After 60 Years We Say Goodbye

The Jackson Harness Raceway could have gone on if the state had taken care of them, instead after 60 years they have had to close their doors from lack of support. Almost everyone has some sort of story about their days at the track, some beautiful memory, however, when they needed us the most, we let them down, and we let them go.

Their West Virginia owners pulled the plug on them last Thursday, saying that they just couldn’t afford to keep the track open any longer. The track had been having problems getting people in since the 1990’s, and just couldn’t keep people coming. There were two small words that should have been spoken to the track that were not, and those are “slot machines.”

The track had been begging the state for years to give them slot machines as they have not been able to compete against the casinos without them. However, time and time again they were denied the ability to get slot machines. Michigan’s government let them linger for years, until finally they voted to allow the slot machines to come in four years ago.

The casinos however, didn’t want the competition from the track, and they bankrolled a ballot proposal to keep slot machines from coming to the track. Residents did little to help, voting against the slot machines as well and thus sealing their fate. With slot machines helping so many other tracks around the country, the least they could have done is shown the big casinos that we take care of our own – but that never happened. And so, they are gone, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

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