Macedonio: Time for tracks to battle

This here is a two-parter. A bi-polar double article! Tune in next week for the opposite Trot Take. Right now, we’re stuck in the middle, and that valley is filled with apathy. I say let’s really go hard on one of two options and see how things shake out.

Ryan’s Awesome Option #1

All tracks are enemies, so maybe they should act like it and market it! Imagine if tracks actually publicized what makes them great vs. what its competition is offering. I mean really go hard in the paint on this one. Meadowlands and Yonkers bump each other from time to time, and frankly it’s great. It creates discussion and people talking about the sport. No other tracks fight and it’s boring. Let’s spice it up.

We all know that most tracks don’t want to work together anyways, so what is the big deal with actively trying to put that track under. If you opened an Applebee’s across from a Ruby Tuesday’s, you don’t play nice-nice with them, so why are tracks not publicizing other tracks’ mistakes and downfalls?

Do comparisons for bettors saying how your track offers this while simultaneously showing what the other tracks offer. Discomfort and dissention is a way to increase quality, and I think it could help in this scenario. Sure, maybe short term there will be some growing pains, but I think that if tracks had the mentality of us against the everyone, they would drive themselves to create the best possible racing, betting, television and live product for Harness Racing.

Imagine if Hoosier Park took a shot against Hawthorne in public, and they laid claim to being the best at something. Hawthorne has to fire back, right? It gets coverage and now people will be viewing both products.

Imagine next year if Woodbine/Mohawk took a stand and refused to simulcast any race that one of its barred trainers from the Integrity Initiative is racing at regularly. They could put on the screen, “We do not support any race Trainer X is in because he received a positive test for Drug X and he is banned from our stakes program, so we won’t be hypocrites by even remotely profiting off of anything Trainer X is involved in. We also do not condone Track X and State X by allowing Trainer X to race. Our Track is the greatest track in the world and we want to bring our fans the best product.”

People would lose their minds!!!

We love it when our favorite sports teams fight in public and on the field, so why wouldn’t we love it when our tracks do the same thing?

That’s it for this week. Don’t forget to come back next time to see part two.