Harness Raceing

[Deleted]

I was a trainer some 30 years ago but, to this day i still follow the horses. I love to go to the track or even an off-track betting parlor to place a bet or two.
Hey jenette..........how far are ya from here..........http://www.prairiemeadows.com/

[jeanette]

we are about 3 hrs north of there... let me know if you guys go there and we'll go too... i've never been there but it looks like a phun place...

[Deleted]

We've never been there but, hope to go someday. Me and the wife have pretty good luck when we put our heads together. One of these days we'll have to take a ride out your way and see if we can get lucky.

[Deleted]

Iowa’s Will Roland top percentage driver in North America

Other harness drivers have won more money and more races in 2006, but no driver in North America has had such consistent success this year as 23-year-old Will Roland of Iowa.



In 133 starts this year, he’s scored 62 wins, 21 seconds, and 11 thirds. That gives him a Universal Driver Rating of .581, highest in either the United States or Canada.



His UDR will stay the same for the rest of 2006 because he’s done driving for the year.





Will Roland
“I’m busy breaking seven yearlings,” Roland, a member of the large and influential harness racing family in the Hawkeye State, said.



His UDR is likely to earn him year-end honors for the highest percentage among drivers with less than 300 starts. Roland proudly points out that his great-grandfather “Red” Carey won a Universal Driver Rating title more than four decades ago.



He emphasizes that he’s been fortunate to race a nice group of young horses this year, several of them with winning streaks.



The 3-year-old pacing filly Hihopes Sunset reeled-off eight wins in nine starts this year with Roland at the reins. Her only loss came in her final race of the season.



The 2-year-old gelding Indiana Crazy Horse was also a consistent winner, scoring 10 times in 14 starts this summer. The freshman filly Hot Panties, which Will owns with his wife Rebecca, had a 6-4-1 slate in 11 starts this year.



Consistent horses such as these propel a driver to a lofty Universal Driving Rating.



It’s not unusual for a member of the Roland family to win harness races in Iowa, but a few years ago the rising star in the clan appeared to be Will’s older brother, Nick, now 24.



“Nick was doing all driving then,” Will said. “I’d only get the bad ones to drive, but I learned a lot by driving those bad horses.”



Brother Nick now works for an insurance agency and cannot get away from his job during the week to race at the Iowa fairs. Will trained to be an electrician, but the lure of the horses is winning out thus far in his career.



Most of his drives during the summer are at the Iowa county fairs, but in the fall the harness scene shifts to Prairie Meadows, a mile track.



“It was a big adjustment for me to drive at Prairie Meadows at first,” Will said. “I was so used to the style of racing at the fairs and it was hard for me to switch. At the fairs, the best place to be is on the front end because you can avoid all the traffic and things that can happen. At Prairie Meadows, the horse on the front end often gets beat if another horse gets a good trip.”



He still managed to score wins with Panaramic Art, Spiz R Rinkum, A Dane’s Babe, and Sendhimdownthepike at the abbreviated Prairie Meadows meet this fall.



“It’s pretty profitable to race in Iowa,” he said. “Purses are good at the fairs, and the fairs are all pretty close so you don’t have to ship far. We’ve made a lot of money this year and then we’ve sold some of our horses for good prices.”



Rather than trying to break into the tough Chicago circuit, young Roland eyes the new track to be opened in Minnesota as a possible opportunity for him.



“That could really work out good if we could breed in Minnesota and foal the mares in Iowa and race in Minnesota,” he said.

[jeanette]

i've heard of sendhimdownthepike..... i think everybody in iowa has a grandpa named 'red' ;D ;D ;D pretty sure it's not the same guy.. although you never know

[Deleted]

Bet ya did'nt know y'all had such a good harness driver out your way.

[jeanette]

nope i didn't .. let me see if i can find out more about him...

[Deleted]

Driver Piles Up Wins and Miles

The only hard part, Tim Tetrick said, was all the time in his car, driving on the New Jersey and Pennsylvania turnpikes, Interstate 95 and Route 13 in Delaware. The rest was easy, or at least he made it look easy.

Propelled by an intense desire to win as many harness races as possible, Tetrick has had a magical season in the sulky, setting records for the most money earned and the most victories in a single year by a driver.

