next generation

[Any1Left]

Like many on here my dad brought me to the track and seeing huge scores when prices showed up excited me and then those big tickets arrived at my doorstep plus the racetrack characters were plenty back then and you could sit way back at GREENWOOD and MOHAWK and still be part of the game,,,,,,,,,,, MY QUESTION is to gamblers and horsemen,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,WILL YOUR  children be the next generation or does the buck stop here and by looking at empty winners circles and when people do show up i never see a young person,,,,,,,,,,,,i thought in my young day that the WAPLES CLAN AND robinson CLAN would dominate for a long time with MURRY KIETH AND RON all having sons in the bussiness and bill robinson with his huge operation having sons in the bussiness,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,on the gamblers side almost no one i hung out with has children in the game and most players quit or died,,,,,,,,,,

[JENNY FROM THE BLOCK]

the next generation wont be kids of trainers. for the most part it will be broke grooms who worked for trainers who think they can do it better.  some may succeed but i feel most will not.

[Janny]

They’ll still be a lot of nepotism going on which is a good thing since a lot of young aren’t entering the business like they did years ago. For instance, I remember back in the mid 70’s they started a BOCES program for High School kids in the Vernon-Rome, NY area to learn aspects of the harness racing industry to help get them to work at VD or elsewhere.

[Any1Left]

They’ll still be a lot of nepotism going on which is a good thing since a lot of young aren’t entering the business like they did years ago. For instance, I remember back in the mid 70’s they started a BOCES program for High School kids in the Vernon-Rome, NY area to learn aspects of the harness racing industry to help get them to work at VD or elsewhere.

BIILY O JACKIE MO  TIM TETRICK JOHN CAMBELL ,,,,,CAT MANZI,,,,,,,,RON PIERCE,,,,,,STEVE CONDREN,,,,AND MANY OTHER GREATS did they not have kids,,,,,,,,

[JENNY FROM THE BLOCK]

its just not happening.

[Papillon]

its just not happening.

Very true indeed

times have changed

cell phones,  casinos, sports betting, social media, YouTube, craft beers and flavored liquors are directing younger people away from golf, pinochle, baseball, horse racing, etc

times have changed dramatically-i liked it better when you had to go to the track to get a bet in

[JENNY FROM THE BLOCK]

we are all here for the fizzle.
fizzling out.
unless they make drastic changes.

[Lance]

BIILY O JACKIE MO  TIM TETRICK JOHN CAMBELL ,,,,,CAT MANZI,,,,,,,,RON PIERCE,,,,,,STEVE CONDREN,,,,AND MANY OTHER GREATS did they not have kids,,,,,,,,

Or at least none that they claimed were theirs.

[Yonkers1A]

My children have 0 interest in buggy racing

[Any1Left]

My children have 0 interest in buggy racing

i think the answer from gamblers will be close to ZERO,,,,,,,,,,,What kid these days like single file small price racing with corrupted pools,,,,,,,,,Answer no one,,,,,,,,,,,,But lets keep it hush and dont talk about and it will go away,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, The future people running the game will be children of the generation that killed it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Also you would have to hate your kids to introduce them to harness racing today but the one plus is that less people from horse racing will be members of G.A,,,,,,,,

[Brown jug]

at some point with any business you have to decide is it a growth business worthy of investment of just a mature business that has seen its best days and you just ride it out and try to make as much as you can before the end comes
there is definitely some sub par people involved in the management of harness racing , history proves that
but i am not sure even the brightest folks with a significant budget could make a measurable difference
i dont see harness racing becoming extinct anytime soon , ky, ohio , ontario are too strong
but as a business for sale i would not even kick the tires
just going along for the ride right now

[Papillon]

at some point with any business you have to decide is it a growth business worthy of investment of just a mature business that has seen its best days and you just ride it out and try to make as much as you can before the end comes
there is definitely some sub par people involved in the management of harness racing , history proves that
but i am not sure even the brightest folks with a significant budget could make a measurable difference
i dont see harness racing becoming extinct anytime soon , ky, ohio , ontario are too strong
but as a business for sale i would not even kick the tires
just going along for the ride right now

this is very well said and it where we are at

[The Thorn]

My dad never took me to the races.  I actually took my parents to Yonkers for a Tarport Hap Silk Stockings sires stakes and cleaned up on that exacta. They were impressed almost as much as the night I told them to watch the Channel 9 replays because I knew I would win Bergstein's weekly contest that week.

I took my kid to meet our stakes horse when he was 8 or so but he didn't care.  Even though I spent most of his formative years either at the track or Sports Haven every night he never cared about the horses at all.

Eventually he did get a little interest in Poker as it exploded in the early 2000s but gambling was not his strong suit.  My point is that there were so many options by then on gambling and so many scandals in harness that unless you were born into the business, had horses, or lived within 30 miles of a track there was little to entice younger people to take up harness. 

Today with CAWs taking over the pools it's only worse.  I don't see any way that any young person who has half a brain and good at numbers would want to gamble on harness. 

[gh2009]

That's why attendance at racetracks are almost nonexistent these days, the old people who used to go are all dying off and there's no one to replace them.

[Any1Left]

at some point with any business you have to decide is it a growth business worthy of investment of just a mature business that has seen its best days and you just ride it out and try to make as much as you can before the end comes
there is definitely some sub par people involved in the management of harness racing , history proves that
but i am not sure even the brightest folks with a significant budget could make a measurable difference
i dont see harness racing becoming extinct anytime soon , ky, ohio , ontario are too strong
but as a business for sale i would not even kick the tires
just going along for the ride right now

I WOULD AGREE THIS POST IS DEAD ON,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,25,yEARS AGO i was in vegas and betting horses and i talked with the guy who ran the sports book who came from running racetracks and he told me that in all the years he worked at racetracks that he only ran into one person who was good at his job and that the gambling business is like no other business and people could not come from corporite places and take over and you had to fully understand gambling to operate a gaming business,,,,,,,,,,,,, One thing GORDON RAMSEY has always said is you have to taste the food to be a good chef and all racetracks run with number crunchers and a place like GREAT CANADIAN CASINO WHO RUNS RACETRACKS AND CASINOS AS POOR AS ANYONE COULD TO ME IS unbelievable as every decision that is made is 100 percent wrong,,,,,,,,,,,,,,When they first opened a casino in B.C THEY OFFERED ZERO COMPS AS IT WAS THE ONLY CASINO IN THAT AREA AND THEY FIGURED IT OUT THAT WHY GIVE UP ANYTHING AS THERE IS NOWHERE ELSE TO PLAY BUT MANY HUGE PLAYERS AFTER AWHILE BEGAN TO GO ELSEWHERE AS THEY WERE USED TO ROYAL TREATMENT AND WITH RACETRACKS THEY HAVE DONE EVERYTHING WRONG AND WITH POKER THEY TAKE MILES THE HIGHEST RAKE IN NORTH AMERICA,,,,,Flamboro and fRASER are run so poorly and betting dollars have showed no interest in either product.......... ...