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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2009 > July > 20 > Entry
COLUMN: Keeping harness racing from becoming a snoring pig
You could call them The Four Horsemen, though not really of The Apocalypse, and certainly not of Notre Dame. One did wear a Block O Ohio State cap though.
There was Jim MacFayden, the one-time golf hustler turned school teacher and small-time standardbred owner. And there was Richard “Tim” Sampson, a 53-year-old college student and race track junkie.
There was Paul Ciambro, who revived the harness racing efforts of his dad, a well-known Dayton auto dealer who was shot and paralyzed 34 years ago. And there was Tom Gray, the former tool salesman and tavern owner, who only lets Ohio State trained vets work on his horses.
Gathered outside stall 62 on the mostly-deserted, partly-dilapidated shedrow of the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, they gave life to the place with colorful tales of the past and hopeful dreams of what might lie ahead.
The present, though, was the problem and it was perfectly captured on the front of Ciambro’s faded white racing cap, which proclaimed: “If you’re not making dust…You’re eating it.”
And these days Ohio harness racing is caught in the dusty back draft of several other states, especially neighboring Indiana, Pennsylvania and New York, all which have racinos — race tracks that include casinos which funnel a percentage of the gambling take back into the sport.
Because of that, those states offer more racing opportunities, bigger purses and have lured away many of Ohio’s best standardbred owners, trainers, drivers and horses.
That’s part of what the four horseman — and a fifth, Ron Taubert, who was working in nearby Barn 17 — talked about the other morning. Here are some snippets:
MacFayden: “Here’s a harbinger of things to come. Last year Indiana had 3,000-and-some foals born. In Ohio, there were 605.”
Gray: “Just a few years ago, we were the largest standardbred breeding state in the country. Even a couple of years ago we had 95 studs. Now we’ve got 19.”
Sampson: “Scioto Downs used to race every night but Sunday. Now they race three times a week and by the end of the season, it’s usually just two. Lebanon used to run five nights, now it’s two.”
Ciambro: “Same with the county fairs. They’d have four days of racing — afternoons and evenings. Now they’re down to two.
“We’re so far behind the times now. Over in Indiana they’re living the good life while we’re racing for half the money and starving to death. If things don’t change here soon, we’re all done.”
And that’s why these local horsemen cling to the possibly of better times ahead now that the state legislature — with the prompting of Gov. Ted Strickland — has approved a budget that allows video lottery terminals at Ohio’s seven tracks.
But it’s a polarizing issue and for it to happen the county commission and city council or township trustees at each track site must agree to allow gambling in its jurisdiction.
Warren County officials have said they won’t allow slot machines at Lebanon Raceway and that has the owners of the financially-strapped track looking at possible other locations — including Montgomery County — to build a new facility.
“We’re not asking for a bail-out,” Gray said. “We’re just asking for an equal playing field with Indiana and Pennsylvania. Then we’ll train our horses and make our own money.”
In the meantime, what’s happening?
“It’s kind of like those Russian crop forecasts,” MacFayden, the 73-year-old Farmersville horseman said with a smile. “Worse than last year, but better than next year.”
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OPPORTUNITIES DWINDLE, EXPENSES RISE
MacFayden played two years of college basketball at Ouachita Baptist in Arkansas. “I wasn’t very good at going to chapel and stuff and I got a few warnings,” he shrugged “So I transferred to the University of Florida. and played the last two years on the golf team.
“And when I came to Dayton, it was a pretty lucrative hobby to have. Then I won the City Amateur in 1961 and that pretty much ended all my bets.”
He became a math and science teacher and for the past 39 years has dabbled in racing. He has just one horse now and it’s among only 25 or so still stabled at the Fairgrounds.
“I remember coming in here from Toledo one year and I needed two stalls and couldn’t find any,” Ciambro said. “More than 200 of them were full. Now they’re almost all open.”
The 11 people who still stable at the fairgrounds may be small-time horsemen, but they know the sport’s problems as well as anyone.
Gray’s five horses are all claimers, a few of which have had some notable success.
“To pay the bills, each of these horses has to win once a month,” he said. “But the way racing is now — the way it’s scaled back in Ohio — that’s about impossible. It can be three weeks or so until you even get your horse in a race.”
But while opportunities dwindle, expenses go up.
“Just the stall, rent, feed, hay and sawdust to bed down on is $150, maybe $200 a month for each horse,” said Ciambro. “That’s not counting vet bills and $80 for (once-a-month) shoes .”
Gray has three guys working part-time for him and said its costs him, “with training and everything about $800 a month per horse.” Then there’s his travel to Scioto Downs, Lebanon and Hoosier Park north of Indianapolis: “My gas bill last month was $525.”
Meanwhile, he said purses are as low as $1,200 to $1,300 at Raceway Park in Toledo and just $400 more at Lebanon.
So why stick with it?
Taubert, a second-generation horseman from Miami Township who’s involved in other race-related businesses — including running a web site, LaHorse.com, that lists ads of people selling horses and offering training services — explained:
“I get a rush from this like nothing else. We bought these horses as weanlings and they’ve developed into beautiful animals. I love training them, driving them and there’s always that dream you might make more in one night than you could all week in your job.”
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SAVING RACING JOBS
“I didn’t vote for Strickland the first time, but I will the next,” MacFayden said. “It took a lot of intestinal fortitude to make a stand like he has.”
Gray agreed: “There’s 12,000 to 16,000 jobs in racing in Ohio and what he’s doing could save them. And that’s not counting the related jobs like tack shops, the vets, farmers we buy the hay and straw from, the feed mills and equipment people.”
He brought up the casino jobs that would be added and the percentage of gaming profits that would go to various entities including racing.
The big question is what percentage racing would get. While many states give 11 to 15 percent and some just over 7, Taubert said he’s heard Ohio might give just 4 percent — not the windfall most are hoping for.
Still the guys at the Fairgrounds the other day embraced optimism.
“Yonkers (in New York) was ready to go under but because of slots it’s a premier race track again,” Ciambro said. “Same with Buffalo Raceway, Monticello, Saratoga. They’re all flourishing.”
Gray nodded: “There’s talk if the Lebanon owners build a new facility it might have a 7/8th mile track. That’ll draw a better quality of horses to watch and could give the place an opportunity to pick up a big pacing or trotting race.
“And if our Fairgrounds makes the necessary repairs, the place could fill up again from more people bringing in their horses and needing places to train.”
As the guys talked, their dreams soon were interrupted by reality when somebody mentioned the upcoming Dayton horse show at the fairgrounds. To accommodate the show steeds, the standardbred guys must vacate their barns and move to out-of-the-way stalls at the end of shedrow.
And then comes the Montgomery County Fair, where, MacFayden noted, his grandson from Brookville, will be showing a pig that he supposedly hypnotizes.
“It’s the darnedest thing to see,” MacFayden grinned. “He hypnotizes that thing and it falls right out. Pretty soon it’s just snoring away.”
And that passed-out porker — even more than Ciambro’s cap — seems to symbolize Ohio harness racing these days.
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