Tetrick’s latest accomplishment occurred last Tuesday night at Dover Downs in Delaware, where he won the 11th race of the night with Stonebridge Kisses for his 1,078th victory of the year. Entering yesterday, he had increased his win total to 1,100. The record for victories in a year by a thoroughbred jockey is 598, set by Kent Desormeaux in 1989.

After resting up on Thanksgiving, only his fourth day off this year, Tetrick, 26, drove in 72 races at three different tracks over the next five days and nights, winning 23. By his standards, it was a relatively calm stretch. He has driven in 4,264 races this year, including 504 in November.

He lives in Runnemede, N.J., primarily because of its proximity to the New Jersey Turnpike. His house, though, is little more than a place for him to sleep, and he still has not had time to move his furniture from a house he owns in Illinois. A normal routine includes commuting back and forth from the Meadowlands, Dover, Harrahs Chester in Chester, Pa., and Pocono Downs in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

“Only the driving bothers me,” Tetrick said. “I bought my truck at the end of March and I have 56,000 miles on it. The horse part of it is fun. I don’t mind racing every day.”

Tetrick grew up in a harness racing family in rural Geff, Ill. In third grade, a degenerative hip condition was diagnosed that causes Tetrick to walk with a limp but has never affected his ability to drive a horse. He started driving at small fair tracks in Illinois when he was 16 and moved on to major tracks near Chicago when he was 20. Winning only 238 races in his first two full years driving, he was hardly an overnight sensation.

“Mostly, I was still green,” he said. “I was just a teenager when I started, and it took a while for things to get rolling. Every day, I was learning.”

Tetrick became one of the top drivers in the Midwest before shifting to the Mid-Atlantic region last fall. With slot machines fattening purses in Delaware and Pennsylvania, Tetrick figured he could have a big year in 2007, but said he never imagined he would achieve the success that he has.

“I don’t think he ever thought that he could win more races than anybody in a year; that’s something that he sort of fell into because things kept rolling along,” said his father, Tom Tetrick, a trainer and driver on the Midwest circuit. “But once he got going, he strived toward those records. All my boys have a tremendous work ethic. Tim always wanted to be very successful.”

Last month, Tetrick set the record for earnings in a year, and his current total is more than $16.4 million. He is the first driver to lead the nation in both wins and earnings since Jack Moiseyev in 1991. He also set a record for wins in a month with his 121 victories in November.

“He’s won a lot of big races all over the country, whereas a lot of these guys who lead the country in wins stick to one place,” said the trainer George Teague Jr., whose Southwind Lynx won the $1 million Meadowlands Pace and the $1 million Art Rooney this year with Tetrick driving. “Timmy has ventured out and taken on all challengers, like the big boys at the Meadowlands and in Canada and in other places where the competition is the top. Everywhere he’s gone, he’s been successful.”

Tetrick admits that he cannot keep up his current pace forever, but he may not have to continue to smash records. Herve Filion, still winning a few races a year at age 67, is the leading all-time driver with 15,174 wins. With many harness drivers still competing at a high level in their mid-fifties, Tetrick, who has more than 3,600 career wins, is in the early stages of his career and figures to pile up big numbers before he is done.

In the meantime, he is out to add to his 2007 totals.

“I might as well get as many as I can,” he said. “Between Chester and Dover, there’s a lot of money out there.”

He has, though, allowed himself a few moments to bask in his accomplishments.

“It’s just been an amazing year,” he said. “It’s the kind of thing where it’s been such a great story; it’s something I never could have fathomed.”

[Pharmer Phil]

I been thru Geff...
here's a link to a video of da world record race
www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=58794
I'll havta fire it up in da morning so It can load up at dial up speed, should have time to eat breakfast, clear snow in the driveway...
Here's a pic of the young feller

[Deleted]

Thanks for the link Bro

[Deleted]

The night befor Christmas.........Horse style

It's the night before Christmas, we're out in the barn
Blanketing horses to keep them all warm
They're eating their dinners, tucked in cozy stalls
Not aware that it's Christmas or any special day at all

They can dream of spring pastures from their pine-scented beds
No visions of sugarplums dance in their heads
But we people are thinking of merry parties and such
Maybe feeling a little sad at missing so much

This season is special but the horses don't know
We've got work to do before we can go
We finish the chores and head on inside
To get ready for dinner and our own yuletide

