CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED TRAINERS
Insoluble problems?
W
E are continually faced by great opportunities, brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems. Or so goes the old saying. Those of us who have survived the ongoing decline of racing in California, with the recent closure of major tracks in both the north and the south (Bay Meadows and Hollywood Park), and the imminent abandoning of racing and training at the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds at Pomona by year’s end, will soon be finding out if the opportunities really do outdistance the problems. On June 29, Santa Anita reached the end of its first six-month season in history, racing without significant interruption from Christmas onward. Its ownership reaped enormous gains – a veritable windfall – from on-track attendance and total handle when compared with Hollywood Park’s previous numbers for ten incremental weeks this spring, including the Triple Crown dates. With Los Alamitos racing the final two of Hollywood’s former summer weeks bridging into the traditional Del Mar seven-week season, the net impact for the industry’s financial health, especially purse generation, is yet to be seen. The sport’s perennial lack of strategic planning, on both a regional as well as national scale, has brought us to this point. After all, it’s not as though tracks around America haven’t been closing continually over the last halfcentury. In fact, since 1950, more than 25 significant tracks have closed in all regions of North America, even as our Thoroughbred foal crops were growing toward the all-time 1986 peak, and the more recent (though significantly lower) 2005 peak, from which the numbers have now plunged to 1968 levels. This consolidation of venues can’t be considered surprising: real estate values have consistently risen over the decades, leading to lower and lower return on investment for track operators when considering alternative uses for each of
06 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com ISSUE 33
By Alan F. Balch CTT Executive Director
“Simply put, the supply of North American racing opportunities has far outstripped the supply of quality horses” their hundreds of acres in metropolitan areas. At the same time, the proliferation of simulcasting and all forms of electronic gaming have exploded. What some might consider surprising is the industry’s failure to respond to the evolving situation (with a very few notable exceptions) through innovation, realistic thinking, and fierce marketing. The fundamental appeal of racing as sport and entertainment remains as strong as ever. One need only look at this year’s Triple Crown saga of California Chrome for confirmation of its popular appeal, or the record-setting attendance at Royal Ascot. Anyone who attended those races had to be struck not just by the upbeat mood, but by the youthful demographics. The same is true of racing at Keeneland, Del Mar, Saratoga, and many of Santa Anita’s promoted days, not to mention the Opening Day of the new season at Los Alamitos. So, what’s the problem? Simply put, the supply of North American racing opportunities has far outstripped the supply of quality horses. More important, it has overwhelmed the public’s appetite, given the day-to-day mediocrity of the sport, especially since the supply of horses has regressed to levels of nearly 50 years ago. In 1968, Santa Anita raced 11 weeks a year, for 55 days of sport; Hollywood Park raced like
numbers. The gaps were filled in by first-class racing in Northern California. Top horses ventured East in the fall, and good stables from there came to California in the winter. The tremendous success of that kind of schedule spawned relentless expansion, everywhere, which “worked” in the sense that the supply of horses grew apace until 1986. In California, the calendar expanded to nearly 52 weeks of racing in both ends of the state. Can you imagine what would have happened to the Olympic Games if its leadership had said, “well, we did record business in 1984. So let’s starting having the Olympics every year.” Or even every month! Nationwide, the problems of unbalanced demand and supply are at least as bad if not worse than in California. And these problems are simply exacerbated by day and night simulcasting throughout the year of seemingly infinite opportunities to bet on horse racing. The available supply of pari-mutuel wagering opportunities has – to put it bluntly – expanded infinitely and beyond all reason. There’s no going back, however, since any lull in activity in one location is instantly filled by electronic opportunities from other locations, somewhere in the world. If you’re having a hard time seeing the great opportunities presented by these seemingly insoluble problems, you’re not alone. I’m reminded of Sir Winston Churchill’s wife Clementine telling him when his party was defeated immediately after Britain’s winning World War II that it might be a blessing in disguise. “My dear,” he said, “if it’s a blessing, it is indeed very well disguised.” The last thing we need is defeatism, although it’s never been more tempting. What we do need is aggressive leadership – our sport’s structural vacuum is worse than ever, and a prime reason we’ve had little if any strategic planning. We see a great deal of meeting and posturing on important medication and safety issues, but very little if any on strategy, management, marketing, and structure of the sport. Without those, how does anyone seriously think we’ll make progress on the subsidiary issues, however important they are? Although the federal government’s possible involvement in the sport is seen as a panacea by some, I find that “solution” less than alluring. Uncle Sam’s past performances are not of stakes caliber, to say the least. Perhaps, however, that very prospect could be the catalyst for a serious and wide-ranging brainstorming of what it would take to address and resolve the strategic and structural dilemmas we face, from which all real blessings would flow. n