Last harness racing track entering final stretch run?
Lawmakers mull measure decoupling slots and card games from harness races, other sports
POMPANO BEACH — On any given Sunday, you’re likely to find Gene Pytko at the track. He has come for the action, but his sport of choice is not Thoroughbred racing.
Pytko is one of a dwindling — but devoted — group of hardcore fans who regularly flock to the grandstand at Isle Casino Pompano Park for the harness races.
He sits in the stands at an outdoor table, perusing the racing program and circling entries, deeply immersed in the information-gathering process that precedes making his bets.
If you’re unfamiliar with the sport, you’re not alone. The track at Pompano Park is the lone facility in Florida that features harness racing.
The action on the racetrack conjures images of chariot races in ancient Rome as horses pull two-wheeled carts, each occupied by a “driver” (much like a jockey), who maneuvers the horse as it speeds around the facility’s ⅝-mile oval track.
The sport is a welcome refuge for fans like Pytko. As the 68-year-old retiree scans the crowd, glimpsing his contemporaries, he doesn’t just see a haven for bettors, he sees a social hub for like-minded people.
Seating accommodates a few thousand, but on this night, Pytko is one of about 250 attendees. This isn’t how it used to be at the place once dubbed the “Winter Capital of Harness Racing.”
Soon after Pompano Park opened in 1964, it was jam-packed with thousands of fans. Along with everyday, working-class people, there were celebrities in attendance, such as entertainer Jackie Gleason, and star athletes such as New York Yankees greats (and party animals) Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford.
Old-timers even recall a time before Pompano Park opened, back when the city was a training facility. It housed about 1,250 horses, a one-mile track, and a halfmile track.
Unfortunately, Pytko and his ilk might soon be losing their temple. It seems the sport’s fate is in the hands of politicians, and the future doesn’t look good.
A measure likely to be considered in Florida’s legislative special session in May, when the body ponders sports betting, could approve decoupling, which would probably mean the end for harness racing at Pompano Park — and in Florida — given that it’s the only place for harness racing in the Sunshine State.
If decoupling is approved, Florida’s pari-mutuel facilities wouldn’t be required to “couple” slots and card games with harness races, quarter horse races, or jai alai matches.
Peter Blood, a longtime horse owner, driver and trainer, who is a member of the Florida and New England Harness Racing Halls of Fame, believes coupling played a significant role in the near-demise
of harness racing in Florida.
“We can’t stand on our own because we paid our own assassins,” Blood said.
Pompano Park “was probably the nicest facility on the planet” in the late ‘60s, he added.
A few yards away from the sparse crowd in the now-gritty, old-school grandstand area, about 1,000 people are inside the modern, air-conditioned casino at Pompano Park, filling tens of poker tables and playing dozens of slot machines.
Dave Paulik, a 54-yearold Pittsburgh native and self-described “lifelong gambler,” has been a regular at Pompano Park since 2001.
He suspects the casino owners want everyone playing slots because it produces more money.
“They don’t want to play the slots,” Paulik said of fellow harness racing fans. “They like the live action.”
And they love going to the track. Harness racing roots run deep in Pompano Beach.
Longtime Pompano Beach resident John Johns, 69, also a former driver, remembers the glory days of the 1960s and ’70s. He started racing at Pompano Park in 1968.
He’s now in the paving business but he’s a harness racing regular, going to the track almost every night it hosts live racing.
At this time of year, Pompano Park runs races on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights, starting at 7:20 p.m.
Joe Pennacchio, secretary to the board of the Florida Standardbreeders and Owners Association (FSBOA), posited his theory on why the sport is at-risk.
“It always comes back to the money,” he said.
Casino gambling, many say, would be more lucrative than harness racing.
“The situation is they want to focus on a casino,” said Dein Spriggs, president of the Florida Amateur Driving Club.
Development is also a possibility on some of the land at Pompano Park, Pennacchio said.
Meanwhile, it’s a waiting game for devoted fans.
They’re holding onto hope that an 11th-hour miracle in the Legislature will save harness racing from extinction in the Sunshine State.
“This is a beautiful paradise down here in Pompano Beach,” Paulik said. “A lot of people would miss this place. Especially the retired guys.”
“They need somewhere to go at night,” Pytko added.
When asked to envision a future without harness racing, Pytko was at a loss.
“I don’t know what I’d do,” he said. “Be bored, I guess.”