I remember the days of you and
Spencer Ross bringing to my living room racing from Roosevelt
and Yonkers. ( I miss the good old days). The problem with our
sport is NO PUBLIC RELATIONS...How about a National TV program
or Harness Racing Channel on Cable?
I am a standardbred owner with
VIP Internet Stable and it infuriates me when I can't bring my
daughters to the paddock to show them the behind the scenes. I
understand the dangers and insurance issues (I'm an insurance
agent) but how does our industry expect to bring new fans if
we don't expose our kids and grand kids to the horses.
I'm hoping that reopening of
Yonkers Raceway will give the desperately needed jolt for
public relations and awareness to our sport.
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How about a show on the real issue which is
performance enhancing drugs and the inconsistent performances of horses,
trainers & drivers. You have to face the reality that harness racing as of
today is no different
then professional wrestling.
Rich Laurenzano
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I am a Harness Owner,
and am amazed at the lack of publicity the Harness racing
produces .
My local paper in Staten
Island no longer provides weekly handicapping, only the
entries, and it is such an unknown to this borough that I am
at a loss for words .
How do you support a
sport when no body knows or cares about it ?
The OTB channel 71 shows
Yonkers/Meadowlands, and various other tracks, but if you have
DirectTV, even the local channels it offers does not carry
this channel. They say the reason is that the feed is not
strong enough for the Satellite carrier to receive. So this
product does not get to DirectTV subscribers.
Also, Yonkers used to
have between races, Frank Drucker interviewing Owners/Trainer/
Drivers, a great product. For some reason, they stopped it.
I again, am at a loss
for words on how Harness Racing as a sport is being presented
to the public; no new fans are coming on, which is obvious
with the lack of support they are publicizing and Harness
racings future will then only be another form of betting at
the tracks/ converted Racino's ...
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Whenever the T-breds have airtime (which
I admit to watching) they always seems to have
some great "human interest" features, whether it be a
paralyzed trainer, a 94 year old owner, a jockey
fighting weight problems, or addiction, or whatever.
From a personal point of view, couldn't
we do something like, "a day in the life of a harness
trainer (or driver or groom), or whomever. There always
seems to be great little blurbs on the USTA website
about the 91 year old driver, and other tidbits, that I
believe could be turned in to something fascinating, and
a one hour show, that might draw some attention.
FYI, I started attending the races in
1960 at Yonkers, and was fortunate enough to witness the
peeks of the 1960's and 70's. I was at Roosevelt the
night that 55,000 people attended the International
trot, and many other great evenings.
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