Something To Celebrate?

Around the globe, harness racing ‘Festivals’ are being used to introduce our great sport to the masses... and with much success. We’re not talking about the County Fairs of the 20th century, but instead, large celebrations that produce a thrilling atmosphere complete with corporate sponsorships and marquees, hospitality packages, and top-notch racing, meant to introduce and inspire a whole new generation of racegoers. In North America there are some success stories like Keeneland, Saratoga, and Little Brown Jug Week that have similarities, but what do we do like this in Canada? Other than Old Home Week is there a racing festival in this country where the entire community comes out to support and enjoy the game that we all love? Why not?

Melissa Keith takes a look around the globe to find out what we may be missing out on.

From its earliest days, harness racing and festivals have gone together as perfectly as horse and sulky. Horses and mules competed in chariot- and cart-racing as early as sixth century Greece, as part of a festival called the Panathenaia. Like contemporary festivals featuring races, other events accompanied these ancient celebrations, including music, dancing and non-equestrian sporting events. Unlike today’s festivals, there were also live sacrifices on the Panathenaia schedule. Today, as harness racing scrambles for its slice of the expanded gaming pie, racing dates, purses and tracks themselves are the sacrifice. Is adopting an event based model a move that could reach new audiences and enhance the odds of survival and growth?

In the past, harness racing reached generations of new fans through fair racing. In the decade following World War II, fairs accounted for roughly 75 per cent of the 1300-plus annual North American harness racing dates. “The large number of local meetings sponsored by these circuits goes to the very heart and spirit of the sport in all its traditional aspects,” wrote Frank A. Wrensch in Harness Horse Racing in the United States and Canada (1951). Without the financial obligations of cosmopolitan racetracks employing hundreds of workers, fairs and festivals could weather challenging economic times. Because most of these events did not offer formal pari-mutuel betting, their funding model lacked expectations of wagering-derived revenue. Community sponsors, volunteer workers, support from agricultural/tourism/recreation departments or municipal government, concessions sales and admission fees were adequate. No one would get rich, but the love of the game was there.

North America still has festivals of harness racing, albeit not as many as back then. Some, like the Hawkinsville Harness Festival in Georgia, still don’t offer wagering, while others like Ohio’s Delaware County Fair, home of the Little Brown Jug, or Charlottetown Driving Park’s Old Home Week, benefit immensely from the yearly infusion of betting dollars. In 2009, Harness Racing PEI Director of Promotions and Marketing Lee Drake told the Charlottetown Guardian that total live handle for Old Home Week “was over $975,351, up $22,765 over 2008, while the simulcast wager for the week was $270,539, an increase of $33,815 over 2008.” Some 80,000 visitors attended the Gold Cup and Saucer and other Old Home Week festivities that summer, an eight percent increase from the previous year.

The Little Brown Jug debuted in 1946, attracting 27,000 spectators. In 2012, the Delaware County Fairground reported total “Jug Day” attendance of over 48,000 people, with the $2.8 million (U.S.) handle on par with 2011’s tally for the four-day racing-fest. The ambience of these two festivals draws both tourists and locals, harness racing aficionados and people who can’t tell a trotter from a pacer. Old Home Week is based at a modern racing venue which conducts approximately 80 race dates annually; the Jug is not. But both stand out as events where one can easily forget that harness racing is no longer the popular draw it once was on this continent.

Unlike in days past, the festival business model today does not require a throwback to fair racing. In fact its success is now dependant on being properly integrated into racing’s current racing and wagering model. Take Sweden’s famed Elitlopp, a prosperous full-scale party that attracts star trotters and fans from around the world. Stockholm’s Solvalla Racetrack, founded in 1927, hosts the festivities. This year, 40 harness races are slated for the three-day trot-fest, with advance tickets selling briskly. As of early April, the “double-decker” VIP tent’s top floor was completely reserved for Elitlopp Saturday, as were all tickets to Solvalla’s restaurant. If Solvalla could bottle and share this magic with struggling harness tracks, what would it look like?