It's nearly midnight, the are sung
I remember a story I was told when I was young
How at midnight on Christmas Eve
The creatures of the barnyard can speak to us with ease

I am called to the barn, I wade through the rain
I know I must go, I can't really explain
I slide open the door, pause for a while
Then slowly walk down that dimly lit aisle

A nicker from Casey, a wink from JD
Sleepy old Alibi waking to see
Tucker rustling his bedding, a snort soft and light
Each horse gave a greeting as I walked through the night

I thought about parties bright lit and warm
The ones we don't go to 'cause we have the barn
And vacations and holidays that we don't get
When we're working long hours for bills to be met

Walking all the way to the end of the aisle
I stop to stroke Bonnie, it brings me a smile
She snuffles my face, hot breath on my skin
It starts me to thinking about my horses, my kin

I could be at parties with laughter and mirth
But where I am right now is the best place on Earth.


Man, i miss my horses

[Deleted]

Freehold, NJ --- Life in the big city has been nothing but good for Iowa-bred pacer Panaramic Art. The 3-year-old gelding won all six of his starts at either Yonkers Raceway or the Meadowlands Racetrack after arriving from the Hawkeye State in late October. For the year, Panaramic Art won 18 of 19 starts and earned $87,356.

“He’s passed every test,” said Al Meyer, who took over training Panaramic Art following the sale of the horse from owner/breeder Roger Roland to Squawk Box Stable and Keep The Dream Going Inc. for $60,000. “When I first trained him, I wasn’t real impressed, but he goes real easy and he’s going faster than you think he is. It would be nice to find another one like him.

“It’s nice to have one like him,” he added with a laugh.

Panaramic Art rolled to his 14th straight win in the $60,000 Oil Burner Final on Dec. 15 at the Meadowlands.

Panaramic Art completed his year by winning the Oil Burner Series at the Meadowlands and, after a few weeks off, will be gearing up for the Clyde Hirt Series, which begins January 11.

When he arrived from Iowa, he won his first start at Yonkers, gate-to-wire, by more than 10 lengths, and won his next race at Yonkers by rallying from seventh place at the three-quarter-mile point. A week later, he won with a first-over move at the half.

“Did I think he would be this good? No,” Meyer said. “But we raced him at Yonkers and he did everything we expected and more. (Driver) Greg Grismore was really impressed with him. He’s very handy and that’s probably why he’s a good horse. He’s a quiet horse and well-mannered.”

While in Iowa, Panaramic Art fairly dominated the competition this year. He lost only once, when he went off stride and finished fifth, and won his final start there by 14-1/4 lengths in 1:55.4 at Prairie Meadows. He was trained and driven by Roland’s grandson, Will. Roland’s wife, Judith, is a USTA director and his sons Royal and Duane also are involved in racing.

“We had a lot of fun with him,” Roland said about Panaramic Art. “I think this one is the best we’ve ever had; this one stands out. What makes me happy is that it wasn’t a fluke on the Iowa tracks. Our breeding program is behind the East; to perform out there makes everyone here happy. We’re very excited for the state of Iowa.”

Panaramic Art is a son of Hot Pans, who is owned by Duane Roland and also is the father of 2-year-old Iowa standout Blues Hot Clues. Panaramic Art’s mother is Kelly Graham, whose grandmother foaled 1994 Matron winner Armbro Maneuver and 1996 Little Brown Jug and Breeders Crown champion Armbro Operative.

Roland turned down $50,000 for Panaramic Art before eventually deciding to sell the horse.

“I decided maybe it was time,” Roland said. “We wanted to see what he could do somewhere like the Meadowlands. We have his full brother (Berry Berry Fast, born in February) and we just hope he’s half as good.”

[jeanette]

that's our good old iowa corn..

[Deleted]

That's our good old Kentucky bluegrass

Manalapan, NJ --- A quarter of all the 2007 divisional champions in harness racing were the product of the Kentuckiana Farms General Partnership and its founder, Tom Crouch. Hence, Kentuckiana Farms has been named the Standardbred Breeders & Owners Association of New Jersey’s Breeder of the Year.

Kentuckiana, established in 1975 by Tom and Betty Crouch on 1,400 acres in Fayette County in Kentucky, also has three stallions based in New Egypt, N.J. at what is now known as Continental Farms -- the former Egyptian Acres of the late Hall of Famer Stanley Dancer -- in the care of farm manager Bill Smythe.

