by Dean A. Hoffman

A trainer one time lamented to me, “You know, Dean, you spend all winter developing a nice pacing colt and think you’ve really got something special. Then you take him to the races and he gets his brains beat out because there are a thousand pacers better than he is.

“But spend the winter developing a nice trotting colt,” he continued, “and when you take him to the races, you find out that you can make some money.”

It’s just an anecdote, of course, but there is a lot of truth to it and more and more people are apparently thinking along the same lines. That’s one of the reasons you might be noticing more trotters at your local track.

In 2005, there were 37,516 harness horses that started in races, and 28 percent of them were trotters. Using the invaluable USTA Trotting & Pacing Guide as my reference, I checked the stats for 1985 to give me a look back at how things were 20 years ago. (I’m using 2005 stats because these stats are not yet available for 2006.)

In 1985, there were 57,417 harness horses that started, and only 18 percent of them were trotters. (As a side note, it’s distressing to see that the number of horses starting in the past two decades has dropped about 35 percent.)

What caused the increase in trotting percentages? It might just be earning power.

In 1985, the average trotter earned $644 per start, while the average pacer earned $394. Yes, that’s 63 percent more per start for trotters. Could you blame a trainer or owner for wanting to train a few more trotters?

In 2005, the average trotter earned $1,013 per start, versus $774 per start for pacers. That $239 might not seem much by itself, but it shows that the average trotter still earns 31 percent more per start than its pacing counterpart. Multiply that by the thousands of trotters racing each year and the disparity is indeed significant.

A horse earning $1,013 per start isn’t always going to make its owner rich, but what about horses at the top end of the sport? In 2006, there were five millionaires in the sport, and four of them — Glidemaster, Majestic Son, Sand Vic, and Passionate Glide — were trotters.

At the yearling sales in 2006, trotters were clearly in great demand. Even though there are far more pacers going through the sales ring, last year 16 yearling trotters brought bids of $200,000 or more, while only two yearling pacers fetched such high sums.

This frenzy for trotters was fueled to a great extent by resurgent interest from European buyers. But even North American buyers know that if they buy a first class yearling trotter, and it achieves success on the track for a few years, there is a solid secondary market in the export trade to Europe. Only a handful of pacers are exported.

They’re still greatly outnumbered in the sport, but trotters are doing quite well in their return on investment for owners.