Shrinking Starters - by Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:55:00 GMT

(Originally published in the May 16, 2009 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)

Speaking to shareholders May 7 via conference call, Churchill Downs Inc. president and chief executive officer Bob Evans said, “The solution for tracks without slots is to cut purses, to cut races, and race days, or to cut all three.”

At its signature track, Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., the company has already cut purses and races, and a published report May 10 indicated the track would request to reduce its live racing schedule from five days a week to four for the remainder of the meet that runs through July 5.

The fact is many horsemen are electing to run instead in states such as Indiana, West Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, where Thoroughbred purses are augmented by revenue from other forms of gaming.

On May 9, the Saturday following the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), Churchill had 62 starters in its 10 races, an average of 6.2 runners per race. During the first 12 days of the track’s spring/summer meet, the average number of starters per race was 7.55; excluding Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby days, the number drops to 7.31.

Also on May 9, the average number of starters per race was 7.83 at Charles Town Races & Slots in West Virginia, 7.11 at Delaware Park, and 8.11 at Indiana Downs (for its nine Thoroughbred races; the track also ran three Quarter Horse races with 10 starters in each event).

It has always been the case that every starter translates to higher handle, which in turn equates to more dollars for purses. But in today’s pari-mutuel world, it is even more important to have larger fields because more than 80% of dollars are bet off-track. In the days when on-track attendance mattered most, a bettor might not be intrigued by a four-horse field (Churchill had two four-horse fields May 9) but still might wager on the local product. Today, there simply are many more options; thus, a bettor who sees no more than six starters in a track’s first five races—as was the case May 9 at Churchill—may simply turn away and play another track’s races.

Unfortunately, Churchill Downs does not release its attendance or handle figures, but even without the numbers, it is easy to assume that handle is down significantly.

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear’s latest quote about the horse industry, repeated often in the past few weeks, is, “What we don’t want to happen is to become the former horse capital of the world. This is our signature industry, and we will aggressively protect it. We will remain the horse capital of the world as long as I am governor.”

Kentucky’s racetracks have been actively seeking slot machines at their facilities for more than a decade. Looking back 10 years, on May 15, 1999, the Saturday following the Kentucky Derby saw 10 races run at Churchill Downs with 8.8 average starters per race. On the same date five years ago, the 10 races run on the third Saturday of the meet saw an average of 8.2 starters per race.

Like most other states, Kentucky has a budget crisis. Later this month, the new revenue forecast will be unveiled. Yet despite the fact slot machines at Kentucky’s racetracks would protect the state’s “signature industry” by increasing tax revenue and saving thousands of jobs, another legislative session has come and gone without the passage of a bill to aid the men and women who make Kentucky famous for its horses.

Budget forecasting is a tough job in any economy, but it is especially hard in light of today’s economic conditions.

Without slots, one wonders what forecast the horse industry in Kentucky would project for the next five years.

Even without slots, Kentucky may not become, as the governor says, “the former horse capital of the world.”

But, without his support, Kentucky horsemen will help see to it that Steve Beshear becomes the “former governor of Kentucky.”

The Next Steps - by Dan Liebman

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:20:00 GMT

Alice Chandler has no intention of shooting craps in a fancy, glitzy casino. Wouldn’t be the same. Now 82, she harkens back to her youth when she would try to make her point in a tack room with the men on her dad’s Beaumont Farm. She loves recalling how at the tender age of 10, she won $600 and Triple Crown-winning jockey Smokey Saunders’ car.

“I came home bragging about it, and daddy made me give it all back,” she said smiling.

Daddy was Hal Price Headley, one of the founders of Keeneland and a famous breeder in his day. Today, Chandler’s Mill Ridge Farm near Lexington sits on part of the old Beaumont Farm. With land leased from her sister and brother, the 175 mares on the property roam 1,000 acres; her father had more than 4,000, much of it now subdivisions, shops, schools, and churches.

Chandler announced last week that her son, Headley Bell, was taking over the day-to-day operation of Mill Ridge. But Alice Chandler is not going anywhere.

“The time has come,” Chandler said from her farm office, her ever-present dogs by her side. “Really, Headley picked the time. I’m not as out there as I used to be. I’m tickled to death that there is someone ready to step in. I’m blessed to have four kids, and the three boys, Headley, Reynolds, and Mike, are all here working on the farm and are dedicated to the same ideals as myself.”

In fact, Headley Bell said, his generation and the next, the sixth on the property, are the ones who are blessed.

“Our intention is to keep going, whatever it takes,” he said. “We’re blessed to have this, and we all appreciate it.”

Chandler understands that times change and people—and industries—must change with them. But she likes to wax nostalgic. Where the Breeders’ Cup/NTRA offices are today used to be the site of a Beaumont Place training barn where Chandler schooled her jumper. She was practically raised at Keeneland, and with the track only a few furlongs from their land, she used to ride her pony down Versailles Road to the track each day after school.

She started Mill Ridge with less than 300 acres inherited from her father, and she had her first taste of success when selling a yearling colt by Sir Gaylord for $42,000 who turned out to be 1968 Epsom Derby winner Sir Ivor.

In recent years, Mill Ridge raised Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner Giacomo and champion filly Sweet Catomine. Countless other stakes winners were either bred, raised, or sold by the farm in the intervening years.

When her father died, Alice Chandler started with three of his employees, now deceased, who, she said, “were like brothers to me.”

Headley Bell understands that, stressing that those who board mares at the farm are not just clients, but friends, and the employees are part of the Mill Ridge family. The average tenure of those who work at Mill Ridge is 20 years.

Chandler passes along two pieces of advice, and not surprisingly, they were handed down to her by her father—don’t hothouse your horses and take care of the land.

“Daddy was all about keeping it as close to nature as you could; doing it the way the horse wanted,” she said. “Land was a fetish with him. He was careful with what he bought; he did not buy bad land. It was one of his keys. I hope that they (her children) can continue with the land they have. It’s all good land, and good land is hard to get ahold of.”

Few have experienced as much in the Thoroughbred industry as Alice Chandler. Sure, she had the pedigree, but she earned her place in the industry by hard work and good horsemanship.

“Back in the old days it was more for the horse and less for the money,” she said.

If we don’t remember that, we could all crap out.

What's Going On Here : slots

Shrinking Starters - by Dan Liebman

The Next Steps - by Dan Liebman