Saturday, March 25, 2000
Racetrack blues: 'The diehards are dying'
Big races like today's Spiral no longer enough
BY KRISTINA GOETZ
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FLORENCE — He knows the horses, the jockeys, the trainers. He knows which races to bet and when to keep his money in his pocket. He can handicap like nobody's business.
Bill Weber may look like just a commoner playing the Sport of Kings, but it's his kind who have kept horse racing on track for years.
While today's Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park brings welcome attention to the sport of horse racing, it also brings into focus a major challenge facing the industry. For years, horse racing has relied on a single group of devoted fans, but it now must learn how to change if it is to compete with riverboat casi nos and other legalized gambling.
Mr. Weber, who is a retired insurance agent, comes to the races every day.
In many ways, the 69-year-old Delhi Township man epitomizes racing's best fan. He is typical of the one group the industry has been able to hang onto — retirees and other older bettors.
“Did you ever go to church during Lent during the day? They all have gray hair,” Mr. Weber says. “That's how the track is now.”
Until recently, racing industry officials counted on this rule of thumb: 20 percent of the fans drive 80 percent of the handle (the amount of money wagered.)
That's no longer enough for smaller tracks such as Turfway. Without the tradition of big events like the Kentucky Derby, smaller race tracks have been forced to go neck-and-neck with casinos.
At Turfway, attendance dropped 40 percent after the riverboat casinos opened in Southeastern Indiana in the mid-1990s. Handle dropped nearly as much.
Even after the gambling trio of Harrah's, Keeneland and Dreamport took over Turfway last year, the track has seen only a small rise in attendance, nowhere near its pre-casino levels.
Chip Tuttle, a spokesman for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, said racing has been on the rebound nationally for two or three years. Before then, the industry saw declining attendance and handle from 1975 to 1995.
“The sport as a whole is marketing itself differently than it has over the past two decades,” he said.
Mr. Weber saw a lot of bettors leave who had played the ponies for years. He and his betting pals have been coming to the races since they were teens.
“The boats have taken some people out of the game. More action there,” said Mr. Weber, who is known at Turfway as Uncle Bill.
Thrill of the game
To a dwindling number of race fans like Mr. Weber and his friends, racing is as much about horses as it is handicapping. It's about trying to beat an inexact science and knowing you usually can't.
“That's the thrill,” he said.
Pulling a lever on a slot machine can't compare.
“If you go to the boats and you play the slot machines, there's no skill; you have to have a right hand or a left thumb,” he said.
“At the blackjack table, there's a skill, but you learn it in 10 minutes. You don't have to be too smart. With all of them there's an element of luck.
“But you must do your homework if you want to understand our game.”
The thoroughbred racing association calls fans like Mr. Weber “core users.” Estimated at 3 million nationwide, they're the fans who bet on horse races a few times a month or more. Most are male; half are older than 45.
They've been the industry's backbone when times got hard. Times are hard now, but even the core fans users can't sustain an entire industry forever.
Turfway president Bob Elliston said new marketing at the track will target newcomers as well as the standbys.
“We can't turn our backs on our core fans. They've kept us in business for so long,” Mr. Elliston said. “We just need to complement our core fans and show others that this can be a great place, a fun place, to be.”
Mr. Weber wonders if that will be enough.
“The diehards are dying,” Mr. Weber said. “That's a stale cliche, but it's the truth. And there aren't a lot of young people. Who can they attract?
“The great majority of people are working. They have to rely on people working different shifts or the semi-retired or retired.”
Mr. Weber and his betting buddies say they hope — as much as racing officials do — that the new marketing will pay off, that it will instill in younger fans the kind of love they have for the sport.
Mr. Weber and friends Angelo Catucci, Noah Petrey and Ben Lehrer go way back at Turfway Park. When they were accountants, life insurance agents and truck drivers, the betting buddies would come to the track on weekends. They were regulars when the trotters raced and the place was still known as Latonia Race Track.
When Jerry Carroll bought the track in 1985, they placed their usual bets and watched as renovations occurred all around them.
They can remember back before simulcasting, when you had to wait 30 minutes between races. They can remember a time when all you could bet was “win”, “place”, “show” and “the daily double.”
Now, with more races to bet, there's a better chance for more winnings.
“You're not sucking your thumb for a half an hour,” Mr. Weber said. “If there was only one track, I wouldn't have the dedication.”
Turning up the dial
Turfway is increasing the opportunity for life-altering wins with handicapping contests. Mr. Weber won $10,000 recently when he qualified to go to Las Vegas for a national competition sponsored by The Daily Racing Form.
He said this mixture of casino-type gambling and horses could keep core fans interested while attracting new ones.
“That is a major step, I think, in promoting racing,” he said.
Mr. Weber and his friends say they understand that the track has to move beyond their needs, to develop plans that will bring others in.
If live bands on Friday nights do it, then they'll endure it. If it's bringing in video lottery terminals, they're all for it. If it's getting kids who know about computers interested, they'll support it.
“The only thing that's going to save (them) is the poker machines,” Mr. Catucci said.
Added Mr. Weber: “Youth is the secret. No question.”
Young bettors might not know the importance of checking the conditions of the track, the weight of the jockey and the horse's past performance before giving money to a teller. They might not know that making a hunch bet isn't the best way to fill a wallet — even if they like the horse's name.
They may not have the formula that has taken Mr. Weber and his regular betting pals years to develop.
But these men who come to the track nearly every day say there's plenty to love about the sport — whether it's the betting, the socializing or the winning.
“You can bet a horse, you can see him coming down the stretch in the lead or coming from behind and everybody gets excited about it,” Mr. Lehrer said.
And it might take a little time, but others also will find an answer to the question so often asked about whether horse racing is a dying sport.
“I don't think that'll ever happen,” Mr. Weber said. “The Derby, the Preakness, the Belmont, they'll be here long after we're gone.”
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