Racinos examined at HTA/TRA session

Are racinos simply purse builders or can they offer meaningful opportunities to broaden patronage? That question was addressed by five leading authorities in American horse racing on Tuesday morning at Harness Tracks of America’s joint meeting with Thoroughbred Racing Association in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Chris McErlean, former general manager of the Meadowlands and now with Penn National Gaming, said that racinos certainly can build purses, but noted that using them to build racing patronage at tracks is a greater challenge.

Jeff Gural of Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs said, “A lot of tracks wouldn’t be open without racinos.”

Gural said that there are two types of racinos and that his two New York tracks each have a different kind.

“Tioga is a new facility and was built with racing and the casino integrated,” he pointed out. “Vernon Downs is an old track and the casino was built separate from the track. You can go to the Vernon Downs’ casino and not even know you’re at a racetrack.”

He said that the racing facility at Vernon was old and in need of improvement while the casino facility is newer and much nicer.

Chuck Atwood of Harrah’s Entertainment said that he didn’t see much crossover between casino and racing customers. Charles Hayward of the New York Racing Assn. said that he thought that horse players and slots players were at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Bill Oberle, a member of the Delaware House of Representatives and considered the father of the pioneering slots bill in the First State, recognized a “symbiosis” between racing and slots.

“Slots infused capital into horse racing,” he said. “In the agribusiness model, slots created jobs and increased purses and thus the quality of racing at Delaware tracks.”

Gural argued that the business model of racing is broken.

“The more you race, the less (money) you race for,” he said. “The more you race, the less popular racing is. Year-round racing doesn’t work.”

Gural added that change in racing is not accomplished easily, even with bettors.

“It’s been tough to convince old horse players to use betting machines,” he said. “Even though they get points and rebates by putting a card into a betting machine, converting them to using betting machines is a slow process.”

Another Tuesday session was aimed at how tracks can regain major bettors who now bet through alternatives sites instead of track pari-mutuel pools. It was titled, “Swimming with Whales: Will they beach offshore or can they be returned to the racetrack?”

Nick Eaves of Woodbine Entertainment in Canada said that racing created the problem it now faces.

“Racing relinquished control of its pari-mutuel product,” he emphasized. “We abdicated our responsibility. Five percent of our customers make up 60 percent of our wagering.  We have to regain control of our product distribution, product pricing, and to whom it’s sold to make sure that the whales (major bettors) don’t beach offshore.”

Racing economist and long-time major bettor Maury Wolff noted that the horseplayer today has “quite a few more options” than in past years. He stressed that the price of betting, or takeout, is a driving factor in determining where those wagers are placed.

“Pricing is everything,” said Wolff. “You cannot consistently beat that 25 percent takeout on a trifecta.”

Wolff said that racing was not a good steward of its product in years past.

“Racing has had trouble competing on its own, and its answer to that problem is to get a slots license.”

Eaves said change is essential. “The status quo is impossible,” he emphasized.

Attendees at the morning session also heard from Charlie Leerhsen, the executive editor of Sports Illustrated magazine. Leerhsen’s book Crazy Good about the legendary pacer Dan Patch will be available later this year in bookstores.

He detailed his years of research into the career of Dan Patch, calling the horse a “beloved pop culture figure” a century ago.

Leerhsen relied on newspapers, horse magazines and a “Dan Patch cult” of approximately 300 people in researching his book. The “cult members” are people who collect items related to the famed pacer, a household name in the country a century ago.

“Harness racing was the most popular sport in America for the 15 years before and after the turn of the century,” he said.

The joint HTA/TRA sessions at the Renaissance Vinoy Resort conclude after several more interesting sessions on Wednesday morning. (Dean Hoffman for HTA) 

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