When I go to a hockey game at Madison Square Garden, I have limited choice in how much I want to spend to go. I can pay hundreds of dollars a game for seats on the glass, or I can pay $50 for the cheapest seats in the arena, or I can pay something in between. If I want to see the game, I accept one of the options the Garden offers me, and my ticket money is what helps to fund renovations, player salaries and administrative costs.
Going to the racetrack is different. Admission to Aqueduct is free; getting into Belmont or Saratoga costs $3, pretty much the same as it cost a century ago. Probably a bit luxurious then, it’s a total bargain now.
The gate isn’t what funds racing’s salaries, operating expenses, and purse money for the owners, jockeys, and trainers. What funds racing is the money that goes through the betting windows, and while everybody has to pay the $3 to get in, beyond that, you don’t have to spend a single dime to watch the show go on.
And that’s a problem. Horse racing is an expensive show, and handle—the money wagered—has been declining steadily. People are still gambling, but lotteries and casinos offer other, and often easier, ways to bet.
At the 2011 Jockey Club Round Table in Saratoga Springs, New York, Michael Lamb and Dan Singer of McKinsey and Company presented the results of a study commissioned by the Jockey Club, which is the breed registry for Thoroughbred horses in this country, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It controls which Thoroughbreds are permitted to register and be raced, and while it has limited authority over racetracks’ day-to-day operations, it does exert influence in the sport.
Based on the results of a McKinsey consumer survey of 1,800 current potential fans, Lamb and Singer reported that people don’t gamble on horse racing is it’s too complicated; they don’t understand and are overwhelmed by the information provided in track programs and other past performances.
This summer, America’s Best Racing, a “multi-media new fan development and awareness-building platform” sponsored by the Jockey Club, launched what it calls Racing 101, designed to educate track patrons about wagering and encourage them to gamble while at the races.
Racing 101 set up tents at several major racing events this summer, including the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey; the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York; and the Pacific Classic at Del Mar near San Diego.
Staffed by professional handicappers and race analysts and equipped with betting windows and closed circuit televisions of the races, the tents offered fans the chance to get personalized betting advice, to learn to read past performances, and to participate in Q&A’s with jockeys and trainers.
One of Racing 101’s fan educators is Brian Nadeau, who handicaps New York racing for Horseplayernow.com (and is the Triple Crown race analyst at Brooklyn Backstretch, my website). One of the strengths of the program, according to him, is individualized wagering instruction.
“We try to figure out what kind of a bettor you are,” he said on Travers Day at Saratoga. “The first thing we usually ask is: how much do you want to bet on each race, and how much do you want to win?
“Some people just want to win; they’re happy with a $4 show bet. Some people want to try to win $1,000 and don’t care if they lose $50 trying.”
Joe Kristufek, a Racing 101 fan educator who is also the morning line maker and racing analyst at Arlington Park, often kicks off the racing day with a brief overview of the racing program and past performances.
“Everyone wants to learn something different,” he explained. “Some people want to learn how to figure out the handicapping puzzle, some people just want to have fun. We want to show them how to cash a ticket.”
Not all racing information, he pointed out, is contained in the program. Jill Byrne, the director of on-air communications and marketing at Churchill Downs, as well the track’s official handicapper and racing analyst, and Caton Bredar, a broadcaster who works with HRTV and Horseplayer Now, recently stood before the tent’s television and talked about the physicality of horses in the paddock and post parade.
And while assessing a horse’s physical appearance might fall into the “expert” category, Kristufek also dispenses some pretty basic advice to track rookies.
“Bring money,” he said. “The betting machines don’t take credit cards.”
“We get a lot of first-timers,” said Byrne, “which I love, because it means we’re getting new fans out to the race track. And they want to wager: they’re not here just for the atmosphere or the party—they really want to invest in racing.”
One tip she offers is to look at jockey and trainer statistics, which are listed in the past performances.
“Those stats are a simple handicapping tool that people can use; they can identify trainers and jockeys that consistently win, and generally cash a ticket if they bet a couple of dollars on their horses.”
Stephan Panus, vice president of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, asserts that such individual tutorials will lead fans to leads fans to gain confidence to bet, increasing handle that day and on subsequent visits to the track.
Next stops for Racing 101 are Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California on Saturday, September 29th and Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky on October 6th. Until then, America’s Best Racing offers a series of wagering tutorial videos at its website.
While Nadeau agrees that a first foray into betting on horses can be overwhelming, he doesn’t think first impressions need to be an impediment. “It’s overload, but the program isn’t not hard to read if you know what you’re doing,” he said. “It’s actually very easy once you learn it.”
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