Horseracing Is For Horseplayers

While I like Handride's passion for the sport, I do not agree that horse racing will ever be a mainstream sport the way NFL/MLB/NBA is mainstream. First I am a horseplayer and second I am a fan who marvels at the view from the grandstand at Belmont. While the horses are gorgeous the view only captures my attention for a moment. What keeps me hooked in this game is that I am a dedicated horseplayer who keeps daily notes, maintains a database and has devised my own system to handicap races. A horseplayer has more in common with Bobby Fischer than he/she does with Joe Six Pack tailgating on Sunday afternoon. Horse racing is a niche sport and it caters to gamblers, horseplayers or punters. Horseplayers are people who seek out puzzles to unravel, these are people who are excited by unraveling complexity, and do not want to be emotionally manipulated by simplicity. Example after example proves without a doubt that horse racing is most successful in jurisdictions (HKG, AUS, LON, NYC,SIN, TYO, IRE) where gambling flourishes.



NBA/NHL/MLB/NFL needs a fantasy league because the games themselves are not engaging as a stand alone entity. There is not that much to think about if you are not gambling on a pro-sports game. It is sit, watch the commercials and root type of thing. The TV talks and you listen. The info streams in from the TV, from the computer and from the handheld device. It is mostly a one way info stream. The engagement for the pro-sports fan involves an emotional attachment to one team. The profit for the NFL is in having that emotionally attached fan going out to order a TV package, buy $120 jerseys, $130 sneakers and $75 fathead wall posters. The expression of the pro-sports fan is in consuming. The expression of a horseplayer is in wagering.


Racing can not rival those pro-sports games in the merchandising department. Racing is not selling a fantasy or emotional projection, racing is providing the vehicle for you to challenge your mind. Nobody is going to go out and buy $120 Merlin Circle(well maybe me) sneakers. Take away that blind emotional fan attachment and the pro-sports games are a bore if you do not have action on the games. If games are a bore racing is even more of a huge bore if you do not have an opinion on the races.


Where racing diverts from team sports is that there is nearly nil rooting interest on a daily basis with racing. If racing had a fantasy following like the NFL this fantasy would neglect 99% of racing's content. However all is not lost for what the pro-sports game lacks racing holds in spades. Racing is a tremendous mental puzzle, when the game is healthy and the racing is robust there is nothing better than a day at the track. If you open up an account with any ADW and you have just bought a ticket to the greatest game going and your favorite team is your account balance.

Why waste the public's time and market the game as small time fantasy when the game is the greatest gambling orgy known to man? There are small time micro-sites available to rein in the newbies. YOUBET.NET is where you can open a play bankroll account. Road to the Roses is a derby prep fantasy. TVG had a fantasy league a few years ago that was a abject failure. With failure staring right in your face why continue to bang your head against the wall with fantasy games? Even a play money exercise is more engaging than a fantasy game where you have to wait for the Saturday stakes to see your horse win so you can get a point or two. What about the other 1000 races a week where there are no graded stakes horses? These fantasy games are for entry level fans of the game and most quickly move past entry level fan to full blown horseplayer in a matter of months.


How can you sell the sport as a list of top horses while the mental challenge of handicapping is neglected? This game is massive rush when you start to open up your mind to the form of the thoroughbred. The juice is in building opinions and the benefit is in bridging new synapses in your brain while discovering ideas about what constitutes winning form. Breaking down puzzles is what fuels the interest in racing.

Suddenly in the last two years sending a colt to stud is not as profitable as it once was. Some of the factors pushing away casual fans are turning around. The racing game is gaining economic appeal over the breeding game. This should help keep stakes horses in training for a few more years. This could widen the appeal for the entry level fans of the game.


