OPINION: The time has come for a full-blown casino at New Jersey’s Meadowlands Racetrack

You always hurt the ones you love, right? I criticize the Standardbred industry all the time in this column, for big mistakes and little ones, but I do it because I have been in love with harness racing since I started going to the backstretch at Blue Bonnets in Montreal in 1973. I do it because I want the sport to last so that my grandchildren can enjoy it. I do it because every now and again I am reminded of why the sport is worth saving, improving, expanding, so that the horses are safer, more cheaters are on the run, and tens of thousands of people can continue to make a living working around horses.