Post by the believer on Dec 23, 2007 9:02:00 GMT -5
The Devaluation of Time
by Stan Bergstein
Executive V.P., Harness Tracks of America
Courtesy of TIMES: in harness
Last Saturday night at The Meadowlands the average time for the 13 pacing winners on the card was 1:50.4.
This is only 1.1 second slower than the world race record just 10 years ago, held at the time jointly by Nihilator and Call For Rain in 1:49.3. Two horses beat that mark Saturday night in overnight races, one of them-Mumbo King-pacing in 1:48.4, faster than Nihilator's world record of a decade ago and a world mark in itself for an older horse, and the other-V Twelve-equaling Nihilator's and Call For Rain's mark. Neither horse is exactly a household name, although Mumbo King may become one. His trainer, Richard Chansky said jokingly after the race, "Rick Zernon [who drove the horse in Canada] will never see him again."
The $20,000 claimers at The Meadowlands are pacing regularly between 1:52 and 1:53 and a $25,000 claimer won in 1:52.2 last week, which is faster than the world race record of 1:52.1 set by Niatross 20 years ago.
Other than the likelihood that the current mile track world record of 1:47.3 by Jenna's Beach Boy is not likely to survive the hot Summer, what does all this mean?
Is the breed soaring to unprecedented new heights?
Is the blazing style of racing, with no letups from wire to wire, producing the remarkable times?
Has track superintendent Mob Ashelman worked new wonders with the fastest night mile track in the world?
Whatever the explanation, and most likely a combination of all three, it means that time-like money-is not worth what it used to be.
If you can buy horses that can pace in 1:52 for $20,000, it becomes more apparent than ever that it is not how fast a horse can go that counts, but how much money it can win.
This, of course, has been true forever, but harness racing has never accepted it.
Our century-old preoccupation with time is still with us. Happily the era of time trials is gone and harness racing's scarlet letters-the TT perched atop a time trialers' head-is getting to be a rare sight. Good riddance. It was a contrived blight on the sport and it is almost totally meaningless now.
Horse racing is all about one horse being able to beat another horse, not about beating a stopwatch on an empty track.
So where do we go from here?
Where do we draw the line?
Do we publish a 1:55 list for two-year-old pacers, since if you can't go there with a colt you can't win the big, meaningful pots?
Do we now publish a 1:52 list for all pacers older than two?
Or do we swing the emphasis to where it should be and to where it means something: a $100,000 list for two-year-olds and a $200,000 list for older horses?
To illustrate what that would mean there were 127 two-year-old pacers that took records of 1:55 or faster last year, but only 57 that won $100,000.
There were 363 pacers older than two that took records of 1:52 or faster last year, but only 64 that won $200,000.
So which is more meaningful? Time or money?
Regardless of what we do on paper, the most realistic evaluator of all this on the race track is the claiming race.
If you can buy horses that can win in 1:52 for $20,000, then that's what a 1:52 mark means, at least as far as claimers at The Meadowlands are concerned. And purses being what they are these days, claimers will continue to drive the market. Entering last weekend, there had been 510 claimers at The Meadowlands, more in 84 nights than in the entire seven-month season last year.
Those 510 claims translated into $17 million, as much as was spent in claims on last year's entire meeting from January to August.
There is no mystery about this.
Twenty-thousand dollar claimers are racing for $15,000 purses. Twenty-five thousand dollar claimers go for $18,000 or $20,000. The arithmetic is attractive. If you claim a $25,000 pacer, win one pot with him and he is claimed for $25,000, you pocket $10,000, less training and driving expenses for the short time that is likely to intervene between the two events.
There are, of course, other horses racing besides $20,000 or $25,000 claimers. But they too are going for pots that make the game more attractive than at any time in its history, and that goes for fillies and mares and trotters as well. The trotters too are being claimed, a healthy new development for the sport.
If fillies and mares are dropped in claimers you can add whatever residual value for the broodmare potential that you choose, but basically it is not realistic to think that they are worth much more than an owner is willing to sell them for while they are racing. Astute breeders can make that call on their own.
Time can be devalued, but the dollar is up in harness racing. And this is true not just at The Meadowlands, but on a smaller scale virtually everywhere else.
Welcome to the new economy. Go get your share.
by Stan Bergstein
Executive V.P., Harness Tracks of America
Courtesy of TIMES: in harness
Last Saturday night at The Meadowlands the average time for the 13 pacing winners on the card was 1:50.4.