Another problem is too much racing. It makes the product unpalatable on a daily basis for all but the must dedicated of horseplayers. This problem is also attempting to correct itself. Tracks going bankrupt is an excellent thing for the overall health of the game. There is too much racing and not enough horses. Short term pain means long term vigor. On any Saturday during the summer there are a dozen (SAR,MTH,SUF,PHA,DEL,CNL,CT, MNR,PEN, WO, FL, PID) tracks running on a Saturday along the east coast, this is too much racing and this goes on 7 days a week almost every week of the year. The product is watered down and needs to right size down to a quality product. Right sizing the game is a dirty job but fortunately the hand of market forces will do the dirty job.

With less entertainment options and a more concentrated version of the game bored sports fans who are looking for a challenge will be drawn in to the greatest show on turf. Patrick is doing a great job of pushing the game into the present, but let's not lose sight of what the game really is.

Customer Service Improvements At Aqueduct

Can you think of a group that is more filled with lament than horseplayers? These people are angry and they will give you dozens of reasons to justify that anger. They have the nose beats on the wire, questionable DQ's that cost them a fortune, jockey error, mutuel clerk error, tracks ignoring their concern and high takeout. With all of this adversity it is easy for a horseplayer to justify a foul mood. Find a horseplayer within his domain at the track and a complain session can break out and any moment. This is why it is important for tracks to look like they care and to stroke their patrons. It looks like NYRA is on the right track with the introduction of the new VIP club for players that bet a modest amount. After years of disconnect between management and the patrons, slowly a relation is building between NYRA and its patrons.
















PERSONAL WORKSTATIONS IN THE NYRA VIP ROOM

Opening a VIP club at a New York race track is not as easy as it looks. NYRA had proposed this VIP club within the track years ago but the NYSRWB blocked it over and over again to protect the government interests at OTB. Now that the club has finally been approved it is a step in the right direction for racetrack customer service. This shows that NYRA cares about customer service and is willing to fight against government corruption to ensure that it is taking care of their customers.


As someone that bets a modest $1000 a month on a NYRA rewards account I am eligible to be part of the club. This makes me feel good about going to the track. When I bring a non-tracky friend that has not been to Aqueduct he/she may now get the impression that the track is a place where they will take care of you and thay might even be under the false impression that powercap is an important big-shot. Horseplayers relish feeling like a big-shot, big-wig or big-cheese. This whole game of picking winners is a exercise in ego and stroking the ego is something that the track must try to do as much as possible for its patrons. For the track to expand its business the players must associalte the racetrack with their ego and how great they are at picking winners. NYRA has found a way to stroke everyones ego in a very economical way.

Back in the old days(spring 2008 and earlier) the VIP room the "Sunny Jim room" was a simulcast area with dozens of TV and chairs where you can watch every race from Boston to California. The Sunny Jim did not have a unique role in the facility it was just like any other area where anyone could watch a race. The modest improvements NYRA has made to the room is a new floor, new decor, a free continental breakfast buffet and dozens of workstations where the players have their own dedicated monitor/wagering terminal. With just modest improvements and a host controlling access NYRA has created the best place to play horses in the area. It is comfortable, you can drink all the coffee you can handle and there is a TV in front of you that allows bets up to when the latch pops on any race in the country.















REWARDS ROOM DECOR FEATURES A OLD TIME BOOKMAKER THEME


Any racing wagering facility should work on something like this to take care of their repeat customers. While other sports leagues are draining their customers with high ticket prices, there is a window of opportunity for racing to separate itself as a sport that cares for their patrons. Being considered a VIP is a validating experience that makes the horseplayer feel good about his handicapping and will even make losing a positive experience. Making horseplayers feel good will increase the likelihood that new horseplayers are recruited to the ranks and the game grows. Vegas has played this game for decades it is time for racing to get into the customer stroking game. In an industry where the participants are increasingly fighting for a bigger piece of a smaller pie it is vital that someone is growing the pie. NYRA is attempting to grow the pie. Most people that become a member of the NYRA VIP room will be inclined to become dedicated NYRA rewards horseplayers. This is the edge that the brick and mortar joints should exploit. Internet ADW's can not set up a VIP room in their patrons homes. A racetrack can do a physical stroking while the ADW is a distant entity far away. There are lights at the end of the racing tunnel.

