Harness Racing Blog

By Carol Hodes

It looks like we are going to be able to fill it to the rim with Brim again. The coffee, which was marketed from 1961 until the mid 1990s, is about to make a return to supermarket shelves along with other seemingly “dead” brands. Volkswagen brought back the Beetle a few years ago and tapped into nostalgia for what is often perceived as a simpler time with better crafted products.

A Woodstock Museum is opening in upstate New York, a flashback to the middle of the last century [with or without hallucinogens].

So what does this have to do with harness racing?

Maybe it had to do with a comment Rachel Ryan of the Meadowlands said the other evening about the set of four monochrome mugs and coasters the track is going to give out on four successive Saturdays, starting June 21.

The giveaways will spotlight past Meadowlands Pace winners Niatross, Matt’s Scooter, Gallo Blue Chip and Nihilator.

“It’s a 60s look,” said the savvy marketing manager who was not born yet when that decade rocked the world.

But this is not about mugs either.

It is the idea that maybe what racing needs is not a reinvention of the industry but rather a look back on what is best about the product as a sport, form of entertainment and gambling option. And maybe there is a way to draw on the feelings that drew people to racing in the past.

Much has been said that racing is too slow for the fast action crowd that plays video games. So other than putting joysticks at each tote machine, this argument seems far from useful. With simulcasting broadcasts flashing on rows of flat screens, there is almost always a race going off to stimulate the easily bored.

A lot of folks think that baseball is too slow-moving and boring but if you offer the right setting, much as the premise behind the movie Field of Dreams suggests, “they will come.” The New York Yankees sell out nearly every home game and are currently averaging crowds in excess of 51,000. And they are only winning half of their games.

Some of the features that made racing special in the mid 20th century are irretrievably gone.

Where racing was once the only form of legal gambling [outside of Las Vegas] in the United States, betting options have grown exponentially.

Not only do casinos line the Boardwalk and Marina in Atlantic City but they have blossomed on Native American grounds and on riverboats.

The hybrid combination of slot machines [or video lottery terminals] at racetracks, known as racinos, are reproducing like rabbits. And much like the carrot eating analogy, there is a point at which there will be too many racinos, too close to each other, for any of them to thrive.

There is also the inevitable – and already sighted – questioning from legislators who approved racinos. Why support an activity that people don’t attend? Why share the proceeds of the slots with racing people when all of it could be routed to the state’s coffers?

While no one doubts the value of racinos to fuel purses now, will this eventually be seen as a deal with the Devil?

Lotteries, once restricted to once-a-week drawings to benefit worthy causes like education, have exploded into hundreds of forms of rub-offs and multi-state pools to satisfy the insatiable demands of state budget shortfalls.

Poker came into vogue thanks to the introduction of a simple little lipstick-sized camera that makes the game television-friendly. With overexposure, the obsession with poker may already be waning a bit. But it made celebrities of the gamblers and embraced celebrities who wanted to gamble.

Horse racing seems to be flailing around, looking for a way to save itself.

Maybe some of the answers rest in what made it healthy in the mid to late 20th century.

First, make the racetracks a warm and welcoming place to visit. Spend the funds necessary to refurbish and refresh facilities. Make sure the restrooms are clean, clean, clean [more on that later]. Post signs to help newcomers find their way to and around the grandstand. The goal is to grow, not only accommodate the hardcore.

Second, expand the advertising and marketing dollars to get the word out that racing is taking place. This may seem counter-intuitive when business is bad and budgets are being sliced. But the only way to stop the vortex that is sucking away business is to be more aggressive in positioning tracks as an entertainment alternative.

Yes, racetracks are a place of entertainment. While the gambling is the plasma by which tracks survive, the competition is doing a better job of siphoning off the “whales” or major players. The perks they can offer cannot be matched at the tracks.

On the other hand, racing is a great night [or day] of entertainment for a relatively modest price. Admission at most tracks is free or a dollar or two. Programs are [or should be] equally affordable. General parking should be free [like the neighboring malls].

Tracks should invest the time and effort to know what their community wants and expects from a dining out experience and meet or exceed those expectations. Racing is like dinner theater – a great show that complements a great meal. Keep it simple. Focus groups might help, but all it takes is a tour of the local eateries to see what people want and what price points will fly in that market.

Third, make sure the employees who are your front line with the customer are in on the game plan. They need to understand that their job and the future of the enterprise are on the line. Provide incentives [an extra day off, a bonus, a choice of assignments] to those who “get it” and purge those who do not.

It may not be easy in an era of lawsuits, but if the customer is not treated like the treasure he or she is, the next night out will be at Charlie Brown’s or Olive Garden, and the negative word of mouth will keep others away, too.

The customer, by the way, is not always right. By all means, make an effort to satisfy a customer’s complaint and find a way to resolve a problem. But if he [or she] is spitting, cursing and otherwise acting in a disruptive manner, throw him out.

Racetracks are not libraries or museums. They are a place for rowdy and enthusiastic cheering. But if the tone of the track is coarse and slimy, it will not be a place that most women will want to attend.

Which is why clean, clean, clean cannot be underestimated. If the bathrooms are not kept clean all the time and there is any hint of safety concerns, tracks will have lost the support of women.

It may have been lost on some folks but in most cases the decision on social events is in the hands of women who may already have an affection and affinity for horses. Make that a selling point.

This is not to say that the track needs to host a fashion show [although it is not the worst idea], but it does mean the facility needs look, feel and even smell clean, safe and friendly.

If newcomers have questions, they need a patient response, not a snippy retort, from people who want to be helpful, not just put in their time.

Coincidentally, author and equine educator Mary D. Midkiff wrote a column which appeared in the Long Island NY daily, Newsday, this Sunday [June 8, 2008]. In it she made the argument that it was women and their affection for the horseback riding disciplines who “gave horses a new lease on life” when their roles as a form of transportation waned.

Let’s face it. A lot of women who are interested in horse racing do so for the horse, not the gambling, but that affection could be captured to fuel a return to racing as a sports, entertainment and wagering option.

“Though the barn area affectionately and tellingly known as the ‘backside’ presents itself as a reasonably democratic place for female involvement, when it comes to major roles - training, riding [or driving] in races, breeding, owning, being a track official, serving as a track or racing association director, or holding a position of power in the industry - the scales are heavily weighted by, and toward, men,” Midkiff wrote.

“While such a huge imbalance between men and women almost always signals big trouble wherever it is found, racing’s gender gap - so powerfully counter to the trend in other horse sports - is an alarm bell that can no longer be ignored,” she argued.

So maybe it is time for racing to bring in new faces instead of recycling the same ones from track to track and from one industry leadership post to another.

And maybe it is also time to look back at what worked in the past.

Whether it is a mug collection that will be a constant reminder of a good time at the track or a prime rib dinner for less than $20 that was well-prepared and served, there are fresh and recycled ideas to be tried.

Horse racing should stop the self-flagellation and misplaced efforts to replicate the successes of others like professional wrestling, NASCAR and poker, and go back to what is at the heart of the industry – horses.

Safe tracks, healthy and drug-free horses, level playing fields, use of technology [how about putting those lipstick cameras on each horse’s head number?] and warm and friendly facilities would be great places to start.

Clearly, the current course that horse racing is following is flawed.