Covering the first ever night of racing at Pompano Park, which took place Feb. 4, 1964, Earl Straight of the Fort Lauderdale News had this to say: “Harness racing has arrived in Broward County and it is going to be with us for a long, long time.”
He wasn't stepping out on a limb. With almost no competition for the gambling dollar, all forms of horse racing were thriving back then and there was no reason to believe that Pompano would be an exception. It was supposed to be to harness racing what Gulfstream and Hialeah were to Thoroughbred racing, the wintertime capital of the sport. And, for a time, it was. A record was set in 1980 when a crowd of 18,451 packed the stands as Pompano pushed its way past dog racing and jai alai to become the favorite nighttime outlet for South Florida gamblers craving action.
Straight didn't exactly get it wrong. Pompano lasted for 58 years, but it's highly unlikely that back in 1964 he could have envisioned how harness racing in Florida would limp to the finish line in 2022. At a place like Pompano, racing hasn't mattered for years. It became all about the casino and when a bill was passed in May of 2021 that decoupled casino gaming and pari-mutuel betting at Pompano, the track's fate was sealed. Shortly thereafter, the owner, Caesars Entertainment, announced that racing would cease at the end of the 2022 meet. The last night of racing was Sunday.
“I wouldn't call it depression to talk about the ending of racing at Pompano, it's more like a funeral,” harness legend and Hall of Famer Wally Hennessey, who has stabled at Pompano every year since 1986, told harnesslink.com. “That's the way I feel. And that you can't control it.”
So, what does this have to do with Thoroughbred racing? Plenty. If it can happen to Pompano Park it can happen to any racetrack running any breed. The threat of decoupling is real and it's not going to go away. It is a huge and ominous threat.
Most every casino company that owns a racetrack doesn't want to be in the horse racing business, and most don't bother to hide their disdain for the sport. But existing laws in most states still require a casino to hold pari-mutuel racing in order to maintain their casino license.
That's not exactly the case in Florida. First, we saw Churchill Downs Inc. find a loophole in the law that allowed them to replace racing at Calder/Gulfstream Park West with a jai alai operation and still keep their casino. The other casino companies in the state kept lobbying for decoupling and last spring they won the battle and the war. A bill was passed that no longer required non-Thoroughbred pari-mutuel operations in the state to conduct racing in order to have a casino.
It is, of course, significant that the state's two Thoroughbred tracks, Gulfstream and Tampa Bay Downs, were not permitted to decouple. But neither track was a threat to do so. Tampa Bay Downs doesn't have a casino and Gulfstream's casino is not a big moneymaker. Plus, Gulfstream remains one of the most successful tracks in the sport and not at all a candidate to close down. But you can be certain that racino operators outside of Florida have watched the Pompano saga unfold. Caesars Entertainment has provided a how-to book when it comes to getting out of any obligation to hold racing and it's a blueprint others will no doubt try to follow. What state will be next?
The irony of the Pompano story is that from a handle perspective, the track has never done better. Track announcer and director of racing Gabe Prewitt wasn't going to let Pompano go away without a fight. Mainly through social medai channels, he began a relentless promotion of the racing product at Pompano. He created the #sendItInArmy, imploring harness fans to bet on Pompano. According to Harness Racing Update, from the track's inception in 1964 through 2014, there were just three instances of Pompano having a race card handle over $1 million. In 2021, handle exceeded $1 million 21 times and a record $1.7 million was bet on the closing-night card in 2021.
Pompano pulled out all stops Sunday, ending with a 19-race card and guaranteed pools on its Pick-4 bets. Hennessey was listed to drive in 14 races. At 65, remarkably, he is the leading driver at the track, entering the night with 100 wins on the season.