Representing Kentuckiana in the Garden State are the trotting stallions Yankee Glide and Classic Photo (whose first crop will come to sale in 2008) and the recently retired pacer Tell All, the Little Brown Jug and North America Cup winner.

“It is a great honor to be recognized as New Jersey Breeder of the Year,” said Bob Brady, one of the Kentuckiana partners. “2007 has been an exciting year for Kentuckiana Farms, having bred, raised or sold 11 national season’s leaders and three divisional champions in Mystical Sunshine, Mister Big and Tell All.

“The New Jersey breeding program is vitally important to the overall health of the Standardbred industry,” Brady noted. “Our New Jersey operation has been a key component to Kentuckiana’s overall success. Being able to showcase our product at the Meadowlands has played a huge role in this success.”

Tell All (by Real Desire), the 3-Year-Old Colt Pacer of the Year for 2007, is one of the trio of Kentuckiana progeny who will be honored with Dan Patch Awards at the end of January. The other two are Older Horse Pacer of the Year Mister Big (by Grinfromeartoear) and Older Female Trotter of the Year Mystical Sunshine (by Yankee Glide).

“We are excited about bringing Tell All to New Jersey as the newest addition to our ever expanding stallion roster,” Brady explained. “We are cautiously optimistic that the New Jersey program will take the necessary steps to keep pace with other jurisdictions.

“Being recognized with three divisional champions validates our commitment to breeding the best,” he added.

The Breeder of the Year Award will be presented at the 51st annual New Jersey-bred Equine Breeders Award dinner on January 27, 2008 at the Holiday Inn of East Windsor (N.J.).

Mystical Sunshine is one of four millionaires sired by Yankee Glide. The Chris Ryder trainee posted eight wins, four seconds and two thirds from 19 starts this year and banked $337,070 for the ownership of Sid Korn and the Estate of Alvin Jacobson. Her victories included the $250,000 Breeders Crown and $116,000 Miss Versatility.

Yankee Glide, a son of Valley Victory, topped all North American trotting sires in 2006 with progeny who earned nearly $8.8 million. This year his 202 starters have banked more than $6.2 million.

“Yankee Glide has been and continues to be a spectacular sire that consistently produces champions at every level,” Brady said. “In 2007 alone, Yankee Glide produced three new world champions, following up on being trotting’s leading moneywinning sire of 2006 with Glidemaster and Passionate Glide.”

Among Yankee Glide’s million-dollar earners have been 2006 Horse of the Year Glidemaster ($1,968,023), Passionate Glide ($2,060,447), Stroke Play ($1,171,649) and Mystical Sunshine ($1,793,755).

Since his first crop in 1999, Yankee Glide’s offspring have banked more than $32.8 million.

This year the Kentuckiana Farms General Partnership, combined with those bred by Tom Crouch, ranks third in North American earnings with more than $15.24 million from 525 starters.

Kentuckiana Farms is owned and operated by the three Crouch daughters and their spouses: Rebecca and Robert Brady, Michelle and Robert Goodman and Kenneth and Lisa Jackson.

[jeanette]

Kentucky is definitely horse country..

[Deleted]

Check this guy out.......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwNPAXTB81Y&feature=user

[Pharmer Phil]

rumbuzzn said:

Check this guy out.......

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwNPAXTB81Y&feature=user

TRied to load this dis moanin Bro, gave up outa desperation
darn ol dial up...
Could you do me a pencil drawin'

[Deleted]

Sorry bout yer desperation Bro ..........i'll get right on that drawin fer ya
Here's a shorter version for ya....only 51 seconds long.....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzNIRhB012c

[Deleted]

Here ya go Phil........

Forest Lake, MN - Snow was on the ground and minus-degree wind chills were in the air in Anoka County, Minn., but warmer weather and the April 11 opening of the sport's newest racetrack, Running Aces Harness Park, was on the collective minds of the members of Minnesota Harness Racing, Inc.


Members of Minnesota Harness Racing, Inc. toured the about-to-be-finished Running Aces Harness Park in Columbus, Minn. on Saturday. The facility will offer 50 days of live racing and poker.
The group held its annual awards banquet on Saturday (Feb. 9), but preceded those festivities with a tour of the about-to-be-completed harness racetrack and card room.



