By Dan Messerschmidt
CCN Sports Director
BUCYRUS — Harness racing is on the rebound and Crawford County Fair Treasurer Tom Laughbaum couldn’t be happier.
Recently on virtual life support, harness racing is making a comeback. Once a three-night staple at Crawford County, the trotters dropped down to one day for a few years.
But for the past several years, harness racing has been increased to two nights at the local fair and it’s not cyclical or a coincidence.
“There’s money being pumped into it by the Ohio Harness Horsemen’s Association because of all the electronic gambling machines and so forth,” Laughbaum said. “Part of that comes to harness racing in Ohio. That has helped tremendously.”
With the increase in funds for the owners, trainers and drivers comes bigger purses for the winners. And money is a big drawing card.
“The purses are back up, so horses and breeders are coming back into Ohio,” Laughbaum said. “We don’t have the most number of races this year. There are about seven or eight other places (in Ohio) racing today too.”
Laughbaum is glad that Crawford County weathered the storm of the racing downturn and was able to maintain some continuity.
“There’s so many people jumping back into racing that had actually gotten out,” Laughbaum said. “These are bad dates we have at the moment, but we’re happy. Racing is coming back, we’re back to two days, and we’re getting some money to do some things as well as racing.”
Laughbaum is now even dreaming of returning to the golden age of racing that made three days of racing attractive to the fair committee.
“We’ve had visions of going back to three days,” Laughbaum said. “I’m not sure if it’s going to happen or not. We put in a bid for another series to race here. That may help us to raise another night, I’m not sure.”
For the moment, racing is at the least stabilized and continues to be a staple for the Crawford County Fair.
“We don’t lose any money on it like some of the other events we put on,” Laughbaum said. “We don’t gain much on it, but at the same time, we don’t lose anything. It’s steady and you can count on X amount of dollars coming in. We’re glad we kept racing when other fairs were getting out of it.”
As Laughbaum noted, it can be exciting even if a person is not wagering.
“It’s still exciting. When races are finishing, everybody runs up there,” Laughbaum said. “Kids are yelling and screaming. It’s fun to watch.
“The younger generation’s not getting into it the way some of the other ones were,” he added. “But still they come running over when there’s a finish that’s close. And you can relax and sit in the cool.”
There were eight races on Wednesday with the highest purse of $10,098 dollars coming in the seventh race. The exacta in the second race paid out $61.20.
The winner in the third race paid $12.60 for a two-dollar bet and the quinella in the fifth race paid $68.80. Five locally owned horses ran Wednesday. Unfortunately, none of them finished in the money.
Thursday will see a nine-race card with post time for the first race scheduled for 6 p.m.