It gets in your blood…the relationship between fan and horse, horse and driver, and seeing both become stars. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Our premier of standardbred racing from Scioto Downs last week proved to be eye-opening…and mind-opening…because once again it showed that you can never know what you don’t know until you see it for yourself.
Columbus, OH – Some weekend you-might-not-know stuff!
It was an omen last week when I went to a men’s restroom at Scioto Down racetrack in Columbus and heard my name mentioned.
Trust it, I was there for the same reason as a dozen other men, and it’s not a place you expect to be addressed.
“Thought that was you,” said Jeff Oren, from central Ohio, who introduced himself as a reader that follows our Ohio State baseball coverage on the website.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA sports and the Buckeyes for Press Pros Magazine.
It can happen, and it does, mind you…at a state tournament or an Ohio State game. But not at an off-the-beaten-path-place like a horse track, or so I thought.
And before the night was over, it had happened three times, chance meetings with people, including a Shelby County League basketball coach (Phil Groves), that took me by surprise.
Turns out, that Groves, who coaches boys basketball at Botkins, is an owner of standardbred horses, and it makes sense – a veritable face-in-the-crowd, as they say. But you never know what you don’t know until you see it for yourself.
The logistics of bringing standardbred (trotters and pacers) racing to Press Pros is a bit different from that of covering football and basketball. There are no home games. Everything is a road trip, to Columbus (Scioto Downs), Dayton (Hollywood Racing and Gaming), Lebanon (Miami Valley), or Cleveland (Northfield Park). You don’t expect to see familiar faces when you get there, but you do, and you always have.
Prior to Scioto’s recent renovations, in the old days it was nothing to go south on route 23 and see all kinds of Ohio State and professional sports figures leaning on the rail with a rolled-up racing schedule in the their hand. People I’ve seen…Art Schlicter (of course), Frank Howard, Hop Cassidy, Fred Taylor, Eddie George, Bobby Rahal, Archie Griffin, and Ken Anderson. Some were dyed-in-the-wool racing enthusiasts, and some were just curious, there to be entertained.
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In the thoroughbred world, any trip to old Beulah Park would turn up people you never suspected – governors, and business moguls like John Galbreath, who owned nearby Darby Dan Farm and Kentucky Derby winners Chateaugay (1963) and Proud Clarion (1967), and the Pittsburgh Pirates.
“I’ve been coming to Scioto all my life,” said James last week, from nearby Circleville. “My dad brought me, and I started bringing my boys. It kinda’ gets in your blood because you develop an interest in both the horse and the driver. It’s like football. It’s fun to see them become stars.”
Those who embrace racing will explain it this way. You see young horses grow up, they develop, learn to compete to become consistent winners, and the relationship that follows where the better horses and the better drivers seem to find each other to compete for the bigger races and the bigger purses. Like a horse named Bythemissal, a two-time Ohio Horse of The Year, who won the 2022 Little Brown Jug, in Delaware, for trainer Ron Burke and driver Chris Page, featured last week on Press Pros by writer Hal McCoy.
“It’s the difference in driving a Mercedes and something else,” says young driver Koltin Noble. “You earn the confidence of owners and trainers to get the best horses.”
“Horses like that are special,” says up-and-coming driver Koltin Noble, from Xenia, the son of driving icon Dan Noble, who owns more than 7,000 standardbred racing wins.
“It’s like the difference in driving a Mercedes and something else,” he adds. “You earn the confidence of owners and trainers to get the best horses.”
And don’t be fooled by the empty seats in the completely refurbished grandstand at Scioto.
“Off-track betting and the casinos have changed everything,” adds Page, who won eight races in one night last week at Scioto – who’s won more than $78 million in purses in his 15 years of driving professionally.
“You want to perform in front of an audience,” he said in a 2023 Press Pros profile. “But let’s face it, we depend now on the casinos. That’s where the people go. Hey, I was late getting to the track tonight because I was home watching racing at Saratoga.”
“They used to fill this place (Scioto Downs),” says Ohio Harness Horseman’s Association media coordinator, Frank Fraas.
Who knew? Botkins’ basketball coach Phil Groves runs both trotters and pacers…and the pick ‘n roll.
“During the golden era of harness racing President Roosevelt would even visit the tracks. But in recent years the grandstand at Scioto fell into disrepair, the casinos cut into the gate, and it just became easier to watch the races on TV with off-track betting.”
But for those who think that it’s not a big deal, think again. It IS a big deal.
“Drivers [like Page and Ron Burke], and horses [like Bythemissal and anything named Hanover] are an attraction. And races like the Little Brown Jug are as big a deal as the Kentucky Derby,” adds James. “It matters to more [people] than you’d ever expect.”
A retired mortgage lender, James and those like him comprise one of the broadest sports fan demographics imaginable.
To come here and win $20 on a horse you follow is a thrill for a lot of people,” he adds.
Big as Ohio State beating Michigan?
“Some nights,” he laughed. “You bet.”
The Ohio Harness Horseman’s Association is a sponsor of standardbred racing on Press Pros Magazine.com.