Horse Racing, Secretariat and the Lost Generation
by Jared L. Christopher on Feb 14, 2012 11:48 AM EST
in General Horse Racing
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Still sore over an unplaced bet (in spite of a hunch) in the BC Classic, I needed to blow off some steam. I wanted to see some races and make some bets. With the newly renovated and much hyped Bar & Book at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie only 30 minutes away, I decided to make the drive.
I pulled my truck into the near-empty lot and walked into the Pavilion. Once an aging, cavernous building that housed a wall of out-of-focus monitors and a fog of cigar smoke, the Global Gaming Solutions pet project was now a full blown Vegas-style spectacle. High-definition monitors as far as the eye could see, brand new betting terminals, a bar stocked with beer from all over the world and a dinner menu that would rival any sports bar in the metroplex. I didn’t even recognize the place.
I snagged a few programs and a copy of the Daily Racing Form and hunkered down at a cocktail table to go to work. I was there to bet on a few races, have a drink and call it a night.
"Hey, can I bum a light?" An old man in a pearl snap shirt and a pair of polyester slacks was looking up at me. He had to be pushing 80. A wrinkled faced hidden behind a pair of bifocals, a wisp of white hair combed over his head and a cigarette dangling from his mouth.
"I could’ve helped you five or six years ago," I told him. "But I gave that up when my son was born." I explained that the fancy new bar behind me was bound to have some matches or at least another smoker sitting at it. He nodded thanks and walked away.
Getting back to my programs, I found the next scheduled race and went through my analysis.
I traded money with the house in the first two races but I watched as the old man with the unlit cigarette cashed 2 back to back winning tickets. I couldn’t tell what kind of money he was making from my table but it was apparent he was making out okay. I stopped him as he walked by on his way back to his table.
"Sir, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" my journalistic curiosity got the better of me.
"What do you wanna know?" he asked.
I told him it looked like he knew what he was doing and asked him if what he thought of the fancy new renovation to the place. He made some small talk about how he only played exactas straight up and wasn’t big on weakening his dollar with a box "I know what I know!" he said multiple times. He claimed he liked the new building but wished they had added more restrooms instead of a "ridiculous" dance floor.
Then he said something that caught my attention.
"I don’t see many young bloods like you out here anymore!"
I’m 30 years old. Hardly young when you consider the legal age to make a bet at most tracks is 18. I looked around the room and realized how right he was. Nothing but men in their 50’s and 60’s.
I asked him why he thought that was.
"You know, this thing used to be called the sport of kings, now it’s just another form of entertainment. Most kids your age are more interested in football or the internet."
Pressing my luck, I asked him what he thought the sport could do to attract a younger demographic and keep itself relevant.
"Horse racing needs a savior, plain and simple," he said. "I’m talking about a great horse, another Secretariat or Affirmed. That’s what will shake this thing up. People keep talking about the small purses or the (lack of a tv presence)... but these are things that would change if some great horses would show up. And! if they would let the damn good one’s run past 3 years old!"
He asked me once again if I had a light. I reminded him that I didn’t but the bartender could help. He nodded and walked away.
Was it really that simple? I wondered if it was.
Baseball and Horse Racing used to be 1A and 1B in America. Now Baseball is a distant third to the NFL and the NBA with Horse Racing so far off the radar most people aren't even aware of its existence save for the first Saturday in May when NBC and the jet set show up for some face time and pretend to be interested for a few hours. Gambling revenue is down, small tracks produce even smaller fields with minuscule purses. Is the sport watering itself down? Has Horse Racing become irrelevant?
But then my mind drifted to that grainy film footage that I had watched so many times; the 1973 Belmont Stakes. And I remembered the feeling that I got, and still get, every time I revisit those images as Secretariat romps down the stretch, striding farther and farther away, all alone, with track announcer Chic Anderson shouting "and Secretariat is blazing along the first three-quarters of a mile in 1:09... Secretariat is widening now... He is moving like a TREMENDOUS MACHINE!"
The world's greatest golfer, Jack Nicklaus, was said to have wept in his living room while watching Secretariat stride for the wire. Poetry in motion, perfection personified. Nicklaus wasn't the only one to be moved to tears.
I realized my heart was pumping a little faster. And I understood that it was possible. If another Secretariat could emerge, it could once again capture the imagination of a generation. We are a people who are drawn to stories of greatness.
