Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Illinois Harness Horsemen's Association Survey Results for 2004
January 3, 2004

By Kimberly A. Rinker

A survey conducted by the IHHA this fall revealed some interesting statistics about the three Chicago harness tracks.

Scoring the highest marks for "track maintenance for racing and training" was Maywood Park. A full 70% of respondents said that the track maintenance for racing at Maywood was "excellent" or "good," while 67% of respondents said the same about Hawthorne, and 50% agreed about Balmoral.

Responses were similar for all three tracks when it came to "track maintenance for training," as 51% of those surveyed who responded said that Maywood did either an "excellent" or "good" job, while 44% said the same of Balmoral and Hawthorne.
In all cases at all three tracks, 75% of respondents rated "track safety" (fencing, no hub rail, etc) as "excellent" or "good." As well, all three tracks received "average" or "poor" marks from respondents for "backstretch conditions."

The majority of respondents rated purses (met money expectations, adherence to contracts) as either "average" or "poor" at both Balmoral and Maywood, while Hawthorne was given a "good" or "average" rating by the majority of respondents.

When asked about condition sheets (Fair mix, met ICF Rules), the responses were fairly mixed. A majority of respondents said that Balmoral rated "poor" or "average," while Maywood and Hawthorne rated "average" or "poor." Security at all three racetracks was rated either "good" or "average" by the majority of all respondents in fairly equal numbers.
Respondents rated the Justice System (Stewards/punishment-consistent, equal, adequate) at the tracks. The majority of respondents rated Hawthorne as "good" in this aspect, and an equal amount of respondents rated the Stickney oval as "excellent" and "average" in this regard. The Justice System at Balmoral was rated by the majority of respondents as "poor' or "average" and at Maywood as "average" or "good."

IHHA members who participated in this survey were also asked about Customer relations at the tracks. 70% of respondents gave Balmoral, and 59% gave Hawthorne an "excellent" and "good" rating in the customer "seating & viewing" department, while Maywood was rated slightly lower and given "average" and "good" marks by the majority of respondents.

In regards to parking accommodations for customers, both Balmoral (74%) and Maywood (65%) received an "excellent" or "good" rating by the majority of respondents, while Hawthorne was rated "good" or "average" by 58% of respondents. When thinking about the food and beverages offered by the three facilities, the majority (60%) of respondents rated Maywood Park and Hawthorne's customer services as either "good" or "average," while 57% of respondents felt the same way about Balmoral in this area.

All three tracks received high marks for overall facility cleanliness, with the majority of respondents answering "good." In regards to simulcasting efforts by the tracks, nearly all received a "good" or "average" rating by the majority of respondents to the survey.

In regards to the marketing efforts put forth by the three tracks, 59% of respondents said that Hawthorne did an "excellent" or "good" job, while 55% said Maywood Park did an "average" or "poor" job, and 51% said that Balmoral did an "average" or "poor" job. In that same vein, respondents were asked to rate how management did at making them feel welcome. A full one third of respondents said that Hawthorne did an "excellent" or "good" job, while one third each said that Maywood and Balmoral did a "good" to "average" job.

This survey has brought forth several areas that could use improving at all tracks, however, the overall ratings when tabulated, are very close, and on average show that most of the respondents (all IHHA members) to this survey found the three tracks to be operating on a "good" or "average" status.

It should be noted here that it can be difficult to quantify such results, without taking other important factors such as age, race, gender, amount of visits per week to a racetrack, and other demographic information into consideration.