by Bob Carson

Editor’s Note: The USTA website is pleased to present freelance writer Bob Carson and his popular “Outside the Box” features. This monthly series is a menu of outlandish proposals presented with a wink — but the purpose behind them is serious. The views contained in this column are that of the author alone, and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of the United States Trotting Association.

Bob Carson

Change creeps up on cats paws.

A dozen years ago, you would be reading this column on paper, the number of words monitored and the potential audience would be our wonderful harness racing guild. Today, these words may never touch paper, word count does not matter, photos, links and videos can be quickly inserted, and the column can be forwarded to anyone.

What once seemed preposterous is now normal. How we adapt to the new normal is very important.

The new normal is tricky; the potential of the digital era is unlimited while the utility often remains elusive. We can share material easier than ever before. But do we? Ask yourself, how many times last year did you read a blog, or listen to music, read a book, a magazine article or watch a film and then forward the information to friends and family?

Most of us remain very judicious and reticent about what we post or forward, but for our own good, we should all share more and be active evangelists for the sport of harness racing.

Autumn Ryan graphic

A major obstacle for spreading the harness word is that most of us in the sport are graduate students while the people we hope to entice have not started kindergarten; this makes conversations difficult.

This summer was a bonanza of superb racing; an endless supply of excellent articles and reports on the big races, the top race horses, trainers, and record times. Each day was a wealth of information for harness geeks.

Alas, after running each article through this filter — “Would this be of interest to a non-harness racing fan?” — the amount of content that passed through the filter and was deemed worth forwarding to non-racing people was zero.

Until the very casual visitor reaches a rudimentary level of harness racing expertise, the excellent content we offer will remain inaccessible. To the masses, entry into our sport is like crossing a bridge into a foreign land; once you enter, the depth and complexity are plusses, until you cross the bridge they are barriers.

The good news is that the digital world and social media offer bridges to people who do not know us. The bad news is that it is very difficult to get new visitors to place that first foot onto the bridge. This endless search for new constituents to take those preliminary steps holds true in every bridge to any new land.

So what’s the point?

Harness racing should make a conscious effort to include at least a small percentage of content that is relevant to people who do not have the faintest idea of who we are or what racing is all about.

For demonstration purposes, let’s do an experiment. I will click onto my favorite website and randomly paste today’s lead story:

Three-year-old trotter Father Patrick is ready to get back to action Sunday in a division of the Tompkins-Geers Stakes at Tioga Downs in New York, looking to return to his winning ways after going off stride in the Hambletonian, snapping a 15-race unbeaten streak.

His driver, Yannick Gingras, is ready too.

“Win or lose, I’d always be looking forward to getting back on the track with him,” Gingras said. “He’s a great horse. He’s provided me with great thrills so far, and I’m sure there are plenty more to come. I’m looking forward to showing everybody what a great horse he is.”

Father Patrick’s return is part of a card that features 10 Tompkins-Geers divisions for trotters and pacers. Among the horses competing Sunday are 3-year-old male pacer JK Endofanera, who earlier this year won the North America Cup, and multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old female pacers Precocious Beauty and Uffizi Hanover.

Trained by Jimmy Takter, Father Patrick has won 16 of 18 career races and $1.26 million. He was the Hambletonian favorite, but drew post No. 10…”

As usual, excellent reporting by Ken Weingartner. This post makes perfect sense — to us. However, if you reread Ken’s preview through the filter of the uninformed, suddenly Ken’s post would be like receiving a post from a prominent Cricket site.

Here is one from this morning:

Tykes Top the Table Despite Demands

England called up Joe Root, Gary Balance, Liam Plunkett and Johnny Bairstow (and the unavailable of Kane Williamson’s bowling). Yorkshire cruised to three easy wins to top the Royal Cup Group Table A. Impressive 21-year-old Alex Lees led the batting effort, scoring at a run per ball while none of the Yorkie bowlers have gone for more than a five over. Tim Brenan and Ali Rashid used their experience to block an end and take wickets. It would be fantastic to see Ali Rashid bowling for England in Australia and slotting in at 6 and 7.

Arriving at the star of Surrey’s chase of Kent’s excellent 314, the match twisted and turned before the final over, eventually coming to rest as a tie. Both sides were committed to win, it was tremendous sport.

Sam Billings now boasts a batting index of 329, topping the sixes hit table and sitting third on the runs scored ladder. This local is yet another smiter whose primary goal as wicket-keeper gives him license to attack the bowling when swapping gauntlets for gloves. Etc…..

Yikes! Although it has an odd charm, this cricket story will not lead us to the cricket bridge.

To get new people to put that foot on our bridge we need a sprinkling of stories of much more general interest, stories with just a wisp of harness racing. We need a few posts that act as bread crumbs to lure folks forward. Stories that stir emotions, snippets that make you laugh, personal triumphs, heartbreak and yes, conflict. We need a smidgen of content without harness details. Like what?

Here are two examples:

Casie Coleman, a top female trainer, dieted away a surprising amount of weight in the past year. An in-depth story of how she accomplished her transformation, before and after photos, how it has affected her life, etc. A post of this ilk offers useful bread crumbs.

Should we forward this sort of content to a newbie — in the back of their minds, readers may remember — hmmm, a woman can do this sport, she seems to love her job, an interesting person, hey those horses are awesome. Plenty of people can relate to dieting. The woman shows remarkable fortitude. Suddenly, we are not so intimidating. The reader may take one more step forward.

Here is another:

At the end of this column you will find a link to a fictional story. It is entertainment, with just a whisper of harness racing. The piece, which ran several years ago in TROT Magazine, is palatable to people who do not know us. When first published, the story was restricted to a few thousand Canadian harness race fans. Today, with a few taps of your finger, you can easily forward it to potential converts anywhere in the world, another crumb to lead to our bridge.

Hard-core fans will find this type of material superfluous and silly. Editors may be uncomfortable with material that does not directly relate to harness racing.

Modern readers no longer pore over every word. They have become grazers, adept at filtering material in or out after a paragraph. When space is unlimited and costs are negligible, nontraditional content becomes more addition than costly drag.

The industry, led by the USTA, has taken steps in the right direction with the Harness Racing Fan Zone, a website designed to be the first level in the funnel to convert harness kindergartners to harness grad students. It ties into social media–the Harness Racing Fan Zone Facebook page has more fans than any other industry site–so it’s a cutting-edge way to get people involved and talking about racing.

The results will be difficult to measure. This is absolutely true. But the first part of any conversion is a smidgen of attention. This type of content offers small sparks — but sparks start fires. You may feel it is a million to one that a woman in Oshkosh is going to read the suggested Casie Coleman post, or the sample fictional story, and eventually become a harness race owner, trainer, or gambler. And you would be correct.

However, those odds would be phenomenal. If one in a million found us, we would reap seven thousand new fans in America. If one in a billion places a foot onto our bridge, it is well worth the cost — which is basically zero.

No sparks, no fires.

Here is the link to the story.