Need to Change the Purse Structure of Harness Racing

[Fair is fair]

ABSOLUTELY AGREE 100% Just take a look at the very successful training colony of the claimers... Let’s begin.... Allard, Oakes, Ruiz, Dowdall, Godinez, Fusco, Surick, Banca, Pena and the list goes on. Stop enabling these guys!!! What this means is they can be somewhat stopped by eliminating claimers and writing nothing but conditions. The problem with that is the “Race Secretary’s” would actually have to do some work other than change the dates on a weekly condition sheet!!!

Ya that makes sense give baby trainers like burke millers, butenshoen, harris, takter, alanga 3 and 400 horses each. MORON

[Dr. Adam Freeham]

 Glad to see Jay Bergman of the DRF read my article here on horseplop.com and agreed it is time to remodel the industry. Race less dates and give the better stock more money. A boutique harness meet.  It's idea is overdue in coming

 It is a step in the right direction

[caddy]

They should do away with claiming races...make it harder for surick, allard, etc. to drug all those nags.

this is dead wrong - the real truth is the horses are delivering the entertainment, even the lo-end lousy horses.  To that regard - the purse structure should incl. the appearance fee for every single horse that races.  Even if they finish on the DIS every race -  If a horse shows up at the paddock, they qualify for a $250 or more fee for participating.  There is an expense for every owner to provide his horse as a racer.  Pay the damned fee to cover the groom and the gas.

[slimshady]

It seems to me, the industry is built around the 2 and 3 year old stakes racing.
Yes, that is the area where the big $$ boys spend a shit load of money to buy the best, but it is also the spot where the smaller stables invest, hoping to find that middle/low priced yearling that one of the big boys x'd out because of a minor confirmation, that may never affect their gate    or    was x'd out because of a pedigree link that isn't desired.     
It's also the area where fractional ownership sell the dream and bring new people in, providing not just race day excitement, but that thrill of victory, agony of defeat process of training them down. 

I think race integrity and competitiveness can be better controlled via conditions than claiming dollars.