The young hipsters dressed to the nines sipping cocktails while lounging on rooftop patio furniture was the first indication this was not your granddaddy’s Hambletonian.
That it was a surprisingly pleasant overcast August afternoon, and not a sauna, was another.
In the end, the track belonged to imported Swedes — Jimmy Takter and Ake Svanstedt, especially — along with Ron Burke, of course.
But the day? That belonged to the gleaming new $88 million grandstand that thrummed with youthful energy and passed its first big test with aplomb.
Track owner Jeff Gural was pleased and, naturally, couldn’t resist an “I told you so” dig at his critics.
“I think if you go back to the weekend we opened, I think if you look at some of the blogs, they were all critical, ‘Gural’s an idiot. The place is much too small. What’s he going to do for the Meadowlands Pace and Hambletonian?’ We saw the place is just perfect. It was designed exactly right,” he said of a building about a third the size of the behemoth across the pond.
Give the man his due. On this Hambletonian, he wasn’t wrong. The crowd, estimated at 20,700, was thick — particularly in the new version of Paddock Park now called The Backyard — but not impenetrable. The queues — for pari-mutuel or more ordinary refreshment — moved with impressive speed given the volume.
The on-track wagering wasn’t as strong as the Nouveau Big M folks would have liked to have seen, mind you, but then the young kids don’t bet like their granddaddies, either. It’s the cost of trying to introduce the business to a generation to which harness racing is as foreign as rumble seats.
But out there in our hyper-connected world, from Hackensack to Helsinki to Sydney the bets poured in. With a few countries still to be heard from, the expectation is that the haul will be about $1 million higher than last year. The total handle of more than $8.7 million is already the third best Hambletonian Day in history and foreign wagering could still push this year’s number to the top spot, exceeding some $9 million bet in 2005.
“That’s impressive in this day and age,” Gural said. “That’s a tribute to the card. We had full fields, a couple of big fields, almost all the major stars were there with the exception of the three-year-old (pacing) colts. But on the trotting side, we got a little lucky with Father Patrick drawing the 10-hole. It wasn’t a walkover, as it turned out.”
The über trotter, bet down to 2-5 despite starting from parking lot, was part of Takter’s Terrific Trio instrumental in scaring off challengers in the main event and leaving the Hambletonian heatless just one year after returning to its old format. That Father Patrick made a jump at the gate immediately made for some interesting drama whether you watched on the huge high-definition infield screen from one of the outdoor grandstand seats or in the hinterland via the spectacular show on the CBS Sports Network that employed 13 cameras to great effect, including a wide-angle mounted on the starting gate.
Takter’s intact duo of Trixton and Nuncio got the job done, of course, with a neck-and-neck stretch battle to boot. When the stone dust finally settled, Takter celebrated his first Hambletonian victory in the bike (and third lifetime), nipping John Campbell for what would have been his seventh triumph in harness racing’s premier race.
You needed a cab ride to reach the rest of the field scattered by three breakers, which was particularly disheartening to driver Yannick Gingras and the rest of Father Patrick’s connections.
That it was likely Gingras’ greatest day at the track was little consolation for the Quebec native who won four stakes — including the $500,000 Hambletonian Oaks with Lifetime Pursuit — and just shy of $600,000 in purses in all, but was crestfallen about losing the big one.
"It's probably the best day I've had racing horses but it's also the most disappointing day. I scored (Father Patrick) down pretty hard because I've never left with him before, and I wanted him to pay attention and be ready for it. The gate opened, I just touched him on his tail with the whip and he took off running. It's so unfortunate. Knock on wood, I'll have another chance, but you never know,” Gingras told the ubiquitous Bob Heyden, one of the few things about the new place that thankfully was not traded in for a newer model on Hambletonian Day.
That Kevin Jonas of Jonas Brothers fame was tabbed to present harness racing’s Stanley Cup to Takter and Co. speaks to that youth movement again — unless you’re referring to that glorious silver bowl that now has 90 of the sport’s greatest trotters inscribed in silver discs on its wedding cake base. Dear Lord, let’s hope no one ever entertains trading that in for a newer model, because newer isn’t always better. Progress isn’t always positive.
Sorely missed in the new digs is the old front paddock that radiated with equine and human stars and served as the annual meeting place for the sport’s far-flung power brokers on Hambletonian Day. The signs that once hung above the stalls on the façade of the old place honouring each of the Hambletonian winners since the race moved to New Jersey in 1981 seem out of place now lining the infield.
Try as they might, even the Copa Cabana rum girls sporting huge feather headdresses and little else other than smiles, didn’t make up for the loss. Though, they were a nice touch along with the fathead driver cutouts seen throughout the day, the appearance by Captain Bill Wichrowski from the Discovery Channel’s show Deadliest Catch and old style pennants each bearing the name of a Hambletonian finalist.
The bridge from old to new was the free Hambletonian hats, The Nerds bashing out loud, enthusiastic covers in the park and the track itself, of course, which yielded three more world record performances.
“I’ve been coming to the Hambletonian since 1960’s when it was staged in DuQuoin [IL], and appreciated its growth and renewed pageantry when it moved to New Jersey in the old grandstand setting. We’re working to build on that great tradition.,” said Tom Charters president and CEO of the Hambletonian Society. “In a way it was similar to the first Hambletonian here in 1981 – a new experience entirely. This is a new venue and a wonderful new facility, a new era. We will work with the Meadowlands to establish some new traditions that underscore the Hambletonian’s place as America’s trotting classic and the most important harness race in the world.”
Classic Martine got things started in the first race, equaling the world mark for trotting mares with a 1:51.1 score in the $52,000 Ima Lulu Final. Five races later, Mission Brief equaled the global mark for two-year-old trotting fillies with a 1:52.2 score in the $352,050 Merrie Annabelle. Barefoot speedster Sebastian K capped the record-setting parade in race 11 when he equaled the 1:50 record for older trotters while winning the $300,650 John Cashman Jr. Memorial the same day Cashman’s 14-year-old granddaughter, Grace Cashman, sang the national anthem.
None of which — even the Hambletonian winner — topped spectacular sightlines from multiple decks, a Hollywood-style sign on the roof that spells out Meadowlands in huge letters and a massive sports bar that transforms into a dance club at night — all designed to lure the next generation critical for the sport’s survival.
“Everybody loved it. Everybody thought it was spectacular,” said Gural, who is fond of wandering his plant to make himself available to his patrons. “The biggest compliments were from the people that had never been there. If you’ve never been there, you’re really shocked when you pull up to the door.”
As the start of a new era for harness racing greatest day drew to a close, even the sky brightened and the Manhattan skyline materialized like a mirage out of the haze. The hipsters on the roof barely noticed, what with their iPhones, friends and cocktails to attend to, but the rest of us noticed them all right.
They were completely foreign to the old place and a most welcome addition to the club.
(Dave Briggs for The Hambletonian Society)