For Friday, September 8 two separate classes have been written on
The Meadowlands condition sheet.
There is an "Open to all amateur drivers"
division that requires horses to fit:
Non
Winners of $7,500 in Last 5 Starts. W/O $1,750 per start in 2017 or in
2016/2017 if less than 8 starts in 2017. Optional Claiming $17,500
There is also a "Senior" division with the
following race conditions: Drivers must be 50 or older on race day
Horses: N/W $6,000 in Last 5 Starts. W/O $1,500 p/s in 2017 or in 2016/17 if less than 8 starts in 2017
Optional Claiming $15K
Drivers 65 or older – AE: horses who raced for a
claiming price of $15K or less in Last 5 Starts
Why?
During the last month
of the meet at The Meadowlands GSY Club amateur races did not fill. There were
4 weeks when the club tried to race and could not because members did not enter
enough horses to fill a race.
The GSY Club exists to
support The Meadowlands which in turn enthusiastically supports amateur
racing and amateur races often are among the top betting handles of the
night. GSY races go for relatively small purses, and with large handles
these races play an important role in sustaining the track. It is no
longer a surprise to see $200,000 bet on an amateur race at The Meadowlands, it
is the norm.
Meadowlands
COO/General Manager Jason Settlemoir said, "Amateur racing at the
Meadowlands has been and continues to be an important part of our business plan
going forward. With the growing horse shortage these amateur races are needed
to fill our weekly races. I have been quite pleased over the last few years how
well amateur racing has been wagered upon at the Meadowlands".
Club members voted
with their lack of entries not to race with the club at The Meadowlands
despite the venue still being “the mecca” to the GSY membership,
offering the highest weekly purses in amateur racing and paying at least 3% of
the purse to every horse who starts. Yes, The Meadowlands offers the
highest purses and weekly races for amateurs and the club was unable to fill a
race for a month. Clearly,
change was in order.
The vast majority
of GSY Club members treat their investment in amateur horses as a
hobby, not a business. These members are employed in other
businesses or have retired from careers outside harness racing and only
participate for the love of racing, which is the primary purpose of having
separate amateur races. Many, such as the man the beloved, late Sam McKee
once called, “perhaps the top amateur driver in the history of harness racing,”
Robert Krivelin, have invested millions in harness racing over the last decades. When reached for comment,
Krivelin said, “if you think you’re as good at 70 as you were at 25, then you
were not very good at 25.”
Meadowlands Chairman,
Jeff Gural said, “In golf and tennis they have senior events. Why is this different? Originally this was a fun
thing, yet some have made it a business. With the continued horse
shortage having the ability to host two amateur races weekly may be critical.”
The vast majority of
club members do not approach amateur racing as a business or career, which
is of course a disconnect in every sense of what the word “amateur”
means. Many current professional drivers began their careers with brief
stints driving in amateur races and it has become convention in sports to have
a separate division for participants over a certain age.
Beyond the track, more
than $600,000 ($175,000 from the GSY Club alone) has been donated back to the
children of professional horsemen via scholarships for continuing
education and to other charities from the four largest Amateur Driving Clubs
which are the GSY Club, Billings, NAADA and Florida Amateur clubs.
These funds are derived from a combination of the 5% driver commission that all
drivers donate, plus membership dues and race entry fees.
