Hay is for Horses.
Jun. 19th, 2013 01:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogRight, then. That was a different way to start my workday- out at the racetrack.
No, I'm not gambling away the mortgage money- the ponies aren't even racing during the day out at Hamburg. I took a collection case where an owner-trainer of a harness horse didn't pay for her hay- and she filed papers denying the claim. That led to me heading out to Buffalo Raceway this morning to get signed documents from the client and some other witnesses.
Harness racing is about as dead a sport as you can find around here. Long gone are the days when they were one of the few sources of legal gambling in the state. I remember their heyday, which brought the bright lights of Roosevelt Raceway near my hometown, and the jingle announcing the other nearby track-
Clippity clippity clippity clop, Yonkers Raceway, that's the spot!
Harness racing, a thrilling sight- at Yonkers Raceway, go tonight!
"Night" is an operative word, because at least then, before simulcasts and off-track betting, harness tracks had the monopoly on evening race cards; the thoroughbreds from Sararoga to Belmont and even the local dregs of Finger Lakes were all daytime events. By the end of the 70s, tracks (including Roosevelt) were closing, others (such as the other nearby one in Batavia) were suspending or shortening their seasons, and the only real hope for their survival was their eligibility to offer limited gaming selections as they rebranded as "Racinos."
Even that wasn't good enough, as the Indians offered the real thing at real casinos from near Utica to three nearer to here. New York just settled a long-standing feud with the Seneca Nation over exclusivity in Western New York, and among other concessions, the tracks are now barred from using "casino" or "slots" in their marketing. So this settlement may bring the eventual end to this Sport of Not Quite Kings that still goes on in a few tracks from here to Yonkers.
----
For now, though, it's a trip back in time, to one that's simpler, rawer- and awfully aromatic.
I had to sign in with security and was allowed back to the barns, where my client had just left his morning load of hay for the other horsemen. They lined up, and signed up, for the simple statements about his account that I needed them to make. Several of the harness horses were in their stalls, just staring at the new guy. The barn cats stared even more; they looked about as big as Richard Parker in Life of Pi and probably even meaner.
One of the affidavits fell to the dirt floor after one of the guys signed his; I picked it up, brushed it off, and realized that, despite close to thirty years of submitting various degrees of horseshit to various tribunals, this was about to become the first time I had ever done so literally.
I headed back to McKinley Parkway (we name streets here after the Presidents we assassinate) roughly parallel to the sight of a half-dozen sulkies running clockwise round the oval. I've never attended a live racing event and have maybe been on a track twice in my life before today, but I still felt an odd form of kinship with these horses. Trying to be the best at what they do, in a line of work that is little respected and has seen better days, and striving for the prize of winning by basically running in circles.
No, I'm not gambling away the mortgage money- the ponies aren't even racing during the day out at Hamburg. I took a collection case where an owner-trainer of a harness horse didn't pay for her hay- and she filed papers denying the claim. That led to me heading out to Buffalo Raceway this morning to get signed documents from the client and some other witnesses.
Harness racing is about as dead a sport as you can find around here. Long gone are the days when they were one of the few sources of legal gambling in the state. I remember their heyday, which brought the bright lights of Roosevelt Raceway near my hometown, and the jingle announcing the other nearby track-
Clippity clippity clippity clop, Yonkers Raceway, that's the spot!
Harness racing, a thrilling sight- at Yonkers Raceway, go tonight!
"Night" is an operative word, because at least then, before simulcasts and off-track betting, harness tracks had the monopoly on evening race cards; the thoroughbreds from Sararoga to Belmont and even the local dregs of Finger Lakes were all daytime events. By the end of the 70s, tracks (including Roosevelt) were closing, others (such as the other nearby one in Batavia) were suspending or shortening their seasons, and the only real hope for their survival was their eligibility to offer limited gaming selections as they rebranded as "Racinos."
Even that wasn't good enough, as the Indians offered the real thing at real casinos from near Utica to three nearer to here. New York just settled a long-standing feud with the Seneca Nation over exclusivity in Western New York, and among other concessions, the tracks are now barred from using "casino" or "slots" in their marketing. So this settlement may bring the eventual end to this Sport of Not Quite Kings that still goes on in a few tracks from here to Yonkers.
----
For now, though, it's a trip back in time, to one that's simpler, rawer- and awfully aromatic.
I had to sign in with security and was allowed back to the barns, where my client had just left his morning load of hay for the other horsemen. They lined up, and signed up, for the simple statements about his account that I needed them to make. Several of the harness horses were in their stalls, just staring at the new guy. The barn cats stared even more; they looked about as big as Richard Parker in Life of Pi and probably even meaner.
One of the affidavits fell to the dirt floor after one of the guys signed his; I picked it up, brushed it off, and realized that, despite close to thirty years of submitting various degrees of horseshit to various tribunals, this was about to become the first time I had ever done so literally.
I headed back to McKinley Parkway (we name streets here after the Presidents we assassinate) roughly parallel to the sight of a half-dozen sulkies running clockwise round the oval. I've never attended a live racing event and have maybe been on a track twice in my life before today, but I still felt an odd form of kinship with these horses. Trying to be the best at what they do, in a line of work that is little respected and has seen better days, and striving for the prize of winning by basically running in circles.
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no subject
Date: 2013-06-19 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-19 11:57 pm (UTC)slotsvideo lottery terminals have helped, but it's not enough. Fort Erie had its real slot machines pulled, and the track was forced to close- there's a revival effort under way, but there's only so much disposable income to go around these days, and fake slot machines are pretty far down on the list.no subject
Date: 2013-06-19 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-20 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-19 10:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-06-20 12:02 am (UTC)