This Sport Isn’t Horsing Around

Downey’s California:

--Cheerleaders, $1 admission on Fridays to anyone 30 or under, $1 prices for beer, sodas or hot dogs, plus a sports bar with live music . . . these are among the tactics Hollywood Park will use, once each week, to lure a new generation to horse racing when the famed track’s 59th season opens Friday night.

“Horse racing is at a crossroads,” explains R.D. Hubbard, the track’s chairman.

“To those of us involved in it, horse racing is a great sport with thrilling action, beauty, tradition and the stimulation of gambling. To those not so close to it, however, horse racing is slow, intimidating and potentially expensive. Our goal is to introduce as many patrons as possible to the product, with the hope that a percentage of them will be converted into racing fans.”

Disney tried something similar with baseball. The traditionalists objected--even while nagging the game over a loss of appeal to a younger audience--and screeched that cheerleaders were embarrassing the sport, as though anything more could. (Baseball’s purists whine about everything, the big babies.)

Eventually, Disney withdrew cheerleaders from Anaheim Stadium, even though the NFL and NBA have accepted cheerleading for years.

Hubbard is hip to the fact that today’s market will not tolerate a sport that moves in slow motion.

“Unfortunately, in this age of slot machines, lotteries, and scratch-off games, the youth of today demand more than one race every 30 minutes,” Hubbard says.

“We make no apology for introducing night racing, live bands, ‘hippity hop races,’ a cash-cube giveaway and cheerleaders to the Friday night mix. We don’t do these things every day--just once a week, to attract new fans alongside our respect for the preferences of our existing, more conservative fan base. We’re building a base for tomorrow.

“Unfortunately, the competition is fierce and the popularity of our core product of horse racing is waning. It’s a far cry from the glory years, when racetracks faced little competition from other sports, while holding a virtual monopoly on legalized gambling.”

Off-track betting has cut into horse racing’s on-track attendance in many states. And casino gambling has proliferated, from Native American lands to riverboats. Las Vegas attracts not only degenerate gamblers, but family vacationers. This is why horse racing needs to furnish something more than simply a place to place a $5 bet.

Hollywood Park’s season will open in prime time, almost simultaneously with Friday night’s Game 1 of the NBA playoff series between the Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers, right across the street. On Sunday, the events will run parallel during the afternoon.

If the so-called “purists” would shut up for a second, opening their minds to something new instead of clinging boringly to the past, Hollywood Park’s plan can work. Disney’s would have, also, but no . . . the traditionalists would rather not watch cheerleaders between innings. They would rather watch guys with garden tools rake the dirt.

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--I shouldn’t pull for Paul Allen, who owns the Trail Blazers, but I have to admit that anybody who finances a museum honoring Jimi Hendrix, the late guitarist, is OK by me.

--Portland can beat the Lakers, provided Isaiah Rider is not suspended. Rider hasn’t done anything, but it’s only Wednesday.

--Last year at this time, Kobe Bryant of the Lakers and Jermaine O’Neal of the Trail Blazers were at their high school proms. I have never felt quite so old as I do at this moment.

--Jake “the Snake” Plummer gets to go from quarterbacking the Arizona State Sun Devils to quarterbacking the Arizona Cardinals. Tragically for Plummer, the Sun Devils are better than the Cardinals.

--Hey, Jake, go see that big snake movie. Two fangs up.

--Arizona State teammate Juan Roque gets to block next season for Barry Sanders. Juan is so big, he could hide Barry under his towel.

--The Rams got rid of Sean Gilbert, then drafted Orlando Pace. They traded earthquakes for pancakes.

--I feel Mike Ditka has what it takes to turn the New Orleans Saints from a very bad football team into a bad one.

--The Chicago Bears could start a backfield of former Notre Dame quarterback Rick Mirer and former Northwestern running back Darnell Autry. It must be nice to have a player from a college football power, as well as one from Notre Dame.