Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Racing Horses for a Living
By Kimberly A. Rinker

Racing Standardbred horses is a fun and exciting way to earn a living. Working with the horses day-in and day-out and being involved with the daily routines of a race track or training facility allows one the opportunity to learn from a large pool of individuals from all walks of life. But what actually goes into making an evening's racing card run smoothly at any North American track on any given night? Let's take a look...

First of all, the racing secretary at the track puts out a condition sheet on a weekly basis, which names a schedule of upcoming races and the conditions for those races. It is then the trainer's obligation to place his or her horses in the races in which they feel their equine will be the most competitive. The racing office provides entry slips and entry boxes for this purpose and there is a specific time period, which allows trainers to enter their horses to race, and a specific time at which that entry box closes.

Post positions are drawn at random for each race, and a member of the racing office staff will then type up the entries on what is called, in racing jargon, "the overnight sheet." The following day, "racing proofs" will be made available to the racing office, program department and publicity staff, so that each will be able to either check for eligibility and possible stories for the track program and media.

For those horsemen racing a pacer or trotter on the Chicago circuit, there are several policies, which must be adhered to, and these policies are similar in other racing jurisdictions in most cases. For instance, all horses must be in the race paddock/detention area at a prescribed time in order to race. Normally, except in the case of stakes races, the allotted time is four hours prior to post time for a specific race. The horses deemed bleeders which race on the state administered diuretic lasix, also have an appointed time to receive their lasix, usually four hours prior to their post time.

As an example, let's say you have a horse racing in the first race at Balmoral Park on Sunday. That horse is a lasix horse. So your regular detention time is five hours prior to the first race, which would be 1:30 since post time for the first race on Sunday is 6:30. Since the horse is a lasix horse, the time that the horse would receive the lasix would be one hour after his detention time or four hours prior to his post time, which is approximately 2:30 p.m. Since Balmoral has a 12-race paddock/detention area, the horse received his lasix and stays in the paddock until after he races.

Once in the paddock the caretaker or trainer will be handed a warm-up pad to be placed on the horse's back. There is a crew of people who work in the paddock that take care of, clean and distribute the racing pads and warm-up pads. These people then help to "pull the numbers" when the horses return to the front of the paddock after racing.

A paddock judge oversees many areas of the paddock and the night's races. He or she is responsible for making sure that the horses leave the paddock with ten minutes to post for each event, and that they leave the paddock in post position order. The paddock judge also checks in all the drivers each night, and reports any late scratches or driver changes to the stewards.

Besides containing enough stalls for all the event's participants, the paddock typically contains post-race testing stalls, a stall for the outrider's horse, and an area for the paddock blacksmith.

After a horse has gone his warm-up trip(s), he will have his lip tattoo checked by the state identifier. Another person will then check the equipment on each horse in each claiming race for possible last minute changes.

One state veterinarian will stay in the paddock to watch horses warm-up, and will make any scratches based on the horse's performance prior to starting time. There is also a state veterinarian in the back of the detention area, and a veterinarian who draws blood randomly from horses to be tested by the blood gas machine for high TCO2 levels.

There are also security personnel and two stewards' assistants in the paddock as well. In the detention area, where the winners and one random horse (called the "special" horse) are taken after each race there is a crew of people who either catch urine or help with the storage and identification of testing containers.

Near the paddock one usually finds the racing office where the entries are taken, the stewards and licensing offices, where the licensing clerk and the steward's secretary are housed during racing hours. You also might find the horsemen's bookkeeper here too.

Once a race is over, the horsemen can either return to their paddock stall or to their respective barns, if they are stabled at the home track. Those horsemen that ship-in usually bath their horses, blanket them, and then load them in their trailers for the journey home after a hard night's work.