I ended up at Foxboro which is where I kind of got my MBA. I was General Manager at Foxboro in 1985 and 1986 when I was 25 years old. I was the youngest racetrack GM in the country. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter At the National Thoroughbred Racing Association you played a role with getting a number of corporate sponsors into racing. Is that at all possible for harness racing or is the sport too niche? It is possible. You have to know what you are selling. We have five tracks now and I have sponsorship teams at each of them. We are still out selling sponsorships. We have the Breeders Crown coming up at Scioto and have already sold the first few for that. Most racetrack people don’t have the skillset, but there are certain things – I call it real estate – which you can sell. You can sell your starting gate, your replays, your timer. We all have simulcast shows and you can package 30-second ads in. Each of our tracks with the Caesars group are doing that. I’ve been selling in this industry for 25 or 26 years now including the NTRA and Breeders’ Cup. At our height we were selling $14 million a year in sponsorships spread out over Thoroughbred, Harness, Quarter Horse and the United States Equestrian Federation. It is still doable but you have to know how to package your stuff up and bring value to whatever partner you are trying to sell to. You’ve also worked for BowTie Publishing, Stronach Group and now as Senior VP of Racing for Caesars Entertainment. Do you have a favorite aspect of the business? Racing. BowTie also published a group of magazines and it was selling ads to horse people. So again, there is the sales and the horse people part of it. I race horses myself. I don’t have any Thoroughbreds at this time. I’ll probably do it again. I breed and race Standardbreds. I just got a second at Northfield. I like racing people and the racing side of it the best. I like the breeding side but that is a dream. I have a mare that is pregnant to Always B Miki. How many Standardbreds do you currently have racing or breeding, etc.? I have one at Northfield that has two starts, a first and a second. I have a 2-year-old on the farm that will go back to work the week after next. I’m going to jog him the first couple of months myself before I give him to a trainer. I have the pregnant broodmare in foal to Always B Miki. She’s had five. I have a couple of retired horses, pasture ornaments I call them. I’ve got 15 horses right now. Nine of them pay me and six of them don’t. I pay them [laughing]. If you are born on the Silver Streak Ranch, which is what I call our little farm, it is a lifelong commitment to you. I pull them out of their mothers, race them – hopefully I outlive them – and they retire on the farm afterwards. What perspective do you think having grown up on a farm provides you as Senior VP for Caesars? Always put yourself in the seat of who you are working with. Most track owners and management don’t understand the horseman’s side of it. Our industry is a true three-legged stool. It takes the track, it takes the horse people and it takes the gamblers. You always have to look at each perspective to try to get there. I sit on the management side of the five tracks we have but in Kentucky I’m on the Kentucky Harness Horse Association Board, so I’m with the horseman there. I ran the Thoroughbred Owners of California for three years. I’ve got a true horse person’s perspective. I clean stalls every week and I wash water buckets every week and I take care of horses every week. Horse care is an eight-days-a-week job. It never ends and it doesn’t matter how you feel, you have to take care of your horses. That fact is important and I think it is missed a lot. Sit down and have compassion with your horse people. They are your partners and it is amazing what you can get done that way. Current or past, what is your favorite track to visit? Why? Santa Anita. I had the good fortune of running Santa Anita for quite a few years. I did a couple of stints with Stronach and the last one I was the head of Santa Anita. It is such a historic, beautiful property. Racing is at a high level. California might not be going in the right direction right now, but it is storied with history. I’m also very partial to Saratoga. I went to that track for 27 straight years from 1984 to 2010 or 11. Another track that is steeped with history. What is your favorite big event in racing? Why? They both start with Breeders. Breeders’ Cup and Breeders Crown. There is Christmas, Thanksgiving and Breeders’ Cup. Those are my three favorite holidays. It is the best of the best and a heck of a two-day celebration of Thoroughbred racing. Next would be the Breeders Crown. We are trying to get that built back up as an industry with a little more pageantry and fanfare. We have it next year at Scioto and we are