Final Turn : industry

'Slot Money Will End' - By Gary Fenton

aspradling — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:55:00 GMT

(Originally published in the February 19, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

GARY FENTON is the managing partner/CEO of Little Red Feather Racing, which is based in Los Angeles

One of my favorite things to read goes something like this: “The X State Y Report shows that over $1 billion in new revenue will occur from installing slots…”

No kidding.

Why don’t we just add marijuana dispensers while we’re at it?

Any business—from car dealerships to Starbucks—could say, “If we could only add a few slot machines, revenues would go up!”

I can’t argue that slots have not helped purses, but there’s no argument that slot money is anything but a handout from a subsidiary business, paying a vig. It has little to nothing to do with actual horse racing, and there has been no crossover marketing because slot players have not become horse players.
There are no free lunches, horse fans.

Either we figure out how to stand on our own two feet or the downward spiral will continue. We are welfare to the slot companies, living on borrowed time, and we need to get our house in order. How long do you think we have before more states such as Indiana decide the added purse money could go to better places—such as schools?

I have also read a few other proposals that make me laugh.

“Hey, let’s build a mall next to the race track.”

I actually like this one. What else am I supposed to do waiting 40 minutes between races? But that’s a bridge with traffic going the wrong direction. The track is simply a kiosk. Do Crate and Barrel shoppers leave a little extra time to catch the fifth race? I doubt it.

What about this one: “If only we could privatize and create a league like the NFL!”

Good one, people, but if you think the government….excuse me the nine different governments are collectively going to deregulate their biggest revenue generator—gambling—then let’s all start our own lottery.

The solution is and has always been about building a better product to a new generation. Let’s get back to the basics.
Every day one of our (elderly demographic) customers is dying….and we are not replacing them. This is amazing, considering the sport has seen generation after generation pour into racetracks for more than 100 years.

What happened? Basics.

We stopped spending on infrastructure. Speaking of the NFL, the San Francisco 49ers just announced plans to build a new stadium with HD monitors in every seat that can also communicate with other fans. At the racetrack I still have to walk to a betting window (and wait behind someone handicapping at the teller) and then watch the race on my non-HD broadcast TV. It’s OK for a racetrack to have a 1950s feel, provided it doesn’t still look like the 1950s!

We haven’t upgraded the game. Name another sport or area of entertainment—besides a Wagnerian opera—that a) takes five hours to complete and b) is played consistently during the workday? Every sport, including baseball, sped up games and moved to nights and weekends. Friday night at Churchill Downs isn’t a fluke. Sure, having 15 minutes between races may cause handle to go down, until, that is, twice as many customers are betting on the races.

We couldn’t even get it right when we got it right. Look at advance deposit wagering. It’s is the only form of legalized gambling online in the United States, and we’ve been fighting with each other since Day 1—and watching patrons leave the track for a better experience at home.

Finally, the leaders in our industry stopped…well, leading. We don’t need one main central office to oversee the sport. We just need one state to solve its problems and, trust me, the other states will follow. It wasn’t just me watching Monmouth last summer. The entire industry tracked its progress and was ready to duplicate it. We need one state to stand up to the unions and horsemen and breeders and ADW companies and track owners and take charge…in a positive way.

People, it’s time to wake up. Food Truck Day in the infield at Santa Anita is great…but not when the 5,000 added patrons do not find a sport worth coming back for.

Want New Fans? Make It Simple - By Gary Popoli, Ph.D.

aspradling — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:50:00 GMT

(Originally published in the January 22, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

GARY POPOLI, Ph.D., has been a racing fan and handicapper for 40 years

Why hasn’t the Thoroughbred industry done everything in its power to make the game simpler instead of more complex? And why hasn’t Thoroughbred racing taken a hard look at every facet of the game that would enhance the possibility of luring new fans rather than driving them away?
In an industry that is not only desperate for new fans but hard-pressed to hold on to the ones it has, racing has unknowingly created yet another obstacle for patrons to overcome—the types of bets that one can make and the denomination of those bets.

Racing has created such a level of diversity among racetracks and their betting options that patrons new and old continue to wonder why there are different types of bets and different minimums for those wagers depending on the track. Racing as an industry needs to realize a more simplified, unified, and universal betting menu is much more appealing to the fans than the present “a la carte” betting options being offered. Creativity in providing fans with a variety of exotic betting options is one thing, but having different options at different tracks for different minimums is confusing and puzzling to say the least. It can be downright discouraging to bettors.

In today’s world of slot machines, table games, poker rooms, and sports betting, racing must make attracting new fans and keeping the ones it has its top priority. Otherwise, the sport will collapse. Bettors, especially new ones, are looking for uniformity, not inconsistency. Just understanding all of the different bets at one track is challenging enough. The novice bettor at a racetrack is similar to the first-time craps player. The endless variety of wagers to be made on each roll of the dice can be more than intimidating; it can be frightening to the point that the potential new customer simply gives up and walks away from the table.