This is only 1.1 second slower than the world race record just 10 years ago, held at the time jointly by Nihilator and Call For Rain in 1:49.3. Two horses beat that mark Saturday night in overnight races, one of them-Mumbo King-pacing in 1:48.4, faster than Nihilator's world record of a decade ago and a world mark in itself for an older horse, and the other-V Twelve-equaling Nihilator's and Call For Rain's mark. Neither horse is exactly a household name, although Mumbo King may become one. His trainer, Richard Chansky said jokingly after the race, "Rick Zernon [who drove the horse in Canada] will never see him again."
The $20,000 claimers at The Meadowlands are pacing regularly between 1:52 and 1:53 and a $25,000 claimer won in 1:52.2 last week, which is faster than the world race record of 1:52.1 set by Niatross 20 years ago.
Other than the likelihood that the current mile track world record of 1:47.3 by Jenna's Beach Boy is not likely to survive the hot Summer, what does all this mean?
Is the breed soaring to unprecedented new heights?
Is the blazing style of racing, with no letups from wire to wire, producing the remarkable times?
Has track superintendent Mob Ashelman worked new wonders with the fastest night mile track in the world?
Whatever the explanation, and most likely a combination of all three, it means that time-like money-is not worth what it used to be.
If you can buy horses that can pace in 1:52 for $20,000, it becomes more apparent than ever that it is not how fast a horse can go that counts, but how much money it can win.
This, of course, has been true forever, but harness racing has never accepted it.
Our century-old preoccupation with time is still with us. Happily the era of time trials is gone and harness racing's scarlet letters-the TT perched atop a time trialers' head-is getting to be a rare sight. Good riddance. It was a contrived blight on the sport and it is almost totally meaningless now.
Horse racing is all about one horse being able to beat another horse, not about beating a stopwatch on an empty track.
So where do we go from here?
Where do we draw the line?
Do we publish a 1:55 list for two-year-old pacers, since if you can't go there with a colt you can't win the big, meaningful pots?
Do we now publish a 1:52 list for all pacers older than two?
Or do we swing the emphasis to where it should be and to where it means something: a $100,000 list for two-year-olds and a $200,000 list for older horses?
To illustrate what that would mean there were 127 two-year-old pacers that took records of 1:55 or faster last year, but only 57 that won $100,000.
There were 363 pacers older than two that took records of 1:52 or faster last year, but only 64 that won $200,000.
So which is more meaningful? Time or money?
Regardless of what we do on paper, the most realistic evaluator of all this on the race track is the claiming race.
If you can buy horses that can win in 1:52 for $20,000, then that's what a 1:52 mark means, at least as far as claimers at The Meadowlands are concerned. And purses being what they are these days, claimers will continue to drive the market. Entering last weekend, there had been 510 claimers at The Meadowlands, more in 84 nights than in the entire seven-month season last year.
Those 510 claims translated into $17 million, as much as was spent in claims on last year's entire meeting from January to August.
There is no mystery about this.
Twenty-thousand dollar claimers are racing for $15,000 purses. Twenty-five thousand dollar claimers go for $18,000 or $20,000. The arithmetic is attractive. If you claim a $25,000 pacer, win one pot with him and he is claimed for $25,000, you pocket $10,000, less training and driving expenses for the short time that is likely to intervene between the two events.
There are, of course, other horses racing besides $20,000 or $25,000 claimers. But they too are going for pots that make the game more attractive than at any time in its history, and that goes for fillies and mares and trotters as well. The trotters too are being claimed, a healthy new development for the sport.
If fillies and mares are dropped in claimers you can add whatever residual value for the broodmare potential that you choose, but basically it is not realistic to think that they are worth much more than an owner is willing to sell them for while they are racing. Astute breeders can make that call on their own.
Time can be devalued, but the dollar is up in harness racing. And this is true not just at The Meadowlands, but on a smaller scale virtually everywhere else.
Welcome to the new economy. Go get your share.
Had the winner over Samurai Sam saw he was getting hit heavy in the exactas. To me the tote tells a lot I always study it. There will always be overlays because lots of people bet time and in the flats a thing called Byer speed figures. This game will drive you crazy lol.
You know the claimer will never be horse of the year, yet a yearling has that outside chance. I have always been on this side of the fence, would like to try the other side for a change. Your thoughts