After having the privilege of joining the World Driving Championship for a week long tour of harness racing in France, I present a few things I’ve taken away from the experience.
Five things we can learn from harness racing in France:
1. Open doors – At most racetracks, you can walk through the large outdoor paddocks with total and complete freedom. No security checks or identification required. At Vincennes, the winner’s circle is among the crowd, with the top five horses from each race coming onto the apron. Here, I appreciate the need for security, but getting families close to the horses is critical to our future.
2. Spice of life – Eighteen horse fields, starts from the standing and moving positions, different distances and races under saddle. Even tracks, with steep hills and undulations, some racing counter-clockwise and others going the opposite direction, add to the mystique of French racing. Time to spice things up at home?
3. Strike it rich – One race each day is dedicated to the Quinte+ bet. Through a combination of handicapping skills and luck of the draw, players can catch a life changing payout. Are we ready for a jackpot bet?
4. Not so fast – Instead of the North American emphasis on fast tracks and quick times, France’s focus is on deep tracks and competitive graded stakes races. Can we step back and reconsider why we do what we do?
5. Neat and tidy – The race scheduling is organized, rules are consistent, wagering is cohesive from coast to coast, and simulcast feeds are coordinated and very professional. Centralization is the key – will we get there?
Five things France can learn from us:
1. Class dismissed – While our classification system may not be perfect, France’s model is quite different. Their classes are based on career earnings, meaning a horse on his way up the ladder may lay over his rivals, while an older horse, on the downside of his career, has nowhere to race. In North America, races offer a closer degree of parity – an accomplishment worth achieving.
2. Staying Flat – I like my water and my horses flat. During my France experience, it was tough to find either. We watched several races where close to half the field were disqualified for making breaks. Here, you must stay flat and competitive to get into the box. The result serves the customer, and makes the sport a better spectacle to watch.
3. Thirst for knowledge – Try going to the racetrack in France and ask for a program with racelines. Yes, our programs are confusing to newcomers, but theirs lack virtually any information we’re accustomed to. Surely in 2013, there is a happy medium that can serve us all.
4. In the dark – With 30 or more minutes between races, no post parades, and tote boards that don’t provide the odds or basic racing information, it seems that the live racing customer is in the dark. While France’s television product is clean, simple and informative, the live environment could use a few tweaks.
5. Call to the post – Despite the fact that “bugle” originates from an old French word, the sweet serenade we have all grown accustomed to is absent at France’s racetracks. That’s one I won’t get over easily.
While I’m thinking about starting a petition to mandate the bugle tune, “Call To The Post”, be played at every racetrack in the world, for now, I will enjoy both the Canadian and French harness racing products for their many merits. And I will dream of a time when we can take the best of what they do, the best of what we do, and a bunch of things that none of us do, to create a product that everyone will fall in love with.
Darryl Kaplan
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