Ralph Siraco: LV convention to look at horse racing future

Monday, Sept. 30, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

TODAY, Southern California racing concludes at the Los Angeles County Fair meeting at Fairplex Park with an exciting jockey race that may come down to the final event. The 19-day bullring session will give way to racing at Santa Anita on Wednesday with the opening of the Oak Tree season.

While the sport switches venues in the southland, a gathering here in Las Vegas may have a decisive impact on racing, not only in the states, but around the world as well.

The World Gaming Congress & Expo starts on Tuesday at the Las Vegas Convention Center with horse racing and its future as part of the focus on the explosive gaming industry. More than 20,000 delegates and gaming representatives from around the globe will share the three-day confab, searching for new ways and ideas to compete in the expanding gaming universe.

Each year, as we close in on the Breeders' Cup, the racing community reflects on the sport, its state of affairs and, most critically, its future in an ever-changing world.

The doomsayers

Many will say that the sport is dying, that competition from other forms of gaming entertainment such as casinos will spell the demise of the glorious sport of kings. They will discuss the shrinking horse population and its equally declining attendance at America's racing emporiums.

They will point to the fact that the sport's marquee player, Cigar, could only attract a paltry 16,000 fans to see a legend at Belmont recently. They will remind that small tracks will soon disappear and that some surviving facilities will have to rely on slot machines to accompany the live racing product.

What they will not, or cannot, do or see is the reality that the great attraction, the beauty, the excitement and challenge of racing are not dead or dying, but rather changing to the times and requirements of its fans. And using technology to reach a wider audience than ever before.

This year's Gaming Congress may enlighten some with several panels on the sport's change for the future.

And it's exciting.

There will be sessions on round-the-clock simulcasting, exploring the benefits of a 24-hour operation.

No doubt an example of the potential will be this spring's Meadowlands test of simulcast racing from Hong Kong that started at 12:30 a.m. and ended at 2:30 a.m. Each night's (or morning's) handle exceeded $200,000, which made it the highest of any simulcast from Hollywood Park to Churchill Downs.

Internet niche

Another panel will address the online revolution with racing's place on the Internet World Wide Web and how the sport can develop new fans and the possibilities of expanded wagering on the most-talked-about new medium. Certainly, the New York Racing Association will explain that, since it established a Web spot last year, the site has been hit more than 10,000 times per day. New racing services, such as You Bet, are building private networks for future wagering avenues to major tracks. The smart racing executives know that it's time to turn the equation around and start bringing the product to the customer, exposing them to the game first.

A panel on sponsorships can refer to casino giants Caesars World and the MGM Grand as underwriting sponsors of big race series and bonus incentives that show racing and the casinos can work on common ground. Corporate sponsorship of Visa and the Triple Crown illustrates how the industry can benefit on a major scale.

The Wednesday assembly on home betting might be the most exciting on this year's docket. Steven Crist, vice president of communications and development for the NYRA, can attest to the success of this growing segment of racing. Serving on this dais, he can support the success of television and racing by the numbers of the NYRA telecasts. NYRA use of the tube is the key to keeping and getting new racing fans. In 1994, handle on telephone wagering that accompanied cable TV racing hit $50 million, while phone betting on NYRA races this year is expected to reach $200 million.

David Carrico, senior vice president for administration at Churchill Downs, is expected to declare his track's cable television experiment an overwhelming winner. Market research on the interactive homes to Churchill Downs racing product revealed that the infrequent player, at seven or fewer bets per year, wagered up to 150 times annually with the convenience of television interactivity. Consumer satisfaction and interest was at a surprisingly high rate.

Slots can work

As far as slots at race tracks, just ask management at Delaware Park about the incredible turnaround that brought that track from the brink of disaster. The track, now solvent, has raised purses for horsemen to an all-time high as a result of track slot play. Prairie Meadows race track, in Altoona, Iowa, is such a slot-track success that Circus Circus Enterprises proposed a $400 million deal for the locale.

When 16,000 fans showed up for Cigar's Woodward Stakes victory and the reincarnation of a champion, it should be noted that the New York City area was under a hurricane warning and the race was locally televised. The brave few who ventured out to Belmont that afternoon sounded like a roaring throng of 50,000 with Cigar, and the racing world, loving every minute of it.

Pari-mutuel wagering on race simulcasting in the state of Nevada in the just-completed fiscal year 1995 reached an all-time high for the 10th consecutive year.

As racing enters the next century, we are confident it will change with the times. One thing we do know, the sport of kings is as resilient as the noble animals it represents.