Stuff People Say At The Track

On Saturday I went down to Aqueduct for the afternoon. After handicapping the card I was looking forward to the seventh race where my key horse for the day was running. It was a bitterly cold day with temps in the teens and windchills near zero. A day where the trainers. grooms and jockeys earned every dollar they won.


The wagering highlight of the day loomed in the seventh race, this is the race that would make or break my day. Saint Daimon had a great chance to win and would be a price. This was a great betting race on account that the odds on favorite had only a small chance to win and was being bet by the crowd due to some winning consecutive races at minor league Suffolk downs many months ago. Today the favorite Palmer's Approach was facing older stakes winners, real hard knockers many class levels above what he has ever faced, it is rare to find such a vulnerable heavy bet favorite in New York where the crowd is on-point so much of the time.

Looking forward to the race and with so much of the bankroll riding on Saint Daimon I wanted to go to the paddock and eyeball the horses, especially since the key horse was running off a June layoff. Another reason for heading down there was to share some words of encouragement with my favorite jockey, the cagey vetern Jean-luc Samyn who has been riding in the New York area for 33 years. Samyn is a jockey that started riding before the opening of Giants stadium in New Jersey and will likely remain a local sports icon while Giants Stadium feels the sting of the wrecking ball in the near future. This is like Babe Ruth playing on while Yankee Stadium is destroyed or Julius Caesar outreigning the Collasieum. Samyn is a monument to self preservation and passion for the game, a Jockey who has been a stalwart of the circuit since the mid 1970's. Saint Daimon looked great in the paddock and Jean-Luc Samyn looked like he was freezing on his only mount of the day. When we called out to Samyn he looked strait ahead and ignored us.

The race unfolded just like a suspected it would, Saint Daimon pressed the pace, outdueled the 3-4 chalk Palmers Approach and drew off in the lane to score at 9-1. Not only was it a great win but the price was tremendous especially in the multi race exotics. So when Jean-Luc Samyn guided Saint Daimon back to the winners circle me and my boy gave Samyn a warm welcome with shouts of "you the man" and SAMYN!!. Jean-Luc did not look up and acknowledge our calls.

While were showering Jean-Luc with praise for not only setting up a huge score for us but for risking his life in zero degree weather another fan entered the area near the paddock. This other fan was just as vocal as me and my partner but had a different opinion. This gambler emerged from the grandstand like he was shot out of a cannon just as Saint Daimon was getting his picture taken. This gambler dispensed a verbal cluster bomb directed at Samyn and Saint Daimon. He was a working class Italian American man about 60 years old, reasonably dressed in casual slacks and a full head of hair dark hair. This fan exploded with a a barrage of obscenity launched at Samyn. The tirade was the verbal equivalent of a cluster bomb. This guy blasted Samyn with how he never wins a f*%3ing race (it was Samyns first win of the year), moved on to how everyone that bets on Samyn loses all their motherloving money, how Samyn is a f&%$ing stiff and it was about time that he got paid off from Samyn's f#^!ng mount. Samyn is 52 years old, just risked his life so we could make a huge score in brutally cold weather and he had to take a huge amount of verbal abuse when the race was over. The brutality of racing was on full display.

Now I know why Samyn does not engage with the fans at the Big-A. The abuse from the degenerates is raw, powerful and mean. Right then and there I understood why racing can not attract a big crowd on a non-tv race day. If malls are roamed by poodles, baseball games attended by Boston Terriers, football fans are mutts, racing is attended by Pit Bulls. The most dangerous of dogs. The racing fan degenerates are brutal and it is frequent public verbal tirades that keeps the upstanding type people far away. I really felt bad for Samyn after absorbing that abuse, but as someone that has been at the track for decades I am sure he took it in stride as part of the game. Racing is real and the and the bad is not euphemized and hidden away. While this rawness may be unique it is not a huge selling point prompting the masses to pour into the track.

