Mainers relish chance at handicapping event Hartt, Rossignol compete in national finals

They didn’t come back substantially richer in monetary terms, but Billy Hartt and Lisa Rossignol are certainly richer for their experience in the National Harness Handicapping Championship.

Hartt, president of Hartt Transportation and a Carmel native, and Rossignol, a governmental administrative assistant from Old Town, both represented Maine in the national contest sponsored by The Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey.

After winning the local qualifier run by Bangor Raceway and earning a free trip to Penn National’s resort at Hollywood Casino near Memphis, Tenn., for four days and three nights, the homework really began for the pair.

They spent a lot of time watching closed-circuit harness racing action from the Meadowlands in the weeks leading up to the April 22 contest, in which they were each given $400 in betting credit to try and pick winners in 10 races. The overall winner among the 108 contestants earned $50,000 with cash prizes also going to those finishing second through 10th.

Unfortunately, neither Hartt nor Rossignol finished in the money.

“I didn’t even look. It was that bad,” said the 43-year-old Hartt when asked where he finished overall. “I didn’t fare so well, but I had a great time. It was really well put together and they gave us first class treatment all the way.”

In fact, Hartt, who came down a day early so he and three buddies could spend a day at Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut, was allowed to bring all three friends along. Everyone got all the food and drink they wanted.

Hartt started well, despite picking the last-place horse in his first race. In the third, his horse won and Hartt was sitting in fourth place. After his fifth- race pick missed, he fell into the 20s and never rebounded.

“The worst thing was a guy I know who was from Maine works there and gave me a couple of horses to bet on. I didn’t bet on either of them and they both won,” Hartt said with a chuckle. “I don’t know why. I just thought I was smart, but I obviously wasn’t.”

Complicating things was the weather, which turned the track into a virtual mud bowl.

“It was real muddy, so that changed everything. It was a torrential downpour,” he said.

Still, Hartt said the two-day trip and the entire experience was fantastic.

And he’s already doing his homework to try and defend his title this year.

Spreading the wealth

On top of the 10 percent of all net profits produced by Hollywood Slots casino in Bangor that go to Maine’s harness racing tracks, Maine’s only two commercial tracks – Bangor Raceway and Scarborough Downs – have some more money coming their way.

Thanks to another four percent slice of the profit pie, which is further divided between Bangor and Scarborough based on the number of race dates and dashes each track applies for in the offseason, Bangor will be getting $35,766.02 and Scarborough $339,777.22, according to Maine State Harness Racing Commission chairman George McHale.

The money will be put into Bangor Raceway’s general account, according to general manager Fred Nichols.

“We’ve spent well over $300,000 in facility improvements so far the last few months so it’s nice to get a portion of that returned,” he said.

Since Bangor has 44 scheduled dates (up from 28 last year) this season and Scarborough has 126 (plus 20) race days, Scarborough gets the main share of the windfall, which is taken from Hollywood Slots’ net profits earned from Jan. 1 through April 30 this year ($9,388,581). Four percent of those profits came to $375,543.24.

Opening week reviews

Nichols couldn’t be much happier with the way things went for the track in last week’s opening weekend.

“The nice part was, Friday’s attendance was good, but Sunday’s attendance was even better and that’s not usually the case. There’s almost always some falloff,” Nichols said.

The reaction to the renovations and improvement done inside and outside the buildings and grounds was very positive.

“A lot of people hadn’t been here since last year with the live racing and we got some really nice compliments on it,” he said. “Many of these people have been coming for decades, and they’d seen gradual improvements over the years, but this was a quantum leap.”

Nichols said the renovations to the interior of the grandstand (new artwork, ceilings, paint and a brand new restaurant/food service area) got the most rave reviews.

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or at aneff@bangordailynews.net