The tour was conducted by Jeff Halpern, of Southwest Casinos, and Rose Mary Williams, of MTR Gaming, who are the co-developers of the $61 million complex, located about 30 miles northeast of the heart of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. The five-eighths mile racetrack, designed and built by Chuck Coon and Sons, will host 50 programs of racing between April and July, at which time a 50-table card room, which will feature poker and related card games, will open.



The track, which is located more than 50 miles from Canterbury Park, will at first offer only harness simulcasts, but is supporting legislation that will permit both tracks to receive any and all simulcast signals--including an exchange of each other's races. Running Aces's signal will also be made available throughout the racing industry's simulcast channels, packaged with signals from Mountaineer Park, Presque Isle Downs and Scioto Downs, all sister tracks operated by MTR Gaming.




A total of 300 stalls will be made available for horsemen who ship to the track for the inaugural meet, which will begin on April 11.

Stall applications for the meet, which will be conducted under the direction of race secretary Gregg Keidel, are available online at the track's Web site, www.runningacesharness.com.



At the awards banquet, horsemen honored the Minnesota Trotter and Pacer of the Year, and voted upon the state's Horse of the Year Award.



On the pacing side, Banks Standardbred's Whata Piranha, a son of Park Place who won seven of 17 starts and $7,523, with a mark of 1:58.1, taken at Hawthorne, took home honors, while the state's top trotter was Wendy Sue Haberberg's One Bad Cookie, who scored twice in 10 tries and won $3,974 in the year just ended.



The Minnesota Horse of the Year, however, according to those who cast ballots on Saturday, was Banks Standardbreds' Photo Dream, a son double-gaited of S J's Photo who trotted to a 7-4-1 record in 19 tries this past year, and who won $10,354 and posted a season's mark of 2:01.4 at Prairie Meadows.



In addition, Adam Hauser, one of Iowa's top drivers, was named Minnesota's Driver of the Year, based on leading all other drivers in competition on the Minnesota Fair Circuit last year.



The final order of business was the installation of two immortals into the Minnesota Harness Racing Hall of Fame.



Howard and Greg Jensen's tough-as-nails pacing mare Norine C, p, 3, 2:06.1h ($15,606), was the equine inductee, and the late Brian Pinske, a native of Glencoe, Minn., who had burst upon the national scene before his untimely death, was named as an immortal to the same shrine.



A gathering of more than 100 attended both the tour and the awards banquet which followed.

[Deleted]

Now this is a goodin..........

Monticello, NY --- Just when you think you have seen everything in harness racing: A horse wins a race, his driver gets dumped out after the mile, then the horse returns driverless to the winner's circle and stands and waits to get his picture taken.

Sounds like a joke -- well it isn’t. It happened on February 14 in the second race at Monticello Raceway.

Mike Forte was well in hand with a trotter by the name of Connors Blue Chip and they coasted home a six length winner. After the finish, Greg Merton’s horse hooked Connors Blue Chip’s wheel and dumped Forte to the ground.

Instantaneously, the trotter turned around and went back the opposite way on the track and stopped in the winner's circle even though he had no driver to guide him.

Luckily a good Samaritan in the grandstand rushed out to grab the horse and held him until help arrived.

Asked what he thought when he saw his horse spin around and head back to and stop at the winner's circle, Forte said, “It was cool. People just don’t realize how smart horses are.”

Strangely, Connors Blue Chip isn’t a veteran of racing victories. The win was his first in six seasonal starts and the 6-year-old Sir Taurus gelding won but two times in 37 tries in 2007.

Trainer Ron Ingrassia was in the paddock during the race and didn’t see his driver get unseated after the finish and when he found out what had happened he said philosophically, and with tongue in cheek, “What’s the big deal, that’s the way I train ’em.”

[jeanette]

that would have been fun to see!!

[Deleted]

Yep, i would have loved to have been there to see that

[Pharmer Phil]

thing about horses is...
well, it's kinda like lookin at people, ya can just tell some of em' lost a few kernels ofin da cobb, somewhere along the way...
Ya look at others, not the case..
Animals, the same
now when ya look into a horses eyes, ya can tell they are a thinkin...
very smart critters

[Deleted]

Feb. 28, 2008

Tim Tetrick–Illinois’ favorite son–has come home.