Solvalla marketing spokesperson Malin Heidenberg knows. “It has a great history,” she says of the Elitlopp. “The international invitations and touch [are] also [part] of the success. All the races this weekend have a high sport quality.” This focus on maintaining a world class reputation has paid off. Heidenberg tells Trot live attendance has increased during the years since the inaugural Elitlopp in 1952. “The label has grown stronger. Also again because of the great sport and the international part.” In 2012, 29,095 attended the Elitlopp card, with Swedish betting alone reaching 130,372,933 SEK for those races. When superstar Moni Maker won in 1998, a crowd of 32,900 packed the grounds.

Solvalla could be called a track with a festive brand. It is synonymous with its signature event, the way Churchill Downs is synonymous with the Kentucky Derby. “Yes, the atmosphere [Elitlopp] day is something extraordinary,” says Heidenberg. “The sport is great and the event itself is something up ‘above the line’. We have lots of visitors who only attend harness races this weekend.” But Solvalla remains a pari-mutuel wagering facility with around 80 live cards a year, and the Elitlopp is a festival with deep roots there. It doesn’t represent an alternative operational model for harness racing, as much as the best case scenario resulting from doing the existing model right. The Swedish government founded the AB Trav och Galopp (ATG) company and gaming model in 1974, to help the industry find its feet. ATG is now profitable and regarded as “horseracing’s best friend”.

Solvalla Racetrack and ATG provide most of the financing required to put on the profitable Elitlopp festival, but Heidenberg says they don’t do it alone. Sponsors and partners are important players too.

“Elitloppet and the weekend is the most popular harness race and event weekend in Sweden with no doubt,” confirms Heidenberg. “[But] it’s a popular sport all year around and especially if you compare to many other countries.” Unpleasant weather even has a rather interesting effect on Swedish racing. She says that fans who go to the track for live racing in the spring, summer and autumn drive up attendance figures, but actually wager more during the winter months when on-track attendance drops off: “The information on TV and web is nowadays so good, which means you can simply do betting perfectly from mobile and computer.” Heidenberg attributes this to a strong base of followers who carry their Elitlopp-fuelled enthusiasm throughout the year.

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, a grassroots model of the multi-day harness racing festival seems to be gaining ground. Except when the ground is too wet, as it was last September when the Irish Harness Racing Club’s first-ever two-day festival at Killarney was called off by the Killarney Race Company. Kayleigh Evans is a marketing officer on a two-year contract with Ceredrotian, a government-sponsored harness racing company in West Wales. She’s worked in New Zealand harness racing, and understands the value of a good racing carnival or festival.

“Just to give you a quick background, Ceredrotian is made up of three local clubs,” explains Evans. “The aim is to promote the harness racing fixtures held by the three clubs. The majority of our race meetings are one-day events, but we do hold a three-day festival.”

While not on the scale of the Elitlopp, the Tregaron Festival of Harness Racing has been successful in its own right. “The Tregaron Trotting Club was first established in 1980. By August 1984 the club was creating history and were offering the first £1,000 harness race in Britain,” says Evans. “It was in that year that three fields were merged to form what is now universally accepted as the best grass track in Britain. Its popularity has resulted in extensive live TV coverage, firstly on BBC Wales then on S4C’s Rasus program.”

Building on its popular momentum, Ceredrotian kept growing even as emblems of harness racing in North America disappeared. 2002 was the year Roosevelt Raceway’s empty grandstand was finally demolished, and Saskatchewan’s Queensbury Downs closed. But Evans says it was a very good year for Welsh racing. “Twenty years later and the club continued to create history. In 2002, it staged the first three-day harness race meeting in the UK and today Tregaron Trotting Club offers almost £100,000 in prize money. The festival takes place on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday.” The long weekend proved perfect for attracting a good crowd to the races, justifying the decision to expand the existing two-day format of the festival by the extra day. Over 230 horses from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales competed in 28 races during the original three-day meet. In 2011, more than 300 Standardbreds raced in the 41 races at the Tregaron Festival of Harness Racing.

