Betting Gains Mask Nagging Issues Playfair Battles Greyhound Park, Changing Times For Shrinking Wagering Dollar
The picture Sunday was everything that’s right, and disturbing, about the business of horse racing.
A race at Santa Anita Park, the Yellow Ribbon Stakes, had customers at Playfair Race Course glued to TV monitors.
As they debated what they had just witnessed - a spectacular race that included a near-spill involving the finest jockeys and the fastest fillies and mares in the country - most were oblivious to the approaching start of the night’s local race card.
In the rapidly changing world of simulcasting, horse players here have access to big-league racing on a grand scale.
Watching and wagering on the best stimulates interest locally in a sport that has taken its share of hits in the 1990s.
In keeping with the upside of racing’s new age, Playfair has built a following by exporting via satellite its races to the East, through Philadelphia Park, and to Illinois through the Balmoral harness facility and its off-track sites.
But as horsemen and track officials attempt to build on a modest but encouraging national fan base, they face an alarming challenge that has driven far bigger facilities out of business.
How to prop up fading local support?
As the Spokane track gears up for Saturday’s biggest day in racing - the Breeders’ Cup - Playfair CEO Don Johnson and general manager Kim Rich are looking at fresh approaches to next year.
The Breeders’ Cup - seven championship races from Hollywood Park - starts at 10:55 a.m. with the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies. Playfair’s first race will go off 15 minutes later. Seven local races will be interwoven throughout the day with the seven Breeders Cup’ events.
A preliminary race, the Desert Stormer Handicap, goes off at 10 a.m. Doors open at 9. A Breeders’ Cup glass accompanies each paid admission while supplies last, Rich said. A prime rib brunch will be available.
It’s also a big day at Greyhound Park in Post Falls, where doors open at 6:30 a.m. for Calder Race Course. Greyhound Park will import full cards from 17 thoroughbred and greyhound tracks, GM Don Gross said. A breakfast buffet will be offered at 8. A dinner buffet will be served at 2, with $1 beverages and hot dogs throughout the day,
Although on-site dog racing is history in North Idaho, Greyhound Park continues to compete hard for the wagering dollar, with plans to upgrade.
Off-track betting operations there will be moved from the grandstand area to the clubhouse in December, Gross said. Racing will be presented in a casino-type OTB setting with a 51-inch TV monitor.
The 1,200 grandstand seats will be moved back and the area now housing off-track betting will be enclosed. A theater will be installed and conventions courted. Closed-circuit fights are planned, Gross said.
“If I can get a thousand guys in here to watch a fight, I bet I can get 10 percent of them to bet on a horse race,” Gross said.
The conversion could be completed as early as January, he said.
Johnson knows Playfair can’t afford to ignore the competition.
He said he’ll ask the state racing commission for a 43 to 46-day season starting next September. By then, off-track operations will be moved to the Paddock Lounge, where a new system of displaying information will be in place.
The positive side of the current season that ends Nov. 17 is the reception Playfair has generated out-of-state, Johnson said.
“We can look to see that grow, beginning next year,” he said.
While exporting was responsible for nights when the track’s wagering handle exceeded $500,000, only 3 percent of the out-of-state betting dollar comes back to the host track. So, for now, in-state wagering remains crucial.
Action on Playfair races at Washington state’s off-track betting sites picked up when the wagering pools grew, Johnson said. And pool sizes grew from out-of-state wagering.
“Can we sell the glamour of Playfair?” Johnson asked. “No. We’re not kidding ourselves. Can we sell large field size? Yes. And did it catch on? Yes.”
But as Playfair’s national audiences grew, local business continued to fall. The on-site daily handle - money bet by local players - averages $52,402, according to figures through Oct. 31 provided by Washington Horse Racing Commission.
“That’s terrible,” Johnson said. “That’s not a good number in a market this size.”
Ten years ago, Playfair was doing $300,000 a day locally.
“Where our state’s tracks must succeed is on track, and at in-state satellite locations,” said Bruce Batson, executive secretary of the racing commission. “While out-of-state dollars are revenue, and are encouraging, it takes a lot more of it to make any gains in funding purses and covering expenses.”
The answer?
“I don’t think there’s one single answer,” Johnson said. “Some things you can’t do in this state yet, some things you can, but I don’t think there’s any reason why we shouldn’t be at $250,000 from our primary market.”
That’s what Spokane businessman Stan Horton said when he headed a group that took over operations six years ago. Horton continues on in a less visible role, but his optimistic projections have fallen by the wayside.
A decade ago, track officials were appalled when the on-site handle dipped below $300,000 per day. Now, it’s one-sixth of that.
“We have to find some niche - either by marketing or by our presentation of product or multiple products,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of work to do going into next year, figuring out how to claw back that piece of our business from this market that we lost.”
How do you tap into the disposable income of a society that increasingly seems to define gambling as playing the stock market?
“This is kind of like the market,” Johnson said. “You have data and statistics that you cross-reference and compare. You have overlays and odds. It’s not that much different. The stock just happens to be an entry running in a race.
“And it might be at Santa Anita or Philadelphia Park. You can shop around now. Based on all the information you can digest, the stock you’re going to purchase is the No. 2 saddle cloth number at Philadelphia Park this morning, or maybe the No. 3 post in the afternoon with Gary Stevens on it from Santa Anita Park.”
If comparing racing to the market doesn’t fly in the minds of today’s young professionals, maybe different attractions will.
Johnson hopes to introduce harness racing in this state.
“When we’re running live (on-site horse racing), the dog track has more product than we do,” he said. “We want to create an additional product line that they don’t have.
“There are a lot of Canadians in this market who love harness racing. It’s huge back East. If we could build a following, it would be a pretty significant piece of business.”
Although the challenge of building business at home has high priority, expanding nationally is also on Johnson’s agenda.
“We’d love to get into New York if we can, but our focus is going to be picking up New Jersey and Maryland,” he said. “We want New Jersey to access the New York market. We might not get directly into New York by next year - they have some funny things going on with their law there - but maybe by the (following) year, we’ll have a shot at getting our program into New York City, into their OTB system.”
, DataTimes