HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICA Executive Newsletter

HARNESS TRACKS OF AMERICAExecutive NewsletterA daily fax and e-mail report on racing and gaming developments in North America and beyondStanley F. Bergstein, EditorMonday, August 9, 2010SHORT-CHANGED AGAINIt may simply be editorial judgment andnot a deep dark plot, but harness racing istaking a ferocious beating these days fromthe New York Times. It’s national editionlast Friday ignored the sport’s greatestrace entirely, with no mention of the $1.5million Hambletonian that drew 26,712 tothe Meadowlands. On race day Saturdayit carried one sentence, including a smallheadline that read, “Rich Race, DesperateTrack.” The single sentence read, “TheHambletonian, the richest race in harnessracing, will be run Saturday at the Meadowlands,where the sport’s future is in seriousdoubt.”Sunday, when in the past a photographerand staff writer had covered the classic,eight lines under Sports Briefing, witha headline reading “A Close One at theHambletonian.” In the same edition, an18-paragraph story and three-columnphotograph of Blame beating QualityRoad in the Whitney at Saratoga, wherethe paper’s racing writer, Joe Drape, wasstationed. Two days earlier a sparklingfull page width feature by Bill Finley onLisa’s Booby Trap, a club-footed filly givenaway by her original owner, bought oncredit by a penniless trainer with only astation wagon and dog to his name, andnow undefeated in five starts, includingthe Loudenville stake at Saratoga lastweek. There are similar, but untoldstories, in harness racing.No one expects equal coverage with therunners, but the disparity between coverageof Blame and Muscle Massive, thewinner of a million and a half dollar race,is hard to justify.The danger in all this is third person, notthe Times alone. The paper is journalism’strend setter for newspapers all overAmerica, and beyond. If it appears in theTimes a story has legitimacy; if it doesn’tit gets the same neglect elsewhere.If Jon Hanson, the front man for governorChris Christie on the Meadowlands issuein New Jersey, really wants to do somethingto help the Meadowlands, which ishighly questionable, he should arrange ameeting between Christie and Tom Jolly,sports editor of the Times, for a serioustalk about coverage of the sport.ANOTHER STORY WITH NO ENDThe Aqueduct racino circus, now nineyears in production, is off by itself as a politicalsideshow. It may play to a conclusion,however, before legislators in Massachusettsagree on a three-casino, tworacino format. Where it stands at the moment,two thirds of both houses of the legislaturewill need to reject the governor’samendments, which would bring trackracinos. If a majority buys the amendment,racinos are dead. If they send thebill back to Gov. Deval Patrick, he hasvowed to veto it, ending the matter.