“It has become a weekend out for many people. We get a number of stag and hen parties and birthday celebrations at the races. We were lucky enough to have Roger Huston (of Little Brown Jug fame) as a guest commentator in 2009,” reports Evans. “We are hoping that Ceredrotian’s marketing activities will further promote the sport.”

Fortunately, the organization has benefited from intelligent marketing and embracing a traditional, rural image of harness racing. The Tregaron Festival of Harness Racing has received financial assistance from Ceredigion County Council (through the Wales Rural Development Plan), the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government Fund. Grant money helped establish and promote Ceredrotian, which does its part for the local economy by making its festival a worthy tourism destination.

“The highlight of the festival is the Welsh Classic, one of the finest accolades in British and Irish harness racing,” continues Evans. “Most of our races are for pacers, but we usually have two trotting races, one low grade and one high grade. All horses are Standardbreds and must be registered with STAGBI [The Standardbred and Trotting Horse Association of Great Britain and Ireland].” There are also prerequisites for racing festival drivers, adds Evans. “All drivers must hold an up-to-date drivers licence to be able to compete in any race. The beauty of racing here is that both amateurs and professionals compete together in the majority of races.”

Homegrown flavour draws spectators to the Tregaron festival. 2011 marked the debut of the “Cambrian Mountains Produce Village”, a showcase of local chocolate, beer and other delicacies. It also heralded the start of greater solidarity among individual racing clubs in Wales. “The Tregaron Trotting Club and two other clubs in the area, Tanycastell Harness Racing Club and Lampeter Harness Racing Club joined together in 2011 to form Ceredrotian,” says Evans. “Our aim is to support the three clubs, promote and develop the sport in the county and beyond, while promoting the area’s tourism industry at the same time.” The marketing officer adds that local press and radio, in addition to posters and a website, are all part of spreading the word about the festivals. She points out that club members even offer free transportation to and from the races, “to encourage tourists who have never been racing before to give harness racing a try.”

Like other festival-style multi-day racing meets, Tregaron is financially beneficial to the host community. “Usually the festival attracts 4,000 people and 350 horses over the three days. This provides revenue of around £35,000,” says Evans. “The local economy also gains massively from the event as many of the hotels, restaurants and stables are booked out for the weekend.” Unfortunately, weather has sometimes dampened spirits and racing surface alike at Ceredrotian’s grass track, meaning lost revenue and making it necessary to move to another location. For all the beauty of outdoor festivals, they have certain drawbacks: Tregaron chairman Huw Evans told Wales Online that while a year-round racing surface with a grandstand would be ideal, it would cost at least £200,000 and was out of financial reach.

In a way, the Welsh festival’s lack of pari-mutuel wagering options strengthens its fan base, even as it removes a possible source of income. “Although pari-mutuel betting would be great for the sport, it would be hard to get off the ground,” observes Evans. “People here seem to enjoy placing their bets with traditional bookmakers.” The bookies provide on-site wagering services at the festivals. Evans is looking at broadening the availability, to reach more bettors. “We are currently trying to get into the betting shops. Last year bookmakers William Hill took antepost bets on the winner of the festival’s biggest race, the Welsh Classic.”

A third version of racing festival is prospering in New Zealand. “The Nelson Harness Racing Club employs a very good local promotions consultant who, in conjunction with members of the club committee, is very successful in obtaining sponsorship for race stakes and getting local businesses to have corporate marquees set up on course for their staff and guests to enjoy the racing,” says Cliff Jones, a Club committee spokesperson. “Briefly, the New Zealand Racing Board/TAB--TAB originally was an abbreviation of ‘Totalisator Agency Board’ but is now just TAB--runs two racing festivals over summer,” he explains.

TAB is an Australian Stock Exchange-listed company. Trading as “Tabcorp”, a 2012 presentation to investors describes it as “an attractive gambling entertainment business” encompassing Thoroughbred, greyhound and harness racing wagering, sports betting, Keno, and sports media such as Sky Racing television.