With so much wagering being done online and with fans’ having access to multiple tracks, the novice racing fan faces a plethora of bets and different minimum wagers. For example, isn’t it confusing that tracks in West Virginia offer only $.50 superfectas, Maryland tracks only offer $1 superfectas, but tracks in New York, California, Florida, and Kentucky all offer $.10 superfectas? In addition, Indiana and Kentucky tracks offer $.50 Pick 3s, but New York, California, Florida, West Virginia, and Maryland offer only $1 Pick 3s. The list goes on, and the confusion mounts. Some tracks have only $1 Pick 4s; some have $.50. Some have $1 minimum win, place, and show bets; most others have a $2 minimum. Some tracks offer quinella wagering; some don’t. And only a select few tracks offer Pick 5, Place Pick 8, Pick 9, Pick 10, and Super High Five wagering. Unless one is a daily track patron who also wagers on multiple simulcast signals, the likelihood that one is familiar with and understands this list of options is huge.

The racing community is risking the loss of promising fans by complicating the core purpose of the patron’s attendance, which is betting. How nice it would be for the new as well as the experienced bettor to be offered a standard betting “menu” that carried with it standard “fare.”

Suppose all tracks in the United States offered the same 10 wagers for the same minimal bet? For instance, what if every racetrack in the country offered win, place, show, and Pick 6 wagers for a minimum of $2; daily double, exacta, triple, Pick 3, and Pick 4 wagers for a minimum of $1; and superfectas for a minimum of $.10? The simplest approach is the best approach.

Removing as many barriers in the racing industry as possible and making the game simpler can only help to lure more fans to its base. If the potential new fan becomes discouraged and walks away from the sport because of its complexity just like the new craps player, the fan base will continue to decline and eventually fade away altogether. The sooner we can standardize as many aspects of the game as possible on a national level, the better.
Would it be safe to say “united they will stand and divided they will fall?”

Reconnecting - By Rick Gold

aspradling — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:53:00 GMT

(Originally published in the December 4, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Rick Gold is CEO of a California high-tech company and a partner in Bourbon Trace Stables

We’re all familiar with the litany of problems facing our sport: declining attendance, wagering, and foal crops—a vicious cycle of key indicators. Recent issues of The Blood-Horse have contained numerous articles analyzing these problems and offering suggestions to fix them. The proposals seem to focus on slots, Instant Racing, higher takeouts, lower takeouts, or national advertising. Most recently, we saw a detailed analysis of regional demographics with implications for targeted advertising to attract new owners.

I respectfully submit that these analyses and proposals completely miss the point. Ultimately, they all treat fans, horseplayers, and owners simply as ATMs to be milked. The discussions all assume with brighter lights, flashier advertising, and slicker betting options we’ll be able to pull more dollars out of more people.

These are all important topics, but they ignore what sets Thoroughbred horse racing apart from other sports and other gambling options: the beauty of an equine athlete in motion. While our industry snickers at the inaccuracies in the movie “Secretariat,” millions of Americans are coming away with tears in their eyes. While our industry is preoccupied looking down its collective nose at synthetic surfaces, thousands of people who have never watched a horse race before are screaming for Zenyatta.

We will only get this industry moving “upward and to the right” when we begin to help each potential fan, horseplayer, or owner to make that personal connection. The bad news is that we do a horrible job of it today, but there are some relatively simple and inexpensive improvements.
For instance:

• I showed up at Hollywood Park at 8 a.m. on a recent Saturday hoping to see Zenyatta gallop. This was just after her 19th win just as the Breeders’ Cup buzz was starting to build. So what did the guard tell me? “Sorry, sir, I can’t let you in without a (state) license.”
You’ve got to be kidding.

The track has a “railbird” program on Sundays but is otherwise closed to the public in the morning. How much would it cost to open it up? How much Zenyatta swag could they sell? With a little bit of marketing, this could be a great opportunity to get people exposed to the “inside game.” Belmont and Saratoga do a slightly better job than the California tracks, but even there the morning programs are sporadic and poorly promoted.

• Our industry does little to promote our stars: horses, jockeys, trainers. Very few top trainers even have a website or blog with accessible content. Our tracks have lots of online information describing exotic betting options but almost nothing on the sport itself. It is interesting to contrast Thoroughbred racing with sled dog racing, another of my passions. That sport spends a tiny fraction of the dollars, but if you check out the website of the Iditarod Trail Committee, or top mushers Martin Buser or Aliy Zirkle, you’ll see exciting content that puts horse racing to shame. Mike Smith’s “helmet cam” ride on Zenyatta, posted by trainer John Shirreffs, sends a chill down my back every time I see it. I’ve sent a link to this video to friends who have then gone to the track for the first time in their lives.

