It Would Be 'Bettor' With a New Breed

By BILL CHRISTINE

Nov. 6, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

LOUISVILLE, Ky. —

Ann Austin, who lives in Pasadena, Md., told her neighbor the other day that she was going to Louisville for the Breeders’ Cup.

“I guess that means you’re pro-life,” the neighbor said, not trying to be funny.

Malcolm Barr, who lives near Washington, D.C., is the manager of a small-time syndicate that races a few horses. Mainly, they run on the Maryland circuit, but this fall Barr planned to send a horse to Colonial Downs, the track near Richmond, Va., that opened last year.

The Colonial track has been a mess, may be facing bankruptcy and is governed by a state racing commission that has become the country’s laughingstock.

The commission recently said that Pat Day, the Hall of Fame jockey who will be riding in all seven Breeders’ Cup races at Churchill Downs on Saturday, couldn’t be licensed in Virginia because of a 25-year-old misdemeanor conviction for possession of marijuana.

To race at Colonial, Barr and one of his partners had to be fingerprinted for a state owner’s licenses. Several days before the race, the Virginia commission called Barr to say that the fingerprints had been misplaced. He was told that the two of them would have to come in again. Barr made an appointment, not relishing the 160-mile drive.

“I walked in, and this is not an exaggeration,” Barr said. “There were three guys in the office, and all of them were sitting with feet propped up on their desks.”

Barr was told that no one there could process his license.

“But I’ve come from D.C. and I had an appointment,” Barr said.

“Sorry,” one of the foot proppers said. “You need to have your picture taken, and nobody here today knows how to work the camera.”

So what do these stories--one cute and the other a horror--have to do with the newly formed National Thoroughbred Racing Assn.? Well, the NTRA, a self- described “league office” for racing, hung out its shingle last year, announcing goals that included customer service and fan education. Its undertaking is enormous:

There are many Americans, like Ann Austin’s neighbor, who don’t know what the seven-race, $13-million Breeders’ Cup is, even though it’s in its 15th year and has been nationally televised every year.

And there are many frustrated owners like Malcolm Barr, who persevered and was fingerprinted, photographed and finally ran his horse, but Barr says he’ll never run another horse at Colonial Downs.

“There have been some indicators lately that racing is making a resurgence,” said Bob Lewis, the Californian who races Silver Charm, last year’s Kentucky Derby winner and the morning-line favorite in Saturday’s $5.12-million Breeders’ Cup Classic. “There’s the recent legislation [in California] that will result in $40 million in tax relief for the industry.

“You look around the country and you see some tracks doing more business. The current Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita has done well. Saratoga had a great meeting this summer. Full-card simulcasting [an expansion of betting on televised races from out of state] starts in California next year. I like a lot of the things that I see.”

A rose-colored harbinger a day is what racing needs, because the game is in a desperate catch-up mode. Engulfed by casino gambling and state lotteries, racing no longer enjoys a healthy share of the wagering pie, and tracks in Illinois (Arlington Park), Michigan (Detroit Race Course), New Jersey (Atlantic City) and Washington (Yakima Meadows) are no longer in business. One of the surviving Illinois tracks in the Chicago area, Sportsman’s Park, has gone into automobile racing.

Racetracks, according to International Gaming & Wagering Business magazine, now bring in only 2.5% of the $600 billion that is gambled annually. About 33 million people went to tracks last year, down from 55 million 10 years ago.

The industry can’t seem to make up its mind whether the priority is increasing--or simply maintaining--on-track attendance, or whether such future-shock realities as at-home betting deserve the most attention. The downside to bettors who stay home, watch on television, wagering by telephone and/or the Internet is that they don’t buy hot dogs or pay for parking.

Tim Smith, a bright guy who has been a quick study as the commissioner and chief executive officer of the NTRA, says that racing’s 33 million “turnstile clicks” come from a fan base of six million.

At Santa Anita, which is soon to be sold for the second time in less than two years, a marketing survey shows that 61,000 people account for 41% of the track’s business.

A former Belmont Park official once said that so much of the track’s betting comes from so few people that “if one of those guys gets a cold, we really worry about the handle that day.”

In a sense, racing’s underpinnings are toothpicks.

Rick Baedeker, a former Hollywood Park executive who has become senior vice president for marketing at the NTRA, is a realist.

“Racing walks a fine line between entertainment and distraction,” Baedeker said. “The reward a bettor gets is more than money, it’s the payoff of solving the [handicapping] puzzle.

“Our game has a product flaw: A new fan cannot play. There’s an information overload [the columns of small type in the Daily Racing Form] that the new fan cannot appreciate. Until he learns, the new fan does not speak the same language.”

The NTRA, working with a $20-million budget this year, is unlike its unsuccessful predecessors in that it has backing from most segments of a heavily segmented industry--the tracks, the breeders, the jockeys and horse owners, as well as state racing agencies.

Much of the money was spent this year on television commercials featuring Lori Petty, an actress who screeched the NTRA’s “Go, Baby, Go” mantra. Some industry traditionalists found them offensive and even moronic, but Baedeker said surveys proved them effective. Next year’s poster boy will be more mainstream as avuncular Rip Torn replaces Petty.

The NTRA left the blocks with substantial contributions from several groups, including $1 million from the Oak Tree Racing Assn., which conducts fall meetings at Santa Anita. Most of the country’s tracks have anted up, with Santa Anita and Hollywood Park paying about $300,000 apiece per year.

Smith announced last week that 10 races will be televised next year by the Fox network, which introduced viewers to racing this year by covering the Santa Anita Derby. Horses running in the series can accrue points that will determine bonus payoffs.

Smith said that the bonus money will total between $500,000 and “more than $1 million,” which at first glance doesn’t seem to be enough to impact an era of multimillion-dollar races. But Fox is watched by more people than ESPN, which over the years has provided the most racing coverage.

A bonus series is not new. In fact, racing had a short-lived, modestly successful series several years ago, but it died when some tracks, Santa Anita among them, dropped out.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what Fox can do with racing,” said Barry Weisbord, who developed the American Championship Racing Series. “Fox has brought so many innovations to the coverage of other sports that I’m excited to see what they can open up for racing.

“But I wonder how long the NTRA can keep asking for money from the tracks and the others. It’s going to be tough to keep this funding going. Tim Smith goes to the round table at Saratoga and asks for money. Everybody there would feel better if he was handing out a few checks.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Breeders’ Cup

SATURDAY

Churchill Downs

10 a.m.

Channel 4

* BIZARRE

A day after his barn is pelted with debris from a damaged airplane, Skip Away dumps his exercise rider. Page 12

* HANDICAP

A look at the field for the $5.12-

million Classic, which figures to live up to its name. Page 12

* POST TIMES