The TAB-promoted harness racing festivals involve multiple settings across the country. “Prior to Christmas they have a Christmas at the Races Festival and from Boxing Day until late January they have a Summer Festival,” Jones tells Trot. “The Nelson Club’s January meeting is held early in the month and therefore is included in the Summer Festival.” Festivals are distinct from regularly scheduled racing, says the Club rep, but not in the ways that one might expect. For starters, “The June meeting is held in winter so the number of racegoers is minimal and there is no festival,” he points out. In other words, the festival isn’t used as a way to draw people to the track when weather and racing conditions are less than ideal. But Jones says he doesn’t think local racing festivals provide an atmosphere that’s radically different from that already found in New Zealand harness racing: “It’s difficult to measure, but probably not.”

The main difference is in the level of marketing support and public awareness that TAB helps with, according to Jones. “The festivals differ from [regular Club] events because they are promoted by the NZRB/TAB which extensively advertises the festivals in various media. The advertising specifies the race meetings in each area, for example Canterbury, Nelson/Blenheim/West Coast.”

Good scheduling optimizes the impact of the marketing. According to Jones, “Nelson is close to a lot of camping grounds, holiday spots and beaches, so the January meeting attracts a lot of summer holiday makers.” The Club’s website showcases family-oriented outdoor activities like bouncy castles and horseback rides for children, live entertainment, and local food and drink at Richmond Park Racecourse.

There’s pari-mutuel betting, although the Nelson Club slogan reaches beyond it: “Racing is important, but it’s not just about the horses.” The spirit of community comes first.

The Club doesn’t have enough race days to warrant making their facility into a year-round, gaming-driven operation. “In New Zealand the racing year is from August 1st to July 31st,” says Jones. “In each racing year, the Nelson Harness Racing Club holds two race meetings, one in January and the other in June. Each meeting has two days.” The relative scarcity of dates seems to whet the public appetite for harness racing and takes the pressures of running a commercial racetrack off the volunteer-run Club. Richmond Park Racecourse is part of a multi-purpose site shared with the Nelson Agricultural and Pastoral Association.

The arrangements seem to be working for the Nelson Harness Racing Club. The first harness races at Richmond Park Racecourse were conducted in 1891 and the tradition carries on. Community support coupled with the boost from TAB-promoted festivals keeps the local sport strong and brings in newcomers. “A lot of people who are in the corporate marquees have never been to the races before so the festival, together with the summer holiday crowds, do attract people who normally do not attend race meetings,” observes Jones.

Corporate sponsorships and packages are a unique and successful approach to creating a high-class atmosphere and revenue for New Zealand harness racing festivals. Racing clubs offer custom “hospitality packages” to groups, with options such as “gourmet platters”, licensed catering, and various seating and marquee arrangements. Advance bookings are required. Businesses can purchase signage space on the fence surrounding the track; the Nelson Harness Racing Club promotes business networking as a free bonus of attending the festivals. TAB offers on-site wagering, and complementary race programs are provided as part of all hospitality packages.

Wagering adds immensely to harness racing’s global appeal and coffers. At press time, the Hawkinsville Harness Festival was wrapping up for another season, while organizers mulled over introducing betting in 2014--after four decades without it. Yet too frequently, outsiders to harness racing look at betting dollars as the primary (or only) source of funding for purses, wages and infrastructure. By this logic, a struggling racetrack only signifies mismanagement or that harness racing has fallen out of favour with gamblers. While this rationale may have made sense before today’s many legalized, widely-accessible forms of gambling came along, it no longer makes sense. Remember, as late as 1994, racetracks, country fairs and lotto booths were Ontario’s only legal gaming sites.

The harness racing festival approach seems to hold value as a marketing strategy in Canadian harness racing. Promoting key races as multi-day tourism destinations with something for everyone is uncommon in this country. Yet harness racing clubs, matinee races and fairs lack the powerful backing of a TAB-or ATG-like national entity, which could bring better-financed promotions and more of a unified “brand” than the sport currently has in Canada.

