ACROSS THE BOARD by Steve Davidowitz
for TrackMaster - August, 2009

The month of July is sliding by quickly. It was a month as usual that was accented by the natural letdown that occurs after the Triple Crown’s annual end in June. Yet at the same time, the letdown was as always short lived. During the past 10 days, we saw the annual shift to the nation’s two most popular race meets, Del Mar in southern California and Saratoga in upstate New York.

Both of these meets often are described as ‘boutique race meets’, but that is unfair. Saratoga simply offers the highest quality racing has to offer on most of its 36 racing dates through the Labor Day weekend and Del Mar, this year with a reduced five day race week, will conclude with 37 dates one racing day after the Labor Day holiday.

As July turns to August, Arlington Park is rapidly moving closer to its signature racing day when $1 million will be on the table for world class grass horses in the historic Arlington Million and the two other Grade 1 races, the $750,000 Beverly D. for fillies and mares and the $400,000 Secretariat Stakes for 3 year olds will attract international participation.

Frankly, while Million Day is a world wide event, and Saratoga and Del Mar are well known to horsemen and punters in Europe, I believe the managements of all three tracks have plenty work ahead to promote their respective assets for the one area of racing that rapidly has been gaining customers, almost in spite of itself.

INTERNET WAGERING.

Last week while I was at Canterbury Park for Claiming Crown, I had a revealing conversation with Richard Krueger, the executive secretary of the Minnesota Racing Commission, a man I have known since I covered racing for the Minneapolis Star Tribune in the mid and late 1980’s.

While discussing the feasibility of Internet wagering in Minnesota, Krueger explained that the existing pari-mutuel laws in his state “would not allow any form of wagering on horse races that does not occur on track.”

How archaic that is. How counter-productive and how much of an impediment to the sport’s health and potential growth are laws that prohibit tracks in any state from offering its product on the World Wide Web.

There are a few clear cut reasons why very few states have changed their laws to open the Internet for wagering on horse racing.

* The laws that first permitted pari-mutuel racing were created decades before the Internet came into existence. This fact alone argues for a reappraisal of what is and should be legal. Yet, don’t hold your breath for state legislators to take what they consider to be political risks to open up pari-mutuel laws for honorable and sensible review. Don’t expect them to go against the right-wing, ultra religious element in their home districts who hypocritically are “against the expansion of gambling” while they simultaneously support legalized state lotteries that have huge media advertising budgets to reach across state lines.

In virtually every instance I have come across that deals with this issue on a practical level, the right-wing element that suppresses any attempt by racing to help itself, inevitably comes down hard on the sport’s leaders for failing to do just that — help itself. Meanwhile, many of the same anti-racing politicos and ‘concerned citizens’, have tacitly or actively permitted more and more casinos in their midst - casinos that do not have racing’s history of contributing to the community at large or its culture. Quite simply, casinos also lack productive ties to the multi billions of dollars in annual agri-business invested in the breeding and raising of the running horse. Likewise, short sighted anti-racing lobbyists and legislators fail to appreciate the numbers of jobs required to grow and transport the hay and oats that feed racehorses as well as the thousands of track employees who service the sport’s fans.

Racing need not blame legislators however. Too often, the sport’s leaders look in the wrong direction to build up the fan base while seeking stop gap measures to keep some tracks afloat.

Whereas slot machines have boosted purses at several tracks in states that cooperatively legalized slots a decade ago, the numbers of contemporary tracks seeking slot machines has increased to the point where the impact is bound to be diluted, if not an apocalyptic foreshadowing to the end game of this 400 year old sport.

Consider how, if slots prove so effective, legislators will seek to eliminate racing to maximize the tax revenue that slots are generating.

Consider also as hinted above, there is going to be a saturation point. Fact is, that point already is being felt in some states with slots, a saturation point where no appreciable gain in projected revenue is being realized and none will be forthcoming in a few more years of slot expansion.

It is my judgment, and I know I am in the minority now, but I believe strongly that racing would be better off trying to expand on-line wagering access rather than repeatedly banging its collective head against stone walls, seeking more slot machines.

Even in the blue grass racing state of Kentucky - where Churchill Downs has sought slots to bolster its purse structure - the state legislature has stopped the track in its tracks. While I would not argue that the Kentucky State Legislature did Churchill any service by its refusal, it is imperative that Churchill officials stop crying about it and begin to actively pursue a much more effective, more comprehensive Internet wagering presence that could reach around the world. The same is true I believe for all other racetracks in America, if not throughout the world.

While we have Saratoga and Del Mar; the Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup and perhaps a few dozen other world class racing dates each year, including Arlington Million Day and Calder’s Summit of Speed in America; the Melbourne Cup and the Japan Cup in Asia; Prix de’l Arc de Triomphe in France; Ascot in England and the Dubai World Cup on the Arabian peninsula, all of these events and race dates should be the centerpieces of a world wide Internet based network of wagering that could generate sums never before seen in racing history.

And why not?

Japan and other racing countries in the Orient have been using the Internet for more than a decade to generate handles upwards of $100 million every weekend. Can you imagine the world wide handle on the Kentucky Derby or Breedrs’ Cup if Internet wagering were openly permitted?

Can you imagine the numbers of new racing fans who would come into the game if tracks with Internet wagering would commit to a series of lucrative handicapping contests that could offer hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize a dozen times a year, just as poker does about 20 times a month?.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a day at Saratoga. Fact is I love a month of live racing there just as I have loved partial meets at Del Mar with side trips to Arlington Park and/or Canterbury Park whenever possible to be there for their best racing days. But in my judgment, the sport as a whole is wasting time and energy pursuing slots with such feverish intent, getting frustrated so often by so many hypocritical roadblocks. There is no doubt in my mind the sport would do far better in the long run by concentrating on exploring its chief asset—the skillful game of handicapping--- as opposed to relying on revenue derived from gambling devices that rely strictly on luck while separating players from their wallets at a terminal rate.

Horse Racing involves luck too, but at its core, it is a game of skill that easily rivals poker and it is time for the sport to wake up and use the tools of contemporary communication to reach players and potential players around the world.

Forget slots. Instead, the sport should invest as much energy seeking legislative approval for the use of the best communication tool to come down the pike since the invention of television.

Forget slots at Saratoga, or Del Mar, or Arlington Park. Each of these premier tracks should go instead for unencumbered, world wide access to their respective wagering pools - on the Internet.

//STEVE DAVIDOWITZ

Please Note: Steve Davidowitz’ revised and updated 400 page hardcover book, ‘Betting Thoroughbreds for the 21st Century’ is now available at most bookstores and at numerous web sites, including amazon.com. Steve will be conducting Handicapping Seminars and book signings at Arlington Park Friday, July 31 and Sat, Aug 1; at Del Mar on Aug. 16 and Saratoga on Friday, Aug. 28 and Saturday, Travers Day, Aug. 29.