Harness twinkie @GregReinhart, a good friend of mine posed
this question to the world of twitter tonight. As we bantered our thoughts back
in forth on the matter my mind raced from one place to another. First to a hot
topic on harness racing chat boards regarding yearling sales, then to
@Pullthepocket’s blog from a day ago “Being Disruptive”.
The first theory that seems blatanly obvious would be the
“superhorse”. The likes of
Somebeachsomewhere, Western Silk, Shacked Up, Peaceful Way, et al. were all
very dominant in their respective years and the list could be added to
easily. As a result, the trickle down
effect begins where fringe horses move down to the “easier” Grassroots dollars
for a bigger slice of the pie. This, in
turn forces many owners of the Grassroots calibre horses to a decision, which
further pushes them out.
This is where “Being Disruptive” is necessary. All major sports have numerous review
committees that meet on an annual basis. A prominent one would be the NHL
General Managers meetings where they discuss, alter and adopt new rules for
improvement. What the racing industry as a whole fails to ever do is “review”
what needs improving. The OSS committee fails on this front as well. Why are
there not an ample amount of horses racing in the Gold Series? What must we do
to change and encourage more horses to enter them? Then there is the issue
of the Grassroots division costing a
$500 starting fee. Have we forgotten the definition of grassroots and the
reason we created this program in the first place?
What surprises me more is the fact Breeders have failed to
approach the OSS program about this. Breeders have been crying foul about dwindling
sales prices for years but can you blame any prospective owner? Hitting a
homerun with a yearling is a one in a million shot, but
buying a useful/profitable one should be obtainable. The average Joe can merely
afford to pay basic training bills with the hopes the horse is able to pay for
itself. When they must further dish out
thousands on starting fees for a “grassroots” program the break even point
moves that much further away. This COULD be a good reason why the rich pay for
the high-end yearlings and the rest sell for mediocre prices.
Harness racing continues to function at status quo circa
1940 yet no one in power seems to want to change that. Even sub organizations
within racing keep going down this path. All facets of harness racing could use
factions of them “Being Disruptive” on a yearly basis. Maybe then we will keep
up with what the customer of today wants and what the participants in it need.
Nick Boyd - @ralphie9 on twitter - is an Ontario based trainer and driver.
Nick Boyd - @ralphie9 on twitter - is an Ontario based trainer and driver.
1 comment:
It's always been this way w/ the OSS. Remember the old days? A Worthy Lad going to Kingston to win at 1-20. It appears (as Nick says) there is one or two good entries, and the rest dodge them as much as they possibly can. I'd allow Grassroots to only all small tracks with a $17,500 purse, max, or make them for nw of "X" life.
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