Analysis : Going Down Under to Visit the Race Tracks

When the pool for the Double Triple was growing into seven digits at Laurel, various racing people remarked to my Washington Post colleague Vinnie Perrone about my absence from the betting windows.

My colleague would reply, accurately, “You know that for Andy to miss action like this he’d either have to be dead or else on the other side of the world.” Fortunately, the correct explanation was the latter. Even though spending a month in Australia cost me the chance to take a shot at the Double Triple, it gave rise to another gambling fantasy.

I had wanted to make this trip ever since I read in a tourist guidebook that “Australians’ two great passions are gambling and drinking.” And, indeed, I was able to confirm the part about gambling about two minutes after arriving in the country.

I picked up the Melbourne papers to see what kind of information they had about the races, and they covered the routine, upcoming Saturday program the way the Louisville Courier-Journal would cover the Kentucky Derby -- with 12-page pullout sections and the like. (On the day after the races, there would be full-length coverage of all eight races on the program.) Clearly, the Aussies take their racing seriously.

But it was when I walked into Sandown Race Course and bought a program that I realized I had arrived in a horseplayer’s heaven. The program was thick -- about the size of the “little red book” of Chairman Mao -- for although there were only eight races at the Melbourne track, every other major track in Australia was simulcasting most or all of its card to Sandown. Each live race would be followed by a simulcast from Sydney, from Adelaide, from Brisbane, adding up to a program of 35 races -- all with trifecta and quinella betting, plus an assortment of other exotica (e.g., the quadzella).

Even when the last live race of the day has been run, a losing bettor doesn’t have to concede defeat; he can still try to bail out on the late West Coast races from Perth. And the bettors bet plenty; on the day I visited Sandown, the total wagering in the tote was $14 million -- plus another $3 million with the legal bookmakers at the track.

There is not only a great quantity of action on-track, there is plenty off-track as well. Off-track betting shops (call TABs) abound in every city; even the smallest town will have a TAB operating out of the corner of a pub or restaurant. All this wagering pumps a huge amount of money into the sport, and Australia has the second-highest purses in the world, next to the United States, as well as first-class racing facilities.

The major tracks are not only modern and attractive, but they have an ambience distinctly more civilized than, say, the grandstand at Aqueduct. At Ballarat, a country track in the state of Victoria, one of the activities was a fashion contest for female patrons. The best-dressed ladies in attendance were awarded prizes, and everybody gave the polite applause. (Big hats, I noted, were crucial to success.) At Randwick, in Sydney, the most popular spot in the track was the Champagne Bar, which was packed with hundreds of people drinking Moet with a gusto that confirmed my guidebook’s assessment of Australians’ other great passion.

But from the standpoint of an American tourist, the best thing about Australian racing is that the game seems recognizable and understandable. I have visited leading tracks in Europe and, classy though they may be, the racing seems as alien as if it were being conducted on the moon. Early speed means nothing; after the horses gallop around the track for a while, the leader collapses and somebody accelerates in the last furlong to win.

Even though all of the races in Australia are on the grass, and many of the tracks run their races clockwise, the factors that determine winners are much like those in America. Early speed is important; front-runners who set a slow pace will win. Saving ground on the turns is important, too. I was able to fathom enough about the sport that after visiting four different tracks in Sydney and Melbourne and innumerable TAB offices, I could proclaim that I am a lifetime winner in the Southern Hemisphere.

While Australian racing is so similar to the American game, the sophistication of the Australian bettors is nowhere close.

I am not certain that American-style speed figures would work effectively in Australia, but if they did they could be sensationally profitable. But I am determined to find out, and at some time in the future I will be poring over old race results to construct speed charts for tracks like Randwick, Rosehill and Canterbury, with the intention of making a return visit and becoming Australia’s greatest horseplayer. Even winning the Double Triple couldn’t rival that for a fantasy.