really looking forward to that. What is your favorite thing to do outside of the racing world? Is there anything outside of the racing world? It’s funny, I don’t belong to a golf clubhouse. I don’t have a boat. I don’t have any other bad habits. I spend my money on horses. Here at the farm we have patios set up. We enjoy being here with the horses. Visiting family would certainly be one thing I like outside of the horses but I’m truly a seven-day horse guy, whether it is taking care of them or being around them. What is one word that describes harness racing for you? Hopeful. I’m still very hopeful for harness racing. I think we are at a little bit of a crossroads with the sport and I’m hopeful that we can grow it again. Harness racing is down a little over eight percent this year in handle. Hoosier Park was up 30 percent this year in handle. So there still are bright spots. We can still come together better as an industry and grow the sport again. Speaking of Hoosier, Gabe Prewitt told us in this space that he came there to run it because of you. What does he mean to you and what has he meant to Hoosier since coming on board a year ago? I’ve known Gabe for a long time now, probably since 2005,’06,’07 when he was at The Red Mile. This is the third time we’ve worked together. He came in when new Caesars was formed in 2020 at Pompano and some of the other tracks. Before that he worked at BowTie’s with me in publishing. He’s a bright, young, talented guy. As far as gambling, he’s the most relevant person in the sport to the gamblers right now. He’s just that good. He fits in well on the team. Having been reunited and doing this project with him is just fun. He has high energy, talks to the gamblers better than anybody I’ve seen, and is very good at setting post times. We learn from each other. I’ve learned as much from him as he’s learned from me. We just enjoy the success of growing our product. What was your best moment in racing? One of the best was a couple of weeks ago when I won a race at Northfield. I’ve had a couple of decent horses. My best moment in harness racing is just going to the barn in the morning, jogging a horse and cleaning a stall. Even earlier than that it is picking a stallion, breeding a mare, foaling the mare, breaking the baby, racing the baby and winning a race. Having said that, this is the first year I’m not breaking my own yearling. I’m getting up there a little more and this guy is a little headstrong, he’s a Pebble Beach, and I decided to send him to Joe Putnam. I’m taking the 2-year-old instead. Can I ask how old you are? 65. My cousin Bruce Ranger just won the driving championship at Plainridge beating all the young fellows at 66. I have hope for my 66th journey around the sun that I will be able to continue at a high level also. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter You oversee three harness tracks – Hoosier, Scioto and Philadelphia – for Caesars. How would you say things are going at each facility? I’m blessed to have a company I work for in Caesars that is giving us the tools I need to run our tracks. When I say tools, I get to run the team to put around me and they support the programs. When you look at Scioto, we tore down that old grandstand and built a brand new one. We just built a brand new 16-race paddock. We worked with the OHHA to get the Breeders Crown. We’ve probably put $50 million into that property. Hoosier Park, between that and the Horseshoe track, we probably put $23 or $24 million into them over six seasons. Harrah’s Philadelphia is very similar, updated, clean and well-run. We’ve got the team and the purse money, and Caesars gives me the tools. It is great when things line up that way. Hoosier has hosted the Breeders Crown twice since you took over and now you are bringing the event to Scioto in 2026. Can you talk about the significance of that? You are bringing a world championship event to the state of Ohio. You are bringing the harness racing audience to a new facility with the new grandstand and paddock we’ve built. We are proud of what we have there and we want to show it off. Our horsemen are great partners and they want to bring this event in also. When it came to Hoosier Indiana-breds won something every year so watch out for the Ohio-breds next year. It is a great story. What do you think Scioto can bring or add to the Crown experience that other tracks haven’t yet? A five-eighths of a mile track is different. They have been going to bigger tracks but we are a hungry little track. We want to make this the best two nights – four really since we have the eliminations the Friday and Saturday before. We want to showcase the facility, our Ohio-breds and Columbus, Ohio in particular. We are working with groups in the city to showcase our state. I think it will be resfreshing to have it at a new place with the