For two nights, at least. Tetrick was in town this evening at lovely Maywood Park to meet fans, sign autographs and give away 1,000 bobblehead dolls.

These yellow and green-clad dolls appeared to be a fan favorite, and are slated to be given out again on Saturday night, March 1, at Balmoral Park in Crete, Ill., the big sister to Maywood’s half-mile oval. Located just 35 miles south of Chicago, alongside highway 394, is where you’ll find the one-mile sprawl, located out in the wilds of the Prairie State, just about a 40-minute drive south of the Windy City, depending on the traffic.

The somewhat shy yet affable Tetrick offered this to fans: “It’s great to be back home,” he said. “I was very lucky to have a great year in 2007, and I’m really flattered by all the folks who’ve come out here tonight. I have to drive some horses Friday night at The Meadowlands (in New Jersey), but then I’ll be back to see you all again on Saturday, at Balmoral.”

Tetrick, just 26, is known in global harness racing circles as the Prairie State’s Boy Wonder. In 2007, this Geff, Ill. native set the racing world on fire, breaking records in both driving wins and earnings.

The sandy-haired lad won an average of 3.25 races per daily at 18 tracks from New York to Illinois and finished up 2007 with an all-time record of 1,188 wins and $18,342,367 in purse earnings. He boasted a UDR of .388 last season as the leading driver at Chester, Pocono and Dover Downs, and was the youngest driver ever to score 3,000 wins (at Harrington on May 28).

Tetrick also became the youngest driver ever to win not one, but two, million dollar races–both with Southwind Lynx–the Art Rooney Pace at Yonkers on June 2 and The Meadowlands Pace on July 14. He also set the record for the most wins in a single month, when he steered 121 winners to first place prizes in November.

Tim was spotlighted in Sports Illustrated, USA Today and New York Times features in 2007, bringing attention and accolades to himself and to harness racing.

Despite his success, Tim hasn’t changed. He grew up around the dusty bullring ovals of the Illinois county fair circuit, following his parents, Tom and Mary Alice Tetrick as they raced trotters and pacers during the hot summers.

Tim wasn’t pampered and he didn’t have it easy–he carried water buckets, mucked stalls and bathed horses–just like other kids who grew up in harness racing families. Early on, Tim’s folks established a strong work ethic and dedication to the Standardbred that has stuck with him, and that has carried him to some of the highest accomplishments bestowed upon a lucky few in harness racing.

Our sport could certainly use more young drivers like Tim Tetrick. On a chilly and snowy Chicago night, he sat amicably signing autographs and handing out bobblehead dolls–miniature likenesses of himself that danced in the hands of fans and gamblers.

More proof that when harness racing has heroes, the fans will come.

trotting.harnessracingblog.com/category/kims-thoughts/

[Deleted]

Columbus, MN --- The Grand Opening of Running Aces Harness Park, just north of Minnesota’s Twin Cities, is just three weeks away and preparations for the inaugural season are on schedule.

The grandstand, barn area and racetrack are all getting final touches before horses start arriving on Friday, March 28.

“Stall applications were received from 61 trainers with 502 horses,” reports Gregg Keidel, the Director of Racing. “Eleven states and Manitoba were represented, so interest is obviously keen in North America’s newest racing venue. We have only 212 stalls for permanent stabling, in addition to 40 ship-in stalls, so some tough decisions were necessary in the stall allocation process, but I believe we’ve assembled a group of trainers and horses that can produce a very competitive and entertaining first season.”

Other veteran racing officials at Running Aces are General Manager Bob Farinella, Presiding Judge Ken Stock, Director of Facilities/Trackman John Betts, Asst. Race Secretary/Paddock Judge Rod Newhart, and Program Director/Charter Scott Peine. Associate Judges will be Tom Swift and Bob Corey, Jr., the Identifier/Horseman’s Bookkeeper is Bobbi Hansen and Outrider is Ashley Holliday.

The first actual races over the new five-eighths-mile surface will be qualifying heats on Saturday, March 29, and again on Saturday, April 5.

“This is the earliest in the calendar that there has ever been any actual racing in Minnesota, Wisconsin or Iowa, where 60 percent of our horses will come from,” said Keidel, “so we may have a little difficulty filling races during the first few weeks. But I expect full competitive fields for the large majority of our 53-day meet. Everyone on the management team and all the horsemen on their way here are extremely eager for the first ‘Call to Post.’ It should be fun!”

