Harness: Still ready for the return of the Late Closer

For decades this was a time of year that offered trainers and owners throughout North America the opportunity to plan ahead for the next campaign. The long list of late closers at The Meadowlands would be advertised with owners of soon-to-be 3 and 4-year-olds looking for opportunity to race some unproven and more experienced horses in a series of races. The concept worked amazingly well for a long period of time as the late closing programs proved widely successful with horses arriving from outside of New Jersey.

Often stars were born out of these late closers but that was the icing on the cake. The meat and potatoes of this meal would provide a solid racing product during the winter and give people something of interest to look forward to that was different from basic overnight races.

It would be easy to say let’s roll the calendar back 10 years and attempt to produce the same results, but that would be folly. In 2020, the entire harness racing world has far less reason to race during the winter at The Meadowlands than ever before. To say that the absence of late closers is the sole reason would not be a fair assessment of current conditions. What has changed dramatically over time is the abundance of other opportunities for horsemen throughout North America that makes it far less reasonable to ship to New Jersey when there are guaranteed opportunities locally. As we all know, another important segment of the horse population that has waned over time is the number of NJOS (New Jersey Owned or Sired) horses currently racing. In the past when the breeding business was lucrative in the Garden State there appeared to be an endless supply of horses that fit these parameters. While ownership may still be solid in New Jersey, it’s not safe to say that the supply is rich in horses produced within the state’s boundaries.

So the question becomes, just because something that was so successful worked in the past, can it have a future?

As some have suggested to me, changes need time to be implemented and horsemen need time to make plans. The late closers that brought horses from throughout North America in the past won’t work today in identical form. Yet in reality there’s still a chance they can work and with very little difficulty.

As Pennsylvania and New York wind down the racing season, there becomes a time on the racing schedule where fit horses will either be put into idle or look for other places to compete. The Meadowlands has a huge opportunity here to embrace trainers and owners from local environs to continue racing and perhaps go for significant money in late closing finals.

That horses could be pulled from Harrah’s Philadelphia, The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, Saratoga Harness and even Yonkers for a four-week period that begins in January, should be an easy thing to work out in creating a platform for late closers. What has held back The Meadowlands in recent years is the fact that most of their attempts to draft late closers have been met with minimal entries and races that never played out.

To me it’s senseless for the entire sport to hibernate or be less creative during a time of year that we actually have a chance to gain public attention. I truly understand why some horsemen wouldn’t want to race during the winter given traveling conditions and pretty cold weather, but the sport needs to remain of interest at this time of year. We are in fact a 365-day business and if we expect the public to choose us for their entertainment dollars, we can’t simply fold the tents at the same time of year that so many other sports are dormant.

The concept here is not to abandon a format that no longer works but to reconfigure one that did work to bring it up to scale for modern times. It’s with that in mind I remain extremely puzzled by the “Kindergarten” series concept that as I understand is seeking to raise its individual leg purses in the coming year as if that would be the solution to a growing problem.

Even the name Kindergarten finds harness racing putting out misinformation. How is it possible that first- and second-time starters would be put in races against seasoned and stakes winning competition? While some are at the building blocks level others have already erected skyscrapers.

It was difficult to watch and impossible to wager on races that were so top-weighted with horses from the same two or three stables that would have four or more horses in a single dash. That some would be “prepping” for future races in the Kindergarten was really no consolation to the bettors. What the Kindergarten series proved to be in 2019 was a place where stables with an abundance of young horses were able to “get raced.” Initially the Kindergarten seemed like a great idea. With the expense of purchasing and training yearlings significant, the races would provide a learning-while-earning opportunity. Yet time and again what we witnessed was exactly the opposite, making one wonder why a trainer with a true non-winners-of-two-races juvenile would not simply enter that class at any other racetrack that wasn’t The Meadowlands?

For any late closing program to remain vibrant it needs annual adjustments. The balance of horses is crucial on so many fronts. From a horsemens’ perspective, there first must be a reason to nominate. From a racetrack’s viewpoint, understanding what conditions can be placed on a series to attract the maximum number of horses is paramount to putting on multiple competitive events. From the bettors’ perspective, competitive races where all horses have a reason to be trying and not prepping for other competition in of prime importance.

Let us not leave out racing fans. A late closer, when effective, can give rise to a future star and there is no better story to tell than the one that begins… I saw him win for the first time…