Maine Racing is a Joke

[Racetime]

 Open today in Farmington is a joke, Cumberland tomorrow has2 Plainridge horse's in a N/W of 2 races in 2025 OR N/W $32,000 in 2025.....whooooo doooo you like...

[Papillon]

I wish I had access to the $2.20 minimum place payoff

[Racetime]

$4000 claimers go in 56 and the Open 55.1....

[wizardofoz]

Any updates on Case's health?

[chief yogi]

dont forget the cushing horses raced there eyeballs out today. race one horse dropped two seconds off his best time from the last 12 races on my program. looked like he could have gone around again. mikes horse couple races later looked like a champ.

[Locked in with pace]

HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE

[MCR]

I didn't know they still races in maine

[bass park]

Racing in maine is a dead industry but it will continue
e as long as the welfare money keeps coming from the state

[GOAT]

Where is Winston Drew these days?

[MCR]

Where is Winston Drew these days?

Ive heard he got deported! My source says sexual charges against a minor?

[dougie]

As a Mainer, I will tell you racing is pretty much done here. Very few people attend the "racing season" at Cumby. As for the fairs, Fryeburg's stands are packed. That's the last bright spot for racing in the Pine Tree state.

[chief yogi]

fryeburg still draws but i would say not packed. you can find a seat while 20 years ago you needed to place a blanket down by 1230 to have a seat. still a very good crowd but the handles half it was even with the signal going out.   cumberlands 5 horse fields this week are certainly not a draw. sadly maine is limping out to the near end.

[Hambletonian46]

Was at Farmington Friday and Saturday, and Cumberland Sunday. All I can say is...if you have never been to the Maine fairs and want to I wouldn't put off that trip. Farmington was just friends and family, crowd was really small and the handle per race seemed to be $1500-2000. Well that is a small fair deep in the middle of nowhere so I guess that could be expected. Sunday at Cumberland was the opening day of their much larger fair...and well it seemed that very few folks cared about the racing. By the seventh race my wife and I were literally the only folks in the grandstand. And the handle was a little better, but completely depressing since the signal was available nationally.

The nice thing about the racing was that there were alot of classy oldtimers (horses) who raced well. The bad thing was the races were completely, absolutely and totally non-bettable. If there wasn't a 1-5 favorite there were a couple of nearly odds on co-favorties. It was rare that these horses didn't occupy one or more positions in the exotics. And most races had a few horses that absolutely layed over the rest of the field, which means that races where a longshot hit the board were few and far between.

Now I realize harness racing has a well deserved reputation for parades of short priced winners...but back in the day Rutland and Rochester had bettable races. These races were not, which might explain why few folks participated. While the two tracks seem to rely on different classification systems for their races, the conditions of some of the races made it quite clear that races were written to specifically make certain horses eligible to participate that otherwise wouldn't qualify. And there were a number of announcements at Farmington about horses being "eligible at time of entry"...since they had won a race subsequently and would otherwise not qualify for the NWX$ last four races conditions. Not suprisingly, most of these horses won at short prices. I realize you need to draw entries a few days in advance but it seems like maybe horses who exceed the earnings requirement by nearly double should have had to start in the second tier lol.

My take away is that Maine racing seems to allow for most horses to grind out 20-25k in earnings over 30-40 starts regardless of how slow they are, which is good if you are an owner. But in my very small sample it did not make for good bettable racing.

Oh and Scott Ehrlich did an excellent job of calling the races at Cumberland, and provided the best three minute handicapping synopsis of each race I have ever heard, giving trip notes and pointing out race conditions etc that were extremely helpful if you were not a regular. On the other hand, he basically gave our all the horses I was keying on lol.

I have spent the last thrity years as a track ciollector, mostly on the thoroughbred and quarter horse side...and there are probable only a few people alive who have been to more of these tracks then I have. And sadly, nobody is likely to pass me since dozens of tracks I have been to no longer races. So you start to become familiar with the impending signs of doom. Maine has stayed relatively strong as racing has all but disappeared from the rest of New England...hopeful ly it bucks the trend and keeps on strong into the future.

[chief yogi]

agree hambo.  small fields. short prices. while not easy being in the race office cooperation between every fair needs to be better. maybe out of the box condition to try. spot on about rutland and rochester. made lots of money betting those tracks. cumberland has got to have the most 2.20 win payouts of any track and good luck finding a 100.00 ticket on any wager. the fat lady is getting ready to sing. sadly.

[Jack R. Braden]

Agree that fields in Cumberland on Sunday were small, but that day's consistently small fields have been the exception.

Not sure how the crowds have been most of the week, but the crowd was good-sized and engaged on Sunday. And the handle-to-purse ratio has been good so far: +107% on Sunday, +32% on Monday, +101% on Tuesday, and +68% on Wednesday.

Harness racing in Maine certainly has room for improvement on multiple fronts, but it would be good to read more than just the nattering nabobs of negativity in this forum.