Las Vegas Checks In On Fans and Gamblers

Thanks to Paul Moran to sparking some interesting debate during this frigid winter about this anachronistic sport. I pulled myself out of the local OTB just long enough to read the posts and jump in with a comment of my own. To settle this argument you have to go to the top of the gambling world, Las Vegas. Las Vegas was once of town of smooth independent operators who catered to gamblers and turned a rest stop in the middle of the desert to the largest gambling mecca in the world. Then Vegas took a detour from its reputation of taking care of gamblers after a corporate takeover. Now that everything has settled in Vegas horse racing can learn from Las Vegas' family marketing experiment of the 1990's. After this adventure in casual fans does Vegas 2009 cater to gamblers or casual guests?















Now Extinct MGM Grand Theme Park 1998

While horse racing is a sport, it is also gaming and has more in common with gaming since horse racing feeds at the same trough as gaming. Ball sports make their hay from broadcasting rights and ticket sales. Horse racing has much to learn from Las Vegas' casual fan adventure of the 1990's. When Vegas casino ownership transitioned from independent operators to corporate operators in the late 1980's and early 1990's the new corporate ownership was looking for growth markets. Always sapped for new ideas the new corporate ownership leaned on the highly successful corporate giant Disney as the example to model their marketing plans after. Theme parks were built, character costumes were donned and Vegas marketed heavily to the casual gaming fan, the family. Instead of going out for a weekend of blackjack families were going to Vegas to ride the roller coaster at the Stratosphere and the suits hoped that dad and mom would drop a grand on the Wheel Of Fortune slots. It did not work out that way as these casual guests were taking the place of the old gamblers who where the lifeblood of the industry. Marketing to the casual fan and the family was a complete disaster for Las Vegas and was quickly abandoned.


Corporate run casinos like MGM Grand built theme parks on their property to attract families to go to Vegas. Circus Circus constructed the adventure dome, NY NY built a roller coaster outside on the strip and the Excalibur build a midway strait out of your local carnival. Millions and millions were invested to attract a casual non-traditional gambling crowd. It was billed as the new family friendly Vegas and the experiment ended as a complete failure.













Circus Circus Adventuredome Another Casual Fan Failure

Slick operators like Steve Wynn of Mirage and Bellagio fame, who had a gambling background stretching back to New Jersey bingo games did not take the family route and profited while the corporate new jacks floundered. While MGM grand was wasting it's time and rooms on stiffs riding roller coasters Wynn was filling the rooms with the action junkies and hardcore gamblers that filled the coffers of the casino. Horse Racing should do everything in it's power to emulate Steve Wynn and how he aggressively marketed to whales and other known gamblers. MGM Grand has learned its lesson and has since closed MGM Grand adventures and replaced it with only 29 luxury bungalow suites designated to attract high rollers to stay at it's property. MGM grand learned the hard way that 29 high rollers produce more revenue that an entire theme park full of casual fans. The Beaver family is out and Tommy The Fish who loves to roll those bones in. The Casinos like Circus Circus and Stratosphere that kept their family attractions have not fared very well.












Bungalow Suites That Replaced The MGM Theme Park Las Vegas

Do any racetrack get it? NYRA should be commended as the braintrust there finally understands. NYRA offered a nice comped Breeders Cup buffet to it's best players and also a luxury VIP room to the better players at Aqueduct. The attempt to market Curlin this year as an attendance driver was a complete failure. The free buffet and VIP room are the kinds of things gamblers like, they want to feel loved before they get screwed by photo finish on the wire. The more the gamblers feel loved the more they will bet and the better the game will get which will draw in the casual fans too. The casual fans are nice to have around, but are more like browsers in a store, a store needs to value its customers over its browsers.