HORSE RACING : Dueling Tracks on No-Win Course

The thoroughbred-racing industry abounds with examples of tracks that have been hurt by inept management or inept government regulation. But there never has been an exercise in self-destructive stupidity quite like the one at Philadelphia Park and Garden State.

The two tracks draw from the same population area -- Garden State is just outside Philadelphia in Cherry Hill, N.J. -- and they traditionally have raced at different times of the year. But from February through May this year, they competed head-on. Naturally, they cannibalized each other’s business.

In both places attendance dropped, wagering dropped, purses dropped, the quality of racing dropped. Many people thought Philadelphia Park, the weaker of the two tracks, would not survive.

It is hard to imagine how leaders of the racing business could be any more irrational. But this week we found out. With the lessons of this destructive competition still fresh in everybody’s mind, the New Jersey Racing Commission announced the 1992 racing dates for the tracks in its state. Garden State will run head-to-head against Philadelphia Park for five months -- guaranteeing the same disastrous results. The conflict will affect not only these two tracks but also the rest of the racing states in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Philadelphia Park and Garden State had no scheduling problems for many years because they were both owned by financier Robert Brennan’s company, International Thoroughbred Breeders. But Brennan sold Philly Park in 1989 to a British group that paid a ridiculous price ($71 million) because it had grand visions for the possibilities of off-track betting in Pennsylvania. The new owners wanted to offer as many races as they could as fodder for the state’s burgeoning OTB network, and so they wanted to operate year around, creating the conflict with Garden State.

But the gains from OTB weren’t nearly enough to compensate for the disastrous results at Philadelphia Park itself. There weren’t enough horseplayers in the region to support two major tracks and, even if there had been, few bettors could be enticed by the small fields of cheap horses that became the standard fare.

“The competition absolutely destroyed the quality of the sport here,” said turf writer Dick Jerardi. “Even in Maryland’s worst days -- back when Bowie was running -- it was never this bad. Everybody lost interest.”

The effects of conflict became most evident when Garden State’s season ended and Philadelphia Park got to operate free from competition. Even then its business was down more than 30 percent. Horseplayers had been so soured by the decline of the sport they were completely alienated.

Fortunately, the problems in the Philadelphia area were not insoluble. In fact, there was an obvious remedy for the conflict. Garden State could run its normal February-through-May dates free of competition and simulcast them to Philadelphia Park, which would offer the New Jersey races to Pennsylvania’s whole off-track betting network.

When racing shifted to Philadelphia Park, those races would be simulcast to Garden State. This plan would require legislative approval of changes in the states’ simulcasting laws, but the change was so sensible that it seemed inevitable.

However, when horsemen in Pennsylvania met to discuss the issue, they faced a dilemma: Was it better to have year-round racing at an unhealthy track with small purses, or to have a shorter Philadelphia Park season with considerably larger purses? The horsemen were split, and so were the state’s breeders. Their indecision paralyzed the process.

Ken Kirchner, executive secretary of the Pennsylvania Racing Commission, said: “To get any racing legislation passed you need the full support of everybody -- management, horsemen, breeders, the racing commission. With unanimous support, we would have had a shot.” But Kirchner said the Pennsylvania legislature wasn’t paying much attention to the dire problems of its thoroughbred industry: “They have been so worried about riverboat gambling and slot machines that they weren’t addressing the issue of full-card simulcasting. And, unfortunately, the legislative session is running out.”

Having received no concessions from Pennsylvania, New Jersey authorized an even longer season than usual at Garden State, promising an extra month of head-on conflict. The simultaneous operation of two tracks will have reverberations throughout the region. The size and quality of the fields in Maryland was surely affected in 1991 by the overabundance of racing dates in the Mid-Atlantic area, and the same will happen in 1992.

There is no uncertainty about what will happen when the conflict between Garden State and Philadelphia Park resumes. There are no optimistic scenarios.

Kirchner said: “You’ll have a shortage of fans, and so you won’t have the handle to support higher purses. The quality will go down, which will turn off more people. The next year is going to be a disaster.”