Harness racing trainer Steven Nason is a long way from home.
The Freedom, New Hampshire, horseman pointed his truck and horse trailer south and hit the road in early November with the hopes of making a name for himself on the Delaware harness racing circuit.
The third-generation trainer and driver certainly has the lineage to meet that goal with both his father and grandfather being legends in the New England racing circuit.
Nason wouldn't mind being the third trainer/driver in his family to make it big in the sport. By all accounts, he's well on his way with more than 850 victories since starting his professional career in 2008 at Rockingham Park in New Hampshire.
"It's in your blood," said Nason, who along with many other New England trainer/drivers, trains his horses at Track View Farm in Hartly. "You can't shake it."
Arthur Nason started the family legacy, racing the New England circuit for years. In the early 1970s, he hit the big time with a horse named Mountain Skipper. "The Skippah" held nearly every record in New England.
Then, like his grandson, he took the show on the road, traveling to Roosevelt Raceway (Long Island, New York), Yonkers Raceway (Yonkers, New York), Liberty Bell Park Racetrack (Philadelphia), Laurel Raceway (Maryland) and even the now-closed down Brandywine Raceway near Wilmington, to name a few.
John Nason followed in his father's footsteps and has won well over 2,000 races over a long career. He recorded his 2,000th victory at Scarborough Downs (Maine) in 2010.
"My grandfather had one of the best horses in harness racing in Mountain Skipper," Steven Nason said. "He was the horse of the year multiple times and raced the grand circuit. And my father has been doing this his whole life. I'm trying to catch up to them."
Training in Delaware
Steven Nason looked at the training board last week hanging in the stables at Track View Farm and knew he was in for a long day of preparing his 11 horses for harness racing the next week at Dover Downs.
Nason, normally a driver on the New England circuit, came to Delaware to race at Dover Downs for the winter. He and his partner, girlfriend Nicole Hardy, have been in The First State since early November because there is no racing in Massachusetts this time of year.
"[Massachusets] is under about three feet of snow right now, which makes training tough," Nason said. "So, we come down here because it is easier to train horses and get them ready and gives them an opportunity to race."
When not in Dover racing or Hartly training, Nason and Hardy, along with many of the transplants, race April-November at Plainridge Park Casino (Maryland), and fairs in Maine and other New England events, among others.
Nason chose to bring his 11 horses (one he brings along as a stable mascot) to Delaware and Dover Downs not only because it affords him the opportunity to race them November-April, but also because of the reputation of the track and the size of the purses.
"Dover Downs is a top-class facility," he said. "They have four or five of the top drivers in the country race here. They put on a good show and their purses are good. You get a lot of top-class horses, drivers and trainers. It's pretty tough over there."
Dover Downs publicity director Marvin Bachrad agrees, saying Dover is the top track going during the winter months, featuring 14 races each day, Monday-Thursday.
Bachrad said Dover Downs features premier live harness racing from November through April and simulcast harness and thoroughbred racing year-round, making Dover one of the industry's go-to tracks.
"More than 400 outlets in the U.S. and Canada view our races via simulcast," he said. "We have the best harness racing this time of year."
Dover Down's season is set to end in just two weeks.
A troubled history
In his book entitled "The Great(er) Delaware Sports Book," author Doug Gelbert said in his historical account of Dover Downs that horse racing, "restricted to the bleak winter months, has proven somewhat less popular than the NASCAR oval encompassing it."
Gelbert said in his book that the first thoroughbred meet at Dover Downs in 1969 averaged only 2,775 fans, barely half of what was expected. Attendance topped out at 3,500 in 1972, but flat racing was gone from Dover Downs by 1975.
Harness racing fared somewhat better, according to Gelbert. Attendance was on par with the thoroughbreds and reduced expenses in the harness game allowed it to survive.
By the 1990s, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway & Casino were operating on limited weekend schedules, the historical account read. They were the last harness tracks still operating in Delaware, where once, only a score of years before, there had been four.
The oldest sport in Delaware was in danger of being put down.
In December 1995, the Horseracing Redevelopment Act gave people legal slot machines and Dover Downs fatter purses. Before the slot machines, Dover Downs would offer purses of $800, maybe $1,000, Gelbert's account read. With the infusion of slot profits, a 10-race program would average $150,000 in prize money for the night.
"Dover Downs made a meteoric rise in the sport when that happened," Bachrad said. "It became one of the top two or three tracks in the country."
With other tracks sprouting up in neighboring states and simulcast betting becoming more popular, Dover Downs lost some of its appeal, he said.
"Today, we don't get crowds as we used to," Bachrad said. "We used to draw 5,000 spectators a night in our heyday. We have seen a significant drop. Because of simulcast wagering, some of the other tracks around us are making money on Dover Downs."
Nason has seen the drop in attendance, but purses at Dover Downs have remained pretty steady, he said.
He said there will always be the loyal fans, but the industry needs to reinvent ways to draw new and younger fans.
"You definitely have your fans that are loyal to the sport and dedicated," Nason said. "Usually, if you go and watch one race, you are hooked. We try to bring our friends to bring new blood into the sport. They always come back."
Nason believes the biggest reason harness racing is surviving at Dover Downs is that the casino is helping maintain higher purses.
Currently, in open class races – which are the best – the purse is $25,000-$30,000, Nason said.
"The purses at Dover Downs have declined a bit over the years, but they still pay pretty well here," he said. "I don't want to say it is a dying industry because I don't want to believe it, but it's definitely declined a lot over the years.
A real gamble
Being a horse owner in harness racing isn't always fun and games. It's a lot of investment for sometimes very little return.
In Nason's case, a recent run of bad luck or no luck at all has him wondering about the future.
In 54 starts this season at Dover Downs, Nason has won $39,503 in purses, winning four races, placing in three others and showing in seven races.
"The work is intense, but the rewards are good if you win," Nason said.
And even that's a crapshoot, he says.
You can buy a horse anywhere from $1,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars. There is a big range, he said.
"I've been lucky enough to buy one for $1,500 and make $50,000, and I've been unlucky enough to pay $17,000 for a horse that made me only $1,600," Nason said. "It's a gamble. You are always looking for that horse that will make you money."
With the Dover Downs season coming to a close and the Harrington harness racing season nearly upon us, Nason and Hardy are hoping new scenery will mean better fortune.
"We've had a rough patch of racing here and have used a lot of savings," Nason said. "Unfortunately, you have to love it long enough to be in it forever. That's why we chase pensions (affiliation with different tracks) around and try to get those built up every year."
It's an industry in which Nason says you don't usually get rich, but it pays the bills and keeps him doing what he was seemingly bred to do.
"Maybe you can be that one racer who gets rich doing it," he said. "We keep striving for that. It's a risk, but it is fulfilling."
Reach Jerry Smith at jsmith17@delawareonline.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JerrySmithTNJ.
Reprinted with permission of Delaware Online