Just imagine that you bought a yearling for $28,000.

Then imagine it made you $248,850 as a two-year-old.

Now imagine selling half of him for a lot of money going into his three-year-old year.

Imagine the colt making you and your partner $682,211 at age three, and then breeding 79 mares that winter at $5,000 a pop.

This is starting to sound like a pretty good gig.

Now, at age four, imagine that your horse becomes the fastest Standardbred of all-time, basically wins every big race there is, makes your partnership another $1,858,210, and now you sell another piece of him to a leading stallion farm in the U.S. for a LOT of money. Oh ya - and his new stud fee is set at $15,000 U.S. and he books full & closed rather quickly.

Now imagine that someone (me) is writing a story on your horse for a national trade publication (TROT) and they ask you what memory, or memories, probably stand out the most?

It’s hard to say what your answer would be because you only imagined the scenario above, but Jack Darling lived it, and I did ask him that very question as part of the 18-page oral history that I wrote about Bulldog Hanover found in this very issue (beginning on page 70). Jack’s answer? Well he mentioned a couple of things but he did say this:

“...the race at Dayton where he was parked the whole way from the eight-hole and just drew off on them. But the crowd at Dayton... I’ve never seen anything like it, they were like 20-deep all down the stretch and they were all there to see him. It was almost just like they opened up the floodgates in the paddock too because everybody came in to see him. There was a steady stream of people coming by all night to see him and get their picture taken with him, right in the paddock. Such fans down there - they were all there to see Bulldog Hanover. They knew that horse, they had seen all of his races and just wanted to get close to him. That was the night that really stands out to me - because of the fans.”

The horse won in 1:47 or faster seven times. He won the Breeders Crown, on his home track, going for $810,000. He won the $650,000 Canadian Pacing Derby on his home track as well, and the $500,000 Haughton - in 1:45.4. But the night that really stands out in Jack Darling’s memory is winning the $250,000 Dayton Pacing Derby in 1:50.1 - because of the fans!

Harness racing is a spectator sport, and sometimes in this day-and-age I think many forget this. I’ve beaten the drum before about the need to get people back to the track and create the type of racetrack atmosphere that will ensure they return again - and again. If you’re getting sick of hearing me say that, I’m sorry. Actually, I’m not sorry - at all. Because the future of our sport depends on it.

Today’s handle is very important, and our handle in 2022 was fantastic. I truly applaud every track, horsepeople’s association and marketing person that has played a role in that. Woodbine Entertainment surpassed $1 billion in all-sources handle for the first time in history, and if you look on page 31 of this issue you’ll see that overall handle on Canadian harness racing alone was $608 million last year - after never being more than $491 million in the five years previous.

But I’ve asked this before and I’ll ask it again now: Where will our future handle come from 10-20 years down the road if we don’t cultivate new fans with an enjoyable on-track experience today?

I realize that getting droves of fans to Canadian tracks in the winter isn’t a likely scenario, and wagering from the comfort of one’s own home is probably going to be the choice for most during those months. That doesn’t mean however, that the on-track experience in January still can’t be an enjoyable one for the fans that do brave the elements and road conditions.

What I’m really talking about though, is actually trying to cultivate new fans from April through October. Can anyone out there please tell me for example, when they last saw a weekly or monthly ‘College Night’ at a Canadian racetrack? You know, maybe make an effort to bring in a few busloads of local university students once a week or once a month, give them a reasonable deal on beer and wings, a free program and a $10 betting voucher? This is the one thing I’ve heard suggested more times over the years than any other, and it makes sense, but I don’t ever recall it being attempted, or explained by anyone why it might not be possible.

Just to clarify though, I’m not laying this all at the feet of the tracks. I’ve said before that we’re all in this together and I think that the horsepeople’s groups, the tracks, and everyone from top-to-bottom needs to be involved. If we don’t all work together for a bright future we won’t have a future at all.

You don’t think getting people to the races matters anymore? Jack Darling bought a yearling for $28,000. It made almost $2.8 million and one of the things that stands out most to him about the entire experience was a night in Dayton, Ohio - “because of the fans.”

Dan Fisher - [email protected]