Horse Racing Group Counts Its Wins

When fractious horse owners, jockeys and track operators finally coalesced into the National Thoroughbred Racing Assn., cynics were quick to bet that the group wouldn’t be around to celebrate its first birthday.

Those bets won’t pay off. Atlanta-based NTRA, patterned after the powerful organizations that run such professional sports as baseball and football, will mark its first anniversary on Saturday at its gathering in Arcadia, where many of the country’s top horses, jockeys and trainers will take part in the 62nd Santa Anita Handicap.

The NTRA has notched some victories. It is boosting the number of races scheduled to be televised and supporting the summer debut of an all-racing cable television channel that could bring racing to millions more households. Member tracks are running flashy NTRA commercials showcasing such entertainers as Rip Torn, Bo Derek and Wayne Newton. And the NTRA is making the industry’s first, some would say belated, effort to sign national corporate sponsors.

In an industry in which big egos and the spirit of competition are as necessary to survival as the horses themselves, there’s an ongoing debate about the NTRA battle plan. Some critics grumble that the NTRA’s “Go, Baby, Go” commercials miss the mark and that the organization is wasting money by needlessly expanding its executive ranks. Cynics, meanwhile, are betting that members won’t reenlist when their initial two-year commitment to pay dues expires.

And, as a near-secret workout by two Kentucky Derby winners last month at Santa Anita shows, the industry is still learning how to jockey for position in the media spotlight. Only a trackside camera captured the action when Silver Charm and Real Quiet made their rare joint appearance, but sports marketers criticized the session as the equivalent of home run kings Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa taking batting practice in the dead of night.

Racing, which turned its back on television more than three decades ago, now must play to the cameras to ensure its survival.

“That little black box in the corner of our living rooms dominates our lives,” said Keith Chamblin, vice president of marketing at Hollywood Park. “Our core product is a very good one, and we need to put it out in front of people so they can determine whether or not they want to experience fully the sport of horse racing.”

Thoroughbred racing hopes to follow in the tire tracks of the auto racing industry, specifically, of NASCAR, which has used high-profile television programming to win fans and corporate sponsors. Attendance and betting at some of the most popular tracks rose slightly during the last year, but it’s too soon to say if the NTRA deserves credit.

“It will be another two to four years before you’ll start seeing the ultimate payoff,” said Chamblin, who in April will join the NTRA as vice president of marketing. “Change doesn’t come easily for many tracks.”

“It took years for the industry to get to the point [of forming the NTRA], so there will be no overnight solutions,” said Cliff Goodrich, executive vice president and general manager at Santa Anita.

Racing faces a tough challenge. Casual fans don’t understand the sport’s complex season, which has different series for various classes of horses. A first step toward reducing the confusion is broadcasting the 11-race “NTRA Champions on Fox” series, which begins with Gulfstream’s Donn Handicap in January, continues with Saturday’s Santa Anita Handicap and ends Aug. 29 with the Pacific Classic at Del Mar.

The customer is king, no matter the industry. For racing, that means paying attention to the needs of fans in off-track betting parlors scattered nationwide who place most of the industry’s wagers. On a recent weekend, for instance, frustrated bettors scrambled to get their bets placed because two important races being televised from Gulfstream Park in Florida and Santa Anita went off simultaneously.

Track operators hope to eliminate such overlaps by staggering the starting times of the most popular races. But some conflicts are unavoidable, and track operators say the unintentional doubling-up underscores an industrywide problem--how much time to budget between races, and how that time should be spent.

Hard-boiled fans demand peace and quiet as they handicap upcoming races. But a culture clash is brewing as tracks experiment with rock bands, cheerleaders and cheap beer to lure fickle young people raised on rock ‘em sock ‘em electronic games and the lightning-fast pace of MTV videos. What’s fan-friendly for newcomers--say, the new virtual finish line to be introduced during Fox’s Saturday broadcast from Santa Anita--invariably draws snorts of disapproval from old-timers.

Even the betting structure is under the microscope as operators study the possibility of adding simple wagers promising huge payoffs, a proposition that gamblers say would turn artfully constructed wagers into mere lotteries. Under study at some tracks is a proposal that would allow bettors to wager on odd- or even-numbered horses.

NTRA Commissioner Tim Smith acknowledged that his industry will need a Solomon-like wisdom to draw newcomers without alienating hard-core fans.

“The trick is balancing the situation so there’s an atmosphere that allows the brain work needed for handicapping with the faster-paced and somewhat more intrusive on-site experience you might get at an NBA or NHL game.”

Some tracks, including Hollywood Park, were quick to embrace the “Go, Baby, Go” advertising produced by New York-based Merkley Newman Harty. The commercials feature actor Rip Torn, who plays a hard-charging racing fan caught up in the sport’s glamour, tradition and thrills.

The commercials are designed to appeal to sports fans and gamblers who prefer other forms of entertainment. The campaign’s success depends upon member tracks’ using the commercials so consumers get a consistent message about racing. A handful of members, including Santa Anita, have opted to use their own, proprietary, commercials instead.

“Frankly, we’ve had some success over the last three years when it comes to boosting daily attendance,” said Santa Anita’s Goodrich. “We’ve been far more aggressive in marketing than some others, and it’s been difficult to find more money in the budget to go with the NTRA advertising” on top of that.

The NTRA commercials are viewed within the industry as a healthy addition for a sport that’s rarely marketed itself. Some observers, though, maintain that the industry should let its own stars shine.

“The ads don’t publicize the people they need to,” said trainer Bob Baffert, who on May 1 will try for an unprecedented third consecutive Kentucky Derby victory. “We should be building up our own stars--the horses, jockeys and trainers. I still remember the first time I came to California and saw Willie Shoemaker. That was such a big deal.”

In an industry populated by individualists who don’t like to lose, the only point of agreement seems to be that racing can’t spur fan growth unless marketers can harness the passion that a solid race generates. “It’s got to start at the tracks,” Baffert said. “You’ve got to get people to the tracks and get them excited.”

* HISTORY-MAKING RACE: Santa Anita Handicap could be a record-breaker. D1