An oddly-titled 2005 Standardbred Revenue Allocation report (“Safari:’The Eureka! Experience’”, prepared by Bond Creative Marketing for the Ontario Harness Horse Association) suggested that tracks are inherently pitted against the racing industry: “Simply put, harness horse racing wants to increase live racing, yet facilities want to attract traffic to dining, slots and racing (pretty much in that order).” Move to a sponsor, volunteer and grant-based festival structure for the industry, and the sport becomes less dependent on racetracks, provided there is still somewhere to conduct the festivals (like matinee tracks, fairgrounds or rented facilities.) Yet racetracks are landmarks, barometers of the health of the industry. Losing infrastructure tailored to the needs of the sport could ultimately have a detrimental effect on the long-term stability of the industry.

Malin Heidenberg stresses that the Elitlopp festival is more than just a nice financial bonus at a big track—it gives back to Swedish racing as a whole. “Especially because it’s V75 [i.e. a very popular multi-race bet with enormous pools and payouts] this weekend and all betting on that kind of system is going back to the sport all over the year, regardless of which harness track it is,” she notes. ATG’s innovative betting options create generous pools, attracting bettors, while the Elitlopp festivities cultivate the kind of excitement that brings people back.

Keyleigh Evans knows the score. “The difficulty with weekly racing is getting people other than harness racing enthusiasts through the gate. Harness racing needs racing festivals as they get people that don’t really have an interest in harness racing involved.” She says that Ceredrotian stays traditional because that’s what the public enjoys: “If we were to hold weekly race meetings we could be in danger of losing that ‘novelty’ factor.” Novelty is certainly part of Ceredrotian’s winning formula. Tregaron Festival of Harness Racing has received grants from Ceredigion County Council through the Wales Rural Development Plan, the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development and the Welsh Government Fund. A full-scale pari-mutuel racetrack would be an unlikely candidate for a similar business model.

“I think that to sustain harness racing you need weekly racing with special events every month at different locations to really draw in the crowds and open the sport to new audiences,” says Evans. Slashing race dates and abandoning existing racetracks amounts to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. After all, fans cultivated at annual racing festivals need somewhere to access the game afterward, whether at the track or via online wagering. And horses need to earn their keep. Evans agrees: “Not every horse is capable of winning the large races that take place at festivals so you need tracks that have weekly racing to give every horse a chance of winning races. Harness racing needs the tracks that have week in week out racing in order to keep the sport going.”

Skeptics take note: Harness Racing Australia commissioned a report from independent consulting firm IER, to consider the impact of the 2009 Watpac Inter Dominion at the Parklands Racing Centre. This three-week racing carnival brought together celebrity pacers like Auckland Reactor, Black’s A Fake and Mr. Feelgood in a series that concluded with the Inter Dominion final on March 28th. The North American invader Mr. Feelgood won, and he was in good company: almost two-thirds of Inter Dominion attendees came from outside of the region, with 5.1 percent coming from outside Australia. The age group which attended the greatest number of race dates during the carnival? 18 to 29 year olds.

Over $1.3 million (A.) was spent by racegoers at Parklands Racing Center itself, and that didn’t even include their wagering. It did include paid admissions, food and beverages, race programs, souvenirs and special carnival “package tickets”. The betting public pushed $3.5 million through Queensland-area OTB locations and at Parklands itself, out of which $260,000 (A.) in net wagering revenue came back to the local community. Corporate sponsorship of the 2009 Inter Dominion totalled $727,000 (A.), and the rewards were widespread in the Queensland/Gold Coast economy. A total of $10.3 million (A.) was spent in the community by the locals and tourists who enjoyed this harness racing carnival.

Festivals of harness racing are not a substitute for conventional racetracks, or even a business prototype that makes racing profitable in the total absence of wagering. They are opportunities to introduce Standardbreds and wagering to a public with limited previous exposure to either, in an enjoyable context. Internationally, these festivals have had the backing of strong partners who believe in the wide-ranging benefits that harness racing brings to communities. Marketing support, grants, a wagering structure that attracts punters while supporting the racing industry: these contributions from government, corporate partners and sponsors have helped make harness-fests around the globe work.

“Their motive is to put on good racing for the sake of the sport and promote interest in it.” While these words ring true for harness racing festivals, they actually come from Frank A. Wrensch’s Harness Horse Racing book—and were written about harness racetracks in 1951.