There is no doubt, the sport needs a face-lift, but it needs a Poster-boy to breath life into it first. It has been over 30 years since a Triple Crown winner has emerged. Horse racing needs a savior. A truly magnificent horse who transcends the sport, one that will once again inspire a generation. And if one can emerge, the cameras and the people will come... and their money will surely follow.
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When Horse Racing is really an Event
And an Event with a capital “E”, it draws a great audience. Matt summed it up best right here.
But you’re exactly right. When you match up the years where there was a triple crown contender (Triple crown being the easiest way to make a horse a phenom) it matches up perfectly with surges in attendance and TV ratings:
2008: Big Brown
2004: Smarty Jones
2003: Funny Cide
2002: War Emblem
I truly hope we see a horse reach that pinnacle again, and soon. Furthermore, I hope it’s a gelding so that it stays on the track a long time and can continue to bring people’s attention to the sport. I think one thing that really does help is the emergence of the most recent class of super-fillies with Rachel, Zenyatta, Havre de Grace, and several others that go out and beat the boys. Generally these outliers are great for the sport.
Now I just need to get my hands on one of those outliers!
Secretariat and "more"
I agree that racing needs another Secretariat but it needs more. It needs the racing gods to promote horses like Zenyatta, a “people’s horse” who was underpromoted by the establishment but followed heavily by the rest of us. Trouble is, these super horses soon disappear into the breeding barns.
What racing really needs is to get more, many more, daily bettors to show up at the tracks and the race books. To do this, they need to return more money to the bettors with each bet. The “takeout” for wagers is controlled by various fiefdoms and state agencies throughout the country. It’s not like the NFL where there is something resembling cohesion among the owners. They continue to return $4 for every $5 you bet, more or less. This is a lousy way to run a watering business if you want steady customers.
I live in Las Vegas. The casino bean counters here found out years ago when slots were declining that by decreasing the “takeout” to about 2 per cent, it increased churn and soon the slots were their biggest money makers. Slots and their permutations are still what drives Las Vegas today. You have to prime the pump (drop the takeout) before you can drink the water. Are you listening, racing gods?
I agree...
This kind of ties into the comment I wrote below but, the transition from eyeballs (people just watching occasionally) to bettors (people playing the game regularly) it really a key issue. It’s almost a “sizzle” and “steak” analogy. The Triple Crown winner or publicly famous horse (Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra) is the “sizzle” but the mechanisms in place throughout the industry (takeout, handicapping information, or anything else that playing into the handle) is the ‘steak’. Both are critical.
Welcome. Thanks for reading.
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
And Down The Stretch They Come | @PressThePace
by Matt Gardner on Feb 14, 2012 8:15 PM EST up reply actions
"watering" :-)
Of course, “wagering” would have been more appropriate (as if anybody cares)
I'd add a few things
I think one of the big issues with racing is the intentional obscurity of it all. While all the argot and racing form variation and incomprehensible exotics are fun by making the whole thing seem like a bit more of an esoteric black art than it really is, if people really want to make racing popular again, some simplification and explication on the part of the sport is needed. As is it, racing seems intentionally inaccessible. Frankly, even on a regulars-heavy off-day, 70% of the people at my local track (Fairgrounds) don’t seem to have much an idea as to what’s going on at all.
Similarly, the lack of access to accurate and free PPs and handicapping data I think really drags down the sport. The popularity of stuff like fantasy baseball is absolutely predicated on free data, and I think racing is setting itself up for insularity by paywalling everything.
(first post here, BTW, so.. hi everybody. Love the site!)
I love that it always comes back to this.
Where’s that old thread? I can’t link to it from my phone.
by TFTribe on Feb 14, 2012 5:10 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
I think this combines a couple of good thoughts...
There’s really (at least) at two-pronged scenario: 1) increasing the interest (big races, big horses, etc.) and 2) holding that interest into the future. Once you get people interested in the sport, for whatever reason, I think it needs to be easier to follow/play going forward.
Welcome. Thanks for reading.
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
And Down The Stretch They Come | @PressThePace
by Matt Gardner on Feb 14, 2012 8:11 PM EST up reply actions
CATALYST
You guys are right on the money. There are some basic, fundamental changes that need to take place in the industry. I’ve been aware for quite a few years of the decline of the racing scene but for some reason, the frankness of the gentleman caused me to look at this thing from a most basic level of need.
