Longacres Race Track Is Long on Effort

In its 57th year of business, Longacres Race Track finds itself trying harder than ever to attract business.

Faced with competition from the Washington State Lottery, the NFL Seahawks and the American League Mariners, the track isn’t horsing around, either.

“Longacres has to try harder,” said Bill Taylor, director of marketing.

“I think the future is in satellite wagering and aggressively marketing Longacres harder than we’ve ever done before,” said Mark Kaufmann, manager of racing and media relations.

Longacres is trying to get families to come out. It installed a children’s amusement area and a video arcade. The track has a Saturday workout program to teach kids about horse racing, and it throws in free pony rides, too.

Taylor, 50, has been at Longacres for eight years. He’s seen it get tougher and tougher for the track.

“The lottery is certainly a factor,” he said. “But it’s not the only factor. Horse racing now finds itself in competition in the state of Washington with many different forms of gambling.

“In the late 70s and early 80s, we were the only form. In addition to the lottery, we also have competition from punchboards, pulltabs and poker rooms now. Blackjack since has been legalized. Bingo has proliferated. Indians now have gambling on their reservations in the form of bingo.”

Kaufmann, 42, joined Longacres in 1978. He notes it’s been increasingly difficult to get newspaper, television and radio coverage of the track because of the arrival of the Seahawks and Mariners.

The NBA SuperSonics also get their share of space in the local media.

The Kingdome and the Tacoma Dome cast shadows all the way to Renton, Kaufmann said.

“I think a lot of things we’ve been doing and promoting are some things that we would not have done 10 to 15 years ago because, frankly, there was no lottery and there wasn’t as many activities going on,” he said.

“It used to be Seafair and a couple other weekends. Now, it’s every weekend that things are happening.”

Longacres officials say the lottery has taken about a 10 percent out of the track’s business.

To help make that up, they’re aggressively trying to solicit a family business. Ironically, it wasn’t until 10 years ago that Longacres allowed children to accompany their parents to the track.

“We’re a time-consuming product,” Taylor admitted. “It takes a block of time to go to the races. The races start at 5 p.m. and they’ve over at 9:30 on weekdays.

“More married women are working today. In Seattle in 1979, approximately 40 percent of married women were working. Today, it’s nearly 80 percent.”

So Longacres wants fathers and mothers to take the kids to Longacres.

“We didn’t do ourselves any favor by not allowing kids,” Kaufmann said. “We have a tremendous marketing problem with that because people don’t realize it. They assume we’re like a tavern. They assume kids aren’t allowed because there’s gambling.”

Racing fans can now wager on Longacres races all around the state. There’s a dozen off-track betting locations.

“It’s really the next best thing to being there,” Kaufmann said.

Longacres’ 125-day meeting began April 4 and continues through Sept. 24. The $250,000-added Longacres Mile will be run next Sunday.

Taylor said that thoroughbred racing is something that has to be cultivated.

“The thing is about racing is that most people will never try it on their own,” he said. “Very seldom will somebody go to the race track for the first time. They tend to be taken by somebody else.”