During coronavirus pandemic, local horsemen find ways to make ends meet

The covid-19 pandemic has been tough for everyone to handle.

It has shut down businesses and forced everyone to adapt to a new way of life over the past few months. Harness racing at the Meadows Racetrack & Casino in Washington County is no different.

Covid-19 shut down harness racing at the Meadows on March 16, but the industry has received some good news. Racing restarted in Ohio last week and New York, Delaware, Indiana, Minnesota and Ontario have announced June reopening dates.

On Thursday, Kim Hankins, the executive director of the Meadows Standardbred Owners Association, said the track might be able to resume harness racing “within three weeks.”

“The representatives from the Pennsylvania Equine Coalition, which we are a member of, met with the governor’s staff,” Hankins said. “It was encouraging, some of the things that they said. So, we’re hopefully going to get back, it’s not wishful thinking, but it’s realistic thinking that we could be back to racing within three weeks.”

When harness racing returns to the Meadows, there won’t be fans in attendance and Hankins said the only income they will be making is from simulcast and online wagering since there will be no on-site betting. He also added there are several measures that need to be put into place for racing to reopen.

“We have to have protocols approved by the Department of Health here first, so there’s a process that needs to be done before we start,” Hankins said. “We are working with Meadows management to accomplish those things. There’s a lot of work to be done before we can get back, but we’re all pushing hard for it.”

Although trainers, owners and drivers can see a return to horse racing on the horizon in Pennsylvania, several have struggled since mid-March.

Drivers might have been affected the most because without any races, they have had to find different sources of income. When Ohio opened their race tracks last week, several drivers started crossing state lines to race. But before that, Hankins said he knew of drivers who were picking up jobs outside the industry.

“The drivers have no income because their only income is from driving the horses, the percentage of the purse that they get,” Hankins said. “So, several that I know of have had to go out and get jobs with Uber or Grubhub and things like that to help make ends meet.”

Gary Johnston, who has been involved in harness racing for around 45 years, trains and stables about 14 horses at the Butler County Fairgrounds. Before the coronavirus pandemic, he would make the hour commute to the Meadows three or four times a week for races.

Since racing was stopped, he only has been back to the track once and has found a way to makes ends meet.

“We had a couple good owners that stuck in there and that helped us quite a bit,” Johnston said. “We still had them coming in, so we had money coming in. But there were a lot of people that didn’t.”

The Evans City resident is still training horses and keeping them in shape for when racing returns. He trains each horse about once a week, running laps around the track, and he also has helped owners by reducing prices.

“It’s just something that we’ve had to deal with, and we’ve done it the best way we could,” Johnston said. “We didn’t have to get rid of anybody or anything. We just had to watch what we bought, what we paid for. We struggled just like everybody else.”

Bill Kreutzer, a Rural Valley resident who has been involved with harness racing for 45 years, is a trainer and owner. He said although the coronavirus pandemic has stopped racing, it has been business as usual — without any income.

“It’s probably affected me like it’s affected everyone else,” Kreutzer said. “The only difference for us is we can’t close our barn doors and walk away. Our animals need tended to every day. On top of that, they are not just sitting idle. We need to keep them exercising to stay in form. We just keep training and keeping them in shape with nowhere to race.”

The horsemen aren’t alone, though, as the Meadows owners association has developed initiatives to help them through this time.

To start, Hankins said they have provided Meadows management with payments to keep the track and backstretch open so they can train the horses that are stabled at the Meadows. They have also waived premiums for insurance the past three months for horsemen who participate in the owners association’s health insurance plan.

Now, all the horsemen can do is wait for harness racing to resume, and they are itching for the opportunity to get back on the track.

“We’re very excited to get back,” Kreutzer said.