All of these changes, while absolutely necessary, will never even be approached by the powers that be because they lack the forsight to look past today. Big networks will not sign any TV deals until public interest demands it. The problem, quite frankly, is that tracks cannot figure out how to make money. In the old days the money was made at the betting window. Times have changed. They have to understand that their business model has to evolve WHILE KEEPING THE HORSES AS THE MAIN ATTRACTION. If they shove slot machines in every corner of the track, the slot machines become the attraction and the races that go off every 30 minutes become a secondary event that just so happens to take place in between pulls on the slots.
There are too many other opportunities to make money off of the sport that the big wheels are missing out on..
Now, if somehow, a few ‘Big Horses’ can come along and shock some life back into the public, the Powers That Be will have a reason to re-evaluate their model. The change that needs to happen needs a catalyst, a significant event if you will. Here is the catch, the Big Horse will present the opportunity for change, but at the end of the day, it is up to the industry leaders to grab hold of this spotlight and capitalize on it before it fades.
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment everyone!
Jared L. Christopher
@TheDerbyTrail
by Jared L. Christopher on Feb 14, 2012 9:18 PM EST reply actions
Slots (aka VLTs)
These are a way to infuse cash into purses and increase incentives for state breeding programs. The issue isn’t necessarily solved by adding slots/gaming, but it cannot hurt.
As an advocate of adding as much gaming as possible, I think it’s a great way to get people to the track. I think that layout has a lot of influence. In Indiana, the casino at Hoosier Downs is completely separate from the track, connected by a single walkway. But at Churchill, the slots parlor is directly behind the Simulcast area and you have to enter the track proper to get into the (proposed) slots area (which is completely constructed, it just needs to have the machines purchased and plugged in). Since I’ve never met anyone who didn’t have a great time at the track once exposed to the races, I think the CD approach is certainly the better one to not only attract gamblers, but to develop racing fans.
Yes, gaming is only a band-aid. Yes, table games/VLTs tend to attract a different type of bettor. Yes, state governments curtail much of the cash to pad the state coffers. The list of negatives is long, but I think the positives encourage enough growth that you have to accept it. Especially when considering that it gives certain states a competitive (economics term, not sporting term) advantage over others.
A superhorse won't be a panacea
But it would certainly help people get in the door. The NTRA should have promoted Zenyatta way more than they did, because though she was a needle mover in California, she could have been way bigger. The level of build up to the 2nd BCC should have been for the 1st, and then the match up with Blame would have been more like a Belmont with a TC in the balance (if not greater).
Nonetheless, that only gets people in the tent. Once there, you gotta keep them around. I’d say most, if not all, of us started following the sport because of a “big” horse. We each stayed for other reasons, while other people just watch 3-4 days a year.
Very true.
I agree on what happened with Zenyatta; I thought the industry was way too late in getting behind her. And I was always dismayed at some of the old guard in the industry that talk about the need for a famous horse and then when one comes along, like Zenyatta, many of them spend time telling us how overrated they are or how they aren’t as good as the greats of the past.
I think there is a balance to be found between ridiculous hype and general admiration of significant accomplishments.
Zenyatta accomplished more in her career than Uncle Mo ever even sniffed, yet the Uncle Mo hype and publicity machine (in the context of the short time-frame of his career and his accomplishments) was much more significant, in my opinion.
"A bad day at the track is better than a good day at the office."
And Down The Stretch They Come | @PressThePace
by Matt Gardner on Feb 15, 2012 2:56 PM EST up reply actions
I think a super horse would be a start. But it wouldn’t solve everything. Look at the last 4 horses that were mentioned above. Big Brown ran 8 times. Smarty 9. War Emblem 13. Funny Cide ran 38- but he was a gelding and he retired in 2007. Secretariat raced 21 times in his career, but he was also a Triple Crown winner. Without the staying power of a star, you aren’t going to draw in more people who will discover it.
There is also the issue of time. With the internet, people have less time to go to a track to watch and bet racing. The NFL, MLB, NBA, and even the NHL are all on TV. But its hard to find horse racing. I think the solution (though it’ll never happen) is online feeds for each track, with the betting betting done there or another online location. I’d know I’d bet a lot more if that happened.
2012 is the year of Philly sports teams.
Hello everyone, first post here. Accessibility is a huge issue. I have always been a racing fan, one that gets goosebumps and tears up. I suppose I am one of the few from the “younger” generation. I live hours from anywhere that I can bet or watch any races. I just have to settle for the major races that are broadcasted, and watch my own horses “race” in my fields. One is a great granddaughter of Secretariat, she is no hardship to watch.
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