Thoroughbred:

Hawthorne - Racing 1/1 - 1//11 (Thursday - Monday); 3/6 - 4/30 (Thursday - Monday, off Easter and 4/30); 10/1 - 12/31 (Wednesday - Sunday, off T-giving, Xmas) Total: 112 racing days

Arlington - Racing 5/1 - 6/30 (Thursday - Sunday); 7/1 - 8/29 (Wednesday - Sunday); 8/30 - 9/30 (Thursday - Sunday, racing on labor day) Total: 98 racing days

Fairmont also has 75 days between 4/7 and 9/26.

Harness:
Balmoral - Racing 1/3 and 1/4; 1/28-4/29 (Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, off Super Bowl Sunday and Easter); 5/2 - 10/31 (Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday); 11/1 - 12/31 (Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday) Total: 171 racing days

Maywood - Racing 1/1 and 1/2; 1/29 - 12/31 (Thursday and Friday, off Thanksgiving, Xmas Eve and Xmas) Total: 96 racing days

Biggest surprises:
- Hawthorne did not get any harness dates. This was because the Balmoral/Maywood faction joined up with the harness horsemen to say the dark nights would help re-gain purse money.
- Fairmont is on shaky ground and is in jeopardy of losing all dates next year.
- Arlington will be open one additonal week next year, preparing for a bid for the 2011 Breeders Cup
- Harness will not run between 1/5 and 1/28. This is the first time in recent memory that the tracks were not given dates during the period.

I'm sure the guys at some forums will be pissed about this (I think you know what I'm talking about, HV.) As someone who plays thoroughbreds only, I think it's fine. Roughly half the season is at Arlington and half the season is at Hawthorne.

Off topic a little, but Hawthorne seriously needs to invest in some graphics that don't make me feel like I'm watching a 70s porno.

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Fire Phil Emery

Hawthorne got screwed in the harness dates. Balmoral/Maywood ramrodding the IHHA into believing fewer dates would save the sport. Harness Racing for all intents and purposes is done. It's sad really. The good owners that can afford it are moving to the racinos where comparable races run for 2x the purse. The ones that stay here are running for pride and possibly the ability to feed the horse at the end of the week.

As for thoroughbreds, they gave Hawthorne a bone with more dark day host track simulcasts. I didn't post the numbers but I think they are the simulcast host track 170 total days of the year. Arlington getting the extra week may help them in the bid for a Breeders Cup and while the recent time was a success, I just don't see it happening any time soon. Unless CDI will send their opportunity here, I'm not sure BC wants it anywhere but CD, Bel or SA.

If the economy turns, I wouldn't be surprised to hear about hawthorne closing and selling the land for private development.

I think you're right about the BC unfortunately. Also, if the BC people wanted to send the event to a triple-A level polytrack in the midwest, methinks they choose Woodbine.

I'm not intimately knowledgable about the property situation in regards to the tracks around here, but I'd think that the land occupied by Hawthorne isn't tremendously valuable, if only because the area around it doesn't strike me as very high-property value. Then again, it is a large lot, to be sure.

I'm not crazy about racino money. I don't see the long term benefits, and slots have turned a lot of horsetracks into mini-casinos with the distraction of ponies running around. Purses, especially for lower-level events, probably need to be raised, but the surest way to be able to do that is get more handle. Standardbred racing is caught in a vicious cycle. Maybe fewer tracks would mean more handle at those tracks that remain open and bigger purses. That doesn't really mean I want a track closed so close to home though.

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Fire Phil Emery

I go with my dad every year to the closing weekend of Keeneland and opening of Churchill (last weekend of April.) I think it was two years ago at Keeneland, they installed a GPS-type system on the track... I think it works very similarly to the way Nascar works. There's a beacon of some sort located somewhere on the horse/jockey, and the track can sense in what position the horse is on the track. This information is translated into two handy graphics -- one is a top down view of numbered circles going around the track -- the number obviously corresponds to your horse. Another is a side view digital recreation of the race, less practical, but pretty cool, as you can "see" the race from the inside perspective. Along with this, they upgraded their totes, fonts, etc. Now this is becoming more and more common, appearing at DelMar and Woodbine to name a couple. The company is called Trakus -- I have no idea how much that technology costs, but it certainly was impressive.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

I'm familiar with the Trakus system, and it's a godsend. It's just another example of how Keeneland "gets it" in a way a lot of other tracks don't. The technology has been around forever (Tom Ainslie and Andy Beyer were complaining about not having electronic sensors in saddlecloths in the 70s) but it does two things. First, the actual races are much easier to watch. I made trip notes on the Keeneland spring meet this year, and the fields are almost entirely huge. However, because of Trakus, the full field positions can be spelled out by the chicklets on the bottom of the screen, and not just the first four entries. Also, because it's automated, the info is always accurate.

Second, ground loss on turns has always been difficult to quantify. Trip handicappers talk about lanes, but that's subjective (for example, I find that my "lanes" are much wider than what other would consider, so others talk about going 10-12 wide when I would consider it 6-8). With trakus, we know exactly how much distance was lost on turns during a race. I have to admit that I prefer how Keeneland handles the program graphic-wise to how Woodbine does; Woodbine splits the screen three different ways, and the bottom portion with the race run by little chicklets is kinda distracting.

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Fire Phil Emery