Live Racing vs. an Easy Commute : Del Mar Attendance May Be Hurt by Off-Track Wagering

In recent years, Del Mar race track’s surveys have indicated that 20-30% of its business during its thoroughbred racing season comes from the Los Angeles area.

Surveys usually have built-in margins for error, however, and Del Mar officials have never been sure of the accuracy of their research.

This season, they may find out. When Del Mar opens today, for the 49th summer, Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, Fairplex Park in Pomona and seven other Southern California locations will be offering betting on satellite telecasts of the races for the first time.

The action away from the action figures to be big. Santa Anita is gearing up for 6,000 opening-day fans. Fairplex Park has ordered 3,000 programs from Del Mar, just to make sure no fans are disappointed. And Hollywood Park officials are projecting an average of 4,000 horseplayers and a handle of $800,000 a day throughout the 43-day Del Mar season that runs through Sept. 14.

How much the off-track convenience affects on-track attendance has been left to speculation. Del Mar has averaged more than 19,500 fans a day--it has been one of the best drawing tracks in the country--in five of the last six seasons, and Joe Harper, the general manager, only hopes that off-track business compensates for on-track crowd erosion.

Bets on Del Mar racing will also be taken at San Bernardino, Ventura, Bakersfield, Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, Lancaster and Indio.

Those seven sites, plus Del Mar itself, averaged 6,800 bettors a day, with an average handle of $1.3 million, during the 68-day Hollywood Park season that closed Monday. Hollywood’s on-track crowds suffered only a small decline, and the track netted about $3 million as its share of the off-track betting.

One industry source estimated that the 10 off-track facilities might average 14,000 fans a day during Del Mar, with betting near the $2.8-million mark. If those figures could be sustained, Del Mar’s seasonal piece of the pie would be more than $4 million. That would more than compensate for the lost revenue from parking, admissions and concessions at Del Mar.

Before the season is over, there will probably be some days when Del Mar’s races generate more business off track than on track. Racing purists cringe when that point is reached, because they believe that off-track betting attracts few new fans.

Yet to be factored in are these considerations:

--Will the estimated 1,500 hard-core players who have been betting on Hollywood Park and Santa Anita races at Del Mar’s off-track facility since last fall have much money left to bet Del Mar this summer?

--And will Del Mar regain fans who have stayed away in recent years because traffic and long betting lines on the big days became too big a hassle?

The tracks themselves, partners on one hand but quasi-competitors on the other, are understandably confused about how to market the Del Mar season. Los Angeles racegoers may well feel like the person who gets sawed in half in the magician’s act.

“You’ve got 43 days to get out of town,” reads a billboard rented by Del Mar near Hollywood Park.

But then a Fairplex Park advertisement reads: “Del Mar is now 100 miles closer.”

And then a co-op ad representing all 10 of the off-track sites says: “Have the time of your life without going all the way.”

Horse Racing Notes

Gary Stevens, defending riding champion at Del Mar and the top jockey in four of the last five meetings in Southern California, is named on horses in all nine races today and will ride Perfecting, a son of Affirmed, who is seeking his first stakes win in the $60,000 Oceanside. . . . Stevens won 94 races at the recently completed Hollywood Park meeting. That’s the most victories a champion has had there since Chris McCarron won 100 in 1984. . . . Overall this year, Stevens is the national leader with more than 215 wins and about $8 million in purses.

Del Mar post time is 2 p.m. daily, with racing every day but Tuesday.