Details of the Grand Opening celebration for April 11 will be announced soon.

[Pharmer Phil]

Hope they get to run bro, ain't got the projected forecast for Next Saturday, but on Friday:
Friday
Partly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of snow. Highs around 40.

[abirdseyeview]

I used to wait tables at a race track clubhouse in Toledo many years ago. It was a lot of fun watching those sulkys.

[Deleted]

Ahh.......Raceway Park.......been there........Hoosier Park will open for ya soon.......never been there and want to go some day

Anderson, IN --- Much activity is underway at Hoosier Park Racing & Casino as construction continues to be on schedule for an early June opening of the new, permanent Las Vegas-style casino, and as live harness racing returns April 5.



Conveniently located just 20 minutes north of Indianapolis off Interstate 69, Hoosier Park Racing & Casino will begin its 15th season as a complete entertainment experience, featuring both state-of-the-art gaming and competitive live horse racing, along with expanded dining options and headline entertainment.

Significant progress has been made since the October groundbreaking for the Hoosier Park Casino. The existing grandstand has been renovated with fresh new looks and offerings. From the grandstand, the casino is a short escalator ride away, where patrons will find a vibrant and action-packed atmosphere. The single-level, 92,000-square-foot casino complex features a martini bar, player’s club, high-limit area and more. Among the 2,000 high-tech slot machines, patrons will find interlinked progressives and 66 multi-player electronic video gaming machines. New dining options and entertainment offerings will be announced soon.

Hoosier Park Casino promises to be the destination of choice for traditional casino players, as well as those horseracing aficionados who want to try their hand at a different form of gaming.

“Hoosier Park Racing & Casino will soon be one of central Indiana’s most exciting destinations,” said Jim Brown, general manager of gaming. “No longer does someone need to travel to the riverboats or traditional gaming sites such as Las Vegas or Atlantic City to experience a state-of-the-art facility and a true entertainment experience. We have it all right here in the heart of Indiana -- gaming, racing, dining and world-class entertainment -- all under one roof.”

“Those who have been coming to Hoosier Park since we opened our track in 1994 are going to be amazed with the transformation,” said Rick Moore, general manager of racing. “We simply can’t wait to showcase this grand-scale attraction to the area, and look forward to introducing it in a big way this June to race fans and casino gamers alike.”

Construction of the new facility is being led by Hagerman Construction. The significantly remodeled grandstand will be completed by April 5, which is the start of the harness racing meet. Harness racing concludes July 12, and the thoroughbred meet runs from Aug. 29 through Nov. 23.

Other activity onsite includes completion of the many new and extensive dining options, hiring of hundreds of new employees, and delivery of the slot machines commencing in mid-April -- all of which are essential for the casino to open in early June. Once open, the casino will provide a complete entertainment experience to adult visitors 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

[Pharmer Phil]

Last night they had the news story on the local TV station, they had a aerial view of the new track, cept, you could barely make out the shape of the track...because of the snow.

So, April 11th. is opening day, we have ANOTHER PHREAKIN WINTER STORM WARNING for tomorrow (thursday)

here's an excerpt:
Bloomington based Southwest Casino and Hotel Corporation plans to open its brand new Running Aces Harness Park on April 11. The track and the grandstand have been built in Columbus Township, just north of the 35W/35E split near Forest Lake.

There are 302, 12-foot by 12-foot stalls for the horses. The limestone "Euro track" is 5/8 of a mile long and features 12-degree banks in the corners. Halpern says there will be dozens of place where bettors can put down a wager. The whole complex, which includes a card room set to open in the summer, cost $62 million to build.
and here's a link to the news story:
www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=501583

this guy here lives not 30 miles from us:
Ron Banks couldn't agree more.

"Every race we go to is approximately 300 miles, one way," he explained. Banks owns 'Photo Dream', Minnesota's harness horse of the year in 2007.

The Dream takes casual trots around the fairgrounds track in Cannon Falls as part of a daily training regiment to get ready for the Running Aces opener.

and here's a link to his story Lotsa nice animal shots here:
www.kare11.com/video/player.aspx?aid=66019&bw=

and here's a link to the new Racetrack Website...
www.runningacesharness.com

[Deleted]

Thanks for the links Bro....cept, i could'nt get the video link to work