• Except for big days, the stands at most tracks are all but empty. Yet it is frequently difficult to get a good seat in a box or Turf Club. Baseball and football teams learned several years ago to embrace StubHub! and other resale opportunities to fill unused season-ticket seats in a fan-friendly way. It’s a win-win-win.

• The Iditarod, mentioned above, also makes it easy for fans to sign up as volunteers. In exchange for a VIP pass that lets them get behind the lines, hundreds of people work 4-16 hour days doing everything from security to logistics. Maybe Breeders’ Cup could do something similar on a smaller scale.

I believe the first step is to start treating potential fans and owners not as statistics but as individuals to be welcomed into this amazing game. We have only barely begun to take advantage of the new technology at our disposal to help them make a connection. There is no sport on earth that offers the thrills of Thoroughbred racing. It’s up to us to spread the word.

Racing: 'We're Here' - By Maria Michalak

aspradling — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:56:00 GMT

(Originally published in the November 13, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Two years ago I was watching the 134th Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) unfold from the living room. I, like so many others, fell in love with a beautiful gray filly named Eight Belles. Eight Belles made me proud, running like a princess, finishing strong, and then, as most people remember all too well, leaving thousands in tears when she suddenly broke down after the race.

Some will tell you that Eight Belles turned them away from racing; it was the opposite for me. Eight Belles won a piece of my heart Derby weekend. She made a lasting impact on my life, brought about positive change, and brought people together. I wouldn’t ever trade my moments of cheering for her. There won’t be another Eight Belles; she was one in a million. But there will be others that come along to touch my heart, and I don’t want to miss them.

Some friends and I just returned from an amazing trip to Lexington, where we visited Keeneland, Lane’s End, Gainsborough, Three Chimneys, Airdrie, and Taylor Made. The reason I was in Kentucky? Eight Belles. She’s also the reason I made a trip to Churchill Downs in 2008 to attend her memorial ceremony and the reason my family and I drove to Kentucky again for the 2009 Kentucky Derby to cheer for a horse from her trainer’s barn, Friesan Fire.

As Eight Belles’ biographer, I’ve been blessed in getting to know more about her. The more I’ve learned about her, her human family, and her fellow equine athletes, the more I’ve fallen in love with her world, the Thoroughbred industry.

While I was in Lexington, it occurred to me how much fans hear about the dark side of the industry and how little they hear about the good things, good people, and great horses that make the industry worth loving.

I’m constantly asked questions about the industry. I’ve found the best way to spark interest is to share the things to smile about. I tell them about the outrider at Keeneland who stopped to let a little girl pat his horse, the happy horses I’ve seen, their loving owners, the gorgeous farms in Kentucky, and organizations such as the Thoroughbred Charities of America that help so many horses.

For those who believe there aren’t any youth interested in the Thoroughbred industry anymore—I’m 17, and this industry has become one of my greatest loves. I got interested in horse racing during Hard Spun’s campaign, and since then my interest has turned into full-blown obsession. I like to tell people that my idea of fun is waking up at 5 a.m. to hotwalk horses (for friends of mine at the racetrack, when I’m lucky enough to visit them).

There are other young people like me. My brother is 15 and is a living, breathing horse-racing encyclopedia. He wants to own racehorses someday. The love of my 13-year-old sister’s life is Curlin, and she keeps up with our favorite trainer, Cindy Jones, as well as I do. My other two sisters, ages 10 and 5, both have favorite racehorses and scream and hug when they win. My 10-year-old friend bought pink and green accessories for her pony to match the colors of Zenyatta’s silks. A 16-year-old friend of mine in Wisconsin has battled anorexia, and her greatest inspiration to recover has been her No. 1 love, Hard Spun. She dreams of being a part of the Darley Flying Start program someday.

Now you know. We are out here. We don’t own horses yet, but we call some of your horses “ours” and lose our voices cheering for them and for you. We don’t exercise-ride or ride races yet, but we put our English stirrups high and gallop through the fields to see what it feels like. We don’t breed horses yet, but we look at pedigrees to find the perfect stallion for our favorite mares, and when our favorite mares deliver their foals, we call those babies “ours” and dream big for them. We aren’t training horses yet, and the only fractions we understand are eighths, due to keeping up with so many horses’ workouts. We dream about reaching the heights some of you have reached or going even higher, and, someday, some of us will.

Many of the articles we read about the industry seem to say the sport could disappear tomorrow. I am here to say it won’t because there are some of us in the next generation who love it, plan on enjoying it forever, and having a future in it.

Maria Michalak is 17-years-old, lives in Moravian Falls, NC, and is the author of "Eight Belles: Triumph Beyond the Wire." While Maria competes in both English and Western horse shows, her favorite thing to do is a simple trail ride.