excitement that will go with it. Columbus is a real sports city and racing has been there for 64 years now. To bring this event at this level, I think it will produce excitement from top to bottom. As you know the Hambletonian for 2027 and beyond is open for new bidders. Could Hoosier Park be a potential suitor? Hoosier Park could be a potential suitor. I believe that event should stay at The Meadowlands and I hope that gets worked out. The Meadowlands is the mecca of the industry and I think that race should stay there. Having said that, if they are not going to take it I think Hoosier Park would be very proud to have it. If we were going to get in the game for it I’d be looking for at least a three year deal because it is expensive to get and expensive to put that show on that day. I would want it for an extended number of years. But if I step back and put on my industry hat, it really should be at The Meadowlands. What new things are you doing at your tracks or is there anything you really want to try that the landscape just doesn’t permit? We are always trying to be on the cutting edge. We added drones to our show at Horseshoe and we’ll probably try to do one at Hoosier. We’ve added the racing position numbers that go on the bottom of the screen so the audience can follow the horses better. We’ve gone all hi-definition for our simulcast. There are some other broadcast things you’ll see us trying. We’ve gone to some AI-assisted wagering things. The geo-position “chiclets” can do timing and we are going to try to utilize that technology. Going back to the early 1980s when I started and all there was were racetracks and no simulcasting, you have to continue to evolve and reengineer to meet the expectancy and relevance to your audience. We are constantly looking for ways to stay out in front of things. We have people sitting in our dining room making bets on their phones. That isn’t an on-track wager anymore even if they are sitting there. We are trying to come up with better ways to tie in Caesars racebook as one of our tools. There are seven states were Caesars has a shared wallet between sports and racing. We are in 22 states but only seven have the shared wallet. Sports wagers are a way to bring new people into racing. Sports bettors trend young and this is a way we can maybe pull some over. You have to come up with no ideas every month, every week and try them. If you had the power to change one thing in the sport, what would it be? HISA is certainly not the way to do it but I would probably work on the integrity of racing. I think we can do a better job in that area. We have cameras at most of our tracks. If you are on the grounds you are under surveillance. We need to work on a level playing field across all of the different stabling options – off site as well as the track. How do you view the future of harness racing? I think it is probably going to get smaller with Harness racing and Thoroughbred racing but I think there are enough bright spots out there that we can grow the fan level again. A lot of it will be with television like what we’ve done fir FOX. Caesars has been out in front of that with The Meadowlands; Jeff Gural was one of the firsts. I think we can do better with television. We need to get our product to younger people on the platforms they are using. That isn’t standard television anymore. We need to reach people on social media, on ADW platforms, and we need to tie it all together better. We need a grassroots movement to get our base larger. We are not going to get as many people coming to the track as we used to but that doesn’t mean we can’t get to them on the platforms they consume. I did studies when I was at Santa Anita and Generation X had a favorable opinion on horse racing but would not mobilize for it. If we put it with a concert or wine festival or beer festival, something like that, they come. You needed the added event to get the people to move. If you look at our tracks we do that with all of them. We do community events to make sure the community stays a part of the racing. In today’s world that also opens the door to employment. We are always looking for employees. There are very few young people trying to get into horse racing right now, so I take every opportunity I can to talk to them. Time for the stretch drive… Best Horse you ever saw: Bret Hanover on the harness side. My oldest son is Brett and he might’ve struck me as a favored horse. Cigar on the Thoroughbred side. He didn’t set a track record but coming down the stretch if you locked onto his eye you weren’t going to pass him. That’s the intangible in horse racing. Favorite TV Show: Right now I’m watching Boston Blue. I liked Blue Bloods and Boston is my favorite city. I also watch 60 Minutes because I’m a news junkie. Trotters or Pacers: I would love to say trotters but I race pacers.