Harness: Will youth be served?

Whitney Houston sang: “I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way.” She probably wasn’t speaking about harness racing, but she could have been.

Reading the profiles of Communicator Corner Hall of Famer inductees Tim Bojarski and Dave Brower (of blessed memory) earlier this month, I was impressed by the fact that although neither came from harness racing families, both got their starts visiting the racetrack at a very young age. This is an area where racing has a huge advantage over other gambling venues – at casinos, racinos and sportsbooks where kids are not permitted.

I still remember being at Vernon Downs with the Harness Horse Youth Foundation. As we went to lunch at the casino buffet with our campers, we had to be escorted through the casino by two security guards, one at the front and one at the back of the line. It was reminiscent of the theater scene from O Brother Where Art Thou?

While we will not reap immediate benefit from promoting our sport to children, we will get a benefit down the road and as our fan base ages. That is critical!

The Harness Horse Youth Foundation (HHYF) is at the forefront of this movement, exposing kids to racing while in their pre-teen and early teen years, through its various camps and workshops. Executive Director Ellen Taylor does an amazing job with this organization, which has seen numerous graduates move into the industry, not just as new horsemen (Brady Galliers, Sophie Norton and Besim Odza, to name a few) or horsemen born into the business (Justin Irvine, Montrell Teague, Trent Stohler and Tony Alagna), but also in administrative and management roles. Some of those include Chris McErlean, Brower, Joanna Ricci (who serves with the Kentucky Racing Commission), Hoosier Park Race Secretary Scott Peine and Katie Eick (an official and social media manager at Freehold Raceway). HHYF gets it!

HHYF is a great organization and does a wonderful job, but many racetracks and horsemen reach out directly to youth as well. Just last week we read about the Chris Ryder stable hosting preschoolers at their barn at Winners Training Center. Besides their first exposure to harness horses, the children all left with a USTA Standardbred coloring book, Hambletonian stuffed pony and other swag. So horsemen get it.

My old boss at Northfield Park, Dave Bianconi, back when I first started there, was a young guy with a two-income family and young kids. That should be the ideal racetrack patron to target. But he said he and his peers could not go to the races because arranging babysitters was too expensive and too time consuming. There was no simple answer. Northfield had a Kids Korner for many years, but it was just a drop-off point where kids were set up away from their parents and the races.

However, many tracks like Hoosier Park, Tioga Downs and Running Aces get it too, holding regularly scheduled Family Days. This year the Red Mile is joining the trend. Kids can’t go to the card room or the casino, but they CAN be at the track, watching the excitement of racing.

Why do tracks offer these family events, which include face painters, balloon twisters, reduced price concessions and even live reptile displays (Full Disclosure: I am the presenter of The Handicapping Herpetologist Reptile Display)? We asked the people responsible for some of the events and their answers were educational.

“We’ve offered Family Days since we opened in 2008,” explained Aaron Bedessem, Vice President of Marketing and Operations at Running Aces in Minnesota. “Our goal has always been to be a family fun entertainment option. We also focus on families all week – Tuesdays with one-dollar hot dogs, sodas and chips. We also partner with many local non-profits, many of which focus on youth. These partnerships have proven to drive more families with children and help attendance overall.”

Andrew Demsky, Regional Director of Racing for Vernon Downs and Tioga Downs, said that Tioga’s best day for attendance and wagering is Sunday, their Family Day.

“We have been doing Family Day Sundays since before I joined the team,” said Demsky. “We feature five $1 food specials at the concessions stands, a free trackside waterslide, free bounce houses and free programs. We also offer free monthly farm tours and typically the farm manager from Allerage Farms brings a mare and baby to the trackside run-in shed.”

Both tracks aggressively promote their Family days on-site and online, through social media and their websites, although Bedessem says the events do not necessarily drive wagering increases.

Bedessem stressed that at Running Aces the overall attitude is to be kid-friendly. “We have a trout stream where you can catch your own dinner and pole rental is free for kids on Sundays. We partner with local Boy Scout troops to run that (so they are also being exposed to racing). You will see kids lined up at the fence along the track to watch the races and between races we see kids running on our grassy areas,” said Bedessem.

Demsky added that offering a variety of events is important, saying: “We play games with kids between races and offer prizes. It’s one of the most unique racetrack experiences. Also, we typically hold unique promotions on Sundays, including: Dog races (Bulldogs, Basset Hounds, Wiener Dogs), Herps Alive (Interactive lizard exhibit), Mascot Days, Free Carnival Rides, and hired entertainment acts. All events are scripted for our television staff who gets better every year covering these events between races on out simulcast signal. It takes a team effort.”

While it will take a few years for these new racing fans to become new bettors, the early exposure to the races educates and removes some of the mystique of handicapping and can only help our sport. We can only hope more tracks start doing the same.

That’s it for this month. Now cash, even if it’s just on a simulcast Family Day from Tioga Downs or Running Aces.