Harrington, Bobby Quillen Pace

[Kirbys Ace]

Use to be the big race at Harrington for years with purse of over 200K and some of the best talent available at this time of year entering. Now the race is a 50K with no fan fare and fading away.
Shame.

[Harness racer]

Closed to outsiders now and a lowered purse.  Locals mad that much purse money was leaving the state.  Used to have some big names show up.  FOILED AGAIN, BETTERTHANCHEDDAR, AMERICAN HISTORY, BIT OF A LEGEND, and  WON THE WEST have all won the Quillen in the past.  FOILED AGAIN won a few times if I remember correctly.

[Scooteroo]

The last few years they had the race the purse was $150,000 and the year BetterthanCheddar won the race, Casie Coleman was actually there in person and in the winners circle, but you're right, the locals did complain, so a few years ago they changed it to (3) $50,000 purses, one for older males, one for aged mares, and one for aged trotters and entrees were based on earnings this year with a minimum of 3 starts at the current meet.

[old guy]

 It’s nice that the Delaware horsemen want to keep “their” money in Delaware but before slots they had no problem going to other states and racing for that states horsemen’s money. They became very provincial in their attitudes.

[Scooteroo]

When Luc Ouellette first came to Dover years ago and was winning tons of races, there was a movement started by Kathy Davis, wife of driver Eddie Davis to ban Canadian drivers. Of course that went nowhere. In recent years Ron Burke has run a few horses there, and about 8 to 10 years ago, Nick Surick had horses there for several years and was leading trainer one year. When presented his leading trainer award, he thanked management for allowing him to race there!

[Kirbys Ace]

When Luc Ouellette first came to Dover years ago and was winning tons of races there was a movement started by Kathy Davis, wife of driver Eddie Davis to ban Canadian drivers. Of course that went nowhere. In recent years Ron Burke has run a few horses there, and about 8 to 10 years ago, Nick Surick had horses there for several years and was leading trainer one year. When presented his leading trainer award, he thanked management for allowing him to race there!

She always was/is very vocal! Sometimes quite embarrassing

[Locked in with pace]

The Dover and Harrington meets cater to the locally owned.

[Harness racer]

The Dover and Harrington meets cater to the locally owned.

Dover welcomes all the out of town cheats in recent years.  Not sure what you are talking about.

[Scooteroo]

Nick Surick had horses there for a few years around 2012-2014 and was leading trainer one year.

[Way to go]

Very few people in Delaware  racing are from Delaware originally. They migrated to Delaware when slots came in 1996.

[Scooteroo]

Plenty of the current horsemen are from Delaware originally when they used to race for $500 purses at Georgetown Raceway, when the feature race purse at Dover and Harrington was only $2000. Some have migrated from the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia and a few from New Jersey. When Illinois racing was failing, Tony Morgan was the first to come and a few years later Tetrick came along.

[Way to go]

Crissman-NY,Leblanc-PA,Hundertpfund-NJ,Josh Green-OHIO and the list goes on and onthey mostly stayed but TWTRIXK moved on...

[Scooteroo]

I'm not saying that nobody came from outside the area because obviously some did but there are plenty of horsemen who have been here their entire life. Bottom line is, if the purses are good, more trainers will come.

[Way to go]

Delaware owners also get 40%bonus on purses but that counts towards earnings. Maryland gives bonus money not counting towards horse's earnings

[Scooteroo]

It's difficult to make money in Maryland because there aren't that many race dates compared to Delaware plus the purses are much higher in Delaware. I know a few owner/trainers who lived just over the Delaware border in Maryland moved just over the Maryland border into Delaware so they could race as Delaware owned horses.