Horse Latitude : Ventura Fairgrounds Provides Alternative to Track Betting

It looks like an ordinary restaurant--pink tablecloths, waitresses in tuxedo shirts, plush green carpeting--but strange things happen inside the Turf Club at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. In mid-chew, diners have been observed jumping on tables and howling like wolves. Little old ladies in straw hats will sit next to men with shifty eyes. A BLT on toast can last three or four hours.

The customers, however, are not looking for sustenance as much as for spiritual enlightenment from a 50-1 longshot. Cleverly disguised as a restaurant, the Turf Club is a satellite wagering facility, serving up curly fries as well as live TV simulcasts from major Southern California race tracks. For area horse players who dread the trek to Santa Anita or Hollywood Park, this is heaven.

“I’d rather come here even if Hollywood Park is running,” said Charles Edwards, a retired marketing executive from Woodland Hills.

Since it opened nearly four years ago as a legal betting venue, the fairgrounds has been a geographically desirable betting parlor for thousands of serious horse players. It averages about 800 customers daily, but on Derby Day, about 2,000 crowd the indoor betting facilities at the fairgrounds, contributing nearly $500,000 to the handle at Churchill Downs.

Despite the absence of a real track and real horses, the fairgrounds’ facilities--general admission and nonsmoking areas in addition to the Turf Club--still have a race-track feel. The traditional cast of characters buys Daily Racing Forms at a small souvenir stand by the front gate. They plunk down $2 or more at betting windows operated by genuine parimutuel clerks. Then they watch the race on 60-inch TVs.

“Come on, Kemo Sabe!” a man with a cigar shouted during the second race from the Pomona Fairplex. Kemo Sabe, dueling Sweet Climax, broke away down the stretch, winning by a couple of lengths. The man inhaled a victory puff and banged his hand on his Turf Club table. Nobody else among the 50 or so patrons in the room shared his excitement, but that was to be expected. With the major local tracks dark, the bettors were stuck with the Fairplex.

“Pomona isn’t so hot of a track,” said Bettina Madsen, a Studio City matron, adding that she supports herself on her winnings and “has never worked a day in my life.” She likes coming to Ventura for the ambience and the friendly staff--she’s on a first-name basis with many of them--and would never think of driving to the Fairplex even though it is closer than the fairgrounds, according to her calculations.

“Pomona is 46 miles and it’s 58 miles to Ventura, but I’d rather come here any day,” Madsen said, peering through red-framed sunglasses.

The 1987 legalization of satellite wagering in Southern California--it has been legal in Northern California since 1985--has been a boon to Southland race tracks, generating 3.3 million additional bettors in 1990 and an additional $647.9 million in parimutuel bets. The fairgrounds--one of 11 satellite sites in Southern California--has exceeded expectations, averaging about $180,000 a day in wagering, double the anticipated daily handle. “When we were in the planning stages, we thought we’d do $90,000 a day,” said Art Amelio, assistant manager of the fairgrounds. “We’ve never done anything that small.”

Business at the fairgrounds could be affected by a recent legislative decision permitting race tracks to become satellite wagering locations--Hollywood Park is a lot closer than Ventura for Valley residents. Shortly, however, the fairgrounds will have an added attraction: It will be allowed to pick up races from a Northern California track, such as Golden Gate Fields in Albany, in addition to a Southern California track.

The fairgrounds houses its satellite wagering operation in the Home Arts facility, but during the Ventura County Fair the large Quonset huts are used to display items such as quilts and canned peaches, so the horse players are forced to use a humble tent. “They don’t like it much,” Amelio said.

But because of the success of satellite wagering, they shouldn’t have to tolerate it much longer. The fairgrounds is planning to construct a two-story building, which is expected to open sometime before the 1993 fair, Amelio said. It will have a view of the ocean. Suddenly, the Turf Club will be the place to take a date or do lunch. Betting’s better than bingo. Church groups from Simi Valley will be able to ride in comfort on the train, getting off at the new fairgrounds station, which will open in November.

“I can’t think of a more fun afternoon,” said Millie Benitez, a Van Nuys resident in her 60s.

While race tracks provide the roar of the crowd and smell of the horse, the satellites stress upscale amenities. When Senate Bill 14 was signed by Gov. George Deukmejian in 1987--legalizing off-track betting in Southern California--satellite officials made a conscious effort to avoid duplicating New York’s low-brow operation.

“We were much more enlightened here than in New York,” said Biff Lowry, regional director of the California Authority of Racing Fairs, which represents the 11 satellite sites. “New York’s dingy little parlors, more like one-room betting shops, don’t encourage people to stay--they don’t even have TV. Here, people are encouraged to come.”

Indeed, the Turf Club seems more like a country club with a lot of regulars hanging around. Kathy Dempsey, a Somis businesswoman, spends so much time at the fairgrounds that “my kids know where to find me.”

“There’s more camaraderie . . . and a lot less vulgarity than you’d find at a race track,” said Charles Edwards, an acquaintance of Dempsey. And with 20 of the facility’s 30 parimutuel windows usually open, betting is easier than at a track. “The lines are shorter--you’re less likely to get shut out,” Edwards said.

Edwards and several others gave another reason for their preference: safety. “There’s a fear at Hollywood Park, if you win, you got to watch out for the guy behind you,” Edwards said. “When you walk to your car, you got to look over your shoulder. You don’t have those problems here.”

Indeed, parimutuel manager Sam Saputo, who has worked 25 years in the business, finds “the patronage here and at all satellites really more laid-back and much more pleasant” than at race tracks.

Edwards stared up at a small TV, one of four flashing the ever-changing odds of the third race at the Fairplex. Another quartet of small TVs displayed the tote board. On the big screen, the camera caught the horses nearing the starting gate.

The signal was beamed to a satellite 23,000 miles above the Equator, then relayed to a pair of large dishes outside the Turf Club. An unscrambling device transmitted live images to the giant-screen TVs.

When the third race began, conversations ended and all eyes focused on the TV. Betting on the four horse, Dempsey rapped on her table excitedly during the race but wound up a loser. With 25 minutes until the next race, there wasn’t much else to do but sit back . . . and watch the instant replay.