Look at fields on Friday at Yonkers. Very little breeding in NY. Will that get worse with Yonkers having three years left...at most?
Mohawk has 1 division with 7 horses. That is the 3 year C&G. Every year another track seems to close in Canada. The surviving B & C tracks race less & have short fields.
Hoosier has 1 division for their SS divisions.
Buffalo had 3 year old SS trots yesterday. 4 & 5 were the fields for the C&G. 5 & 5 were the fillies fields. DYING!
Oak Grove has great purses...but races around 40 days. The other Kentucky tracks overnights are not special. I think around 120 race days for the state.
The Meadowlands struggles & Freehold closed.
Harrah's Philadelphia purses are low. PA has regressed.
Ohio is doing the best. However...15 races for around 130K on Saturday. That is less than a 9K average.
The reality is the sport keeps contracting. It needs to keep doing that to exist. There are not enough horses to go around. A huge shortages of quality horses.
Who is doing well? The sports biggest cheats, some trot trainers, and select group of breeders.
THE GRIM REALITY OF HARNESS RACING!!!
Correct on the Yonkers part of this! SOA has an offer out to horsemen for $ 2400 to race there 3 times between now and mid August. You don't even have full fields now. Big money and still not enough horses? You need good and fast horses to race there and The track being banked for even more speed doesn't help the cause!
Sires stakes in NY right now.
Look at the Buffalo results yesterday for 3 year old trotters. 9 in sires stakes program and 17 in the excelsior's. Someone said on the thread that only 2 horses wouldn't be getting a check.
The 3 year old pacing division isn't much better.
Wasn't New York the place to race sires stakes years ago?
Isn't Oak Grove in the middle of nowhere [like Vernon and Tioga]? Good money but a questionable driving colony at best!
Both Harrah's Philadelphia and Pocono raced for a lot more money years ago. The surface at Harrah's Philadelphia isn't the best either.
Ohio has too many horses! The # of races proves this. In addition, look at the classes they race. A good chunk of them are for lesser horses. If there wasn't such a 'glut' of horses there, what would be the result? Less days? More purse money for the other classes that race there? Wouldn't this be better for the horsemen?
