A PROMISING START VS. A GRAND FINALE
By Ray Paulick
I was feeling pretty good about Santa Anita’s opening day program on Saturday, the day after Christmas. There was a lot to like about this 75th anniversary of Thoroughbred racing at Southern California’s Great Race Place: two Grade 1 races, full fields, a curtain call by Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Zenyatta, the unveiling of the John Henry statue, the annual wall calendar giveaway, and the presentation of $260,000 to retirement and rescue operations from CARMA, the organization funded by California owners.
It was a big day, with more than 35,000 fans in attendance and total handle of almost $15 million, nearly one third of that on-track.
Then, on Sunday morning, I got a press release from the Japan Racing Association about their final program of the year from Nakayama Race Course in Tokyo, where more than 115,000 fans turned out in chilly weather to watch the season-ending Arima Kinen horse race. Those fans, along with others at OTBs or watching at home, wagered a total of $550 million on the day’s program.
The wagering total is three times higher than American racing’s biggest day of all time, the 2006 Kentucky Derby, when $175 million was bet. The 2009 Breeders’ Cup, a two-day affair, just topped $150 million in total handle.
So the JRA handled more than half a billion dollars on one program. Of that total, $440 million was wagered on the Arima Kinen, an invitational race where the starting field is selected by a popular vote of racing fans. It was a very big day for Japanese racing, even though the year’s biggest star, reigning Horse of the Year Vodka, the probable favorite to repeat in that role, was unable to run because she bled in the Japan Cup in late November.
So what’s the point of this comparison between American and Japanese racing? I think we’ve got some upside. There has been and will continue to be retraction in the number of tracks and races run here each year, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing in the long run. If major players in this industry can somehow create a better structure for the sport and develop a national strategy, I am convinced we can be stronger and secure a better future. And, no, this isn’t an early April Fool’s Day column. Saturday’s opening day program at Santa Anita showed what a compelling and great sport horse racing can be. If only we can get our act together.
Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report
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Tags: Arima Kinen, Breeders' Cup, carma, japan cup, japan racing association, John Henry, kentucky derby, Nakayam Race Course, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, santa anita, vodka, zenyatta
December 28th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Only when there is a commissioner with “Judge Landis” power will there ever be a chance of bringing sanity to a sport/industry that lives comfortably in the past, is baffled by the present and is clueless about a clear vision for the future.
December 28th, 2009 at 12:45 pm
I am on the email list for Santa Anita. I am not sure I have received even one email about the current Santa Anita meet.
I also subscribe to their RSS feed. Usually the only thing that comes through that feed is Jeff Siegel’s Santa Anita Analysis.
Their lack of effective use of these two technologies says volumes about their inability to attract a younger audience.
December 28th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
If Magna is involved it will probably self destruct….. Frank Stronach should have stayed in the car parts business.
December 28th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
You’re right Ray. Racing is compelling on many levels, whether it’s the love of the horse or the love of the gamble, or both. However, racing needs to be deregulated dramatically to allow the track owners to adapt to the times that are forever and rapidly a-changing. I don’t think a central authority would be beneficial at all. I would rather see each entreprenuer decide their own fate and rise and fall on their own merits - just like bettors. Unfortuneately, racing seems to be going in the wrong direction and only time will tell who has fell and who’s been left behind.
December 28th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
i continue to be amazed so many seem to believe problems are solved by “contracting” the sport. Every other Paulick column so refers.
For who’se benefit? What does the ever vocal KY breeding industry think concerning :”contraction”? The blood stock agents? Normal owners without minor league tracks to race their stock? Everybody on the horse side except those very few seeking to “capture” the sport for their own benefit? Is there anyone to make a case other than to find the solution to every problem to be contraction and national regulation? Do we want NASCAR or WWF or strength in numbers and a democratic, ubiquitous sport with the potential for mass participation?
December 28th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Rapid makes the point that contraction is not good for the horsemen but offers no alternative to what is an oversupply of product in a disorganized supply and delivery system. In my opinion, if we were able to concenrate our collective resources on promoting a narrower and more focused end product, as in major league baseball, we could better organize our sport into a minor league “farm-track” system with an organizational and operational structure that the public can follow. It would require regional scheduling, purse standardizartion, broader sharing of resources across state lines, and, therefore is exteremely diffciult, but not impossible; provided some convening authority could enable that cooperation. The goal would be to produce a more focused product for a broader and deeper distribrution in multimedia, with easy acces to funding and wagering, like JRA, and still have a broad based demand for horses and horsemen that would work their racing careers through that farm system. Myriad issues but i think that we need a structural plan first.
December 28th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
The people in our industry would rather have a Shootout at the OK Corral until there’s only one left standing, though wounded or crippled, rather than cooperate. HRTV vs. TVG. Twinspires vs. Expressbet. Santa Anita vs. Hollywood Park. Tracknet vs. the world. And then we’ve got all those organizations, starting with our own CTBA, TOC, TOBA, TRA, NTRA, HBPA , Jockey Club and all the rest. They only seem to care about survival.
December 28th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
Jeff True–”no alternative to oversupply of the product in a disorganized supply and delivery system”.
premise is true in one sense and highly misleading in another, depending on your goals in the sport.
If you are a gambler, needless to say you look for neatness, and the small number of highly predictable races you get with expensive stock at major meetings. Your profits go up, and so do those of the few involved owners and tracks that are permitted in. As you noted, think NFL, NBA, MLB, who have, what, 100 owners combined. Or think NASCAR and google the complaints of those many in car racing that are shut out by this organization. you can get in and race, if you have millions of dollars. That is what the Paulick Report seems to be pushing.
If you are on the horse side of the equation, you have the dream of owning a professional franchise, being able to get in at relatively low cost, and having numerous venues to race your athletes. This is possible when there are many race tracks, numerous racing days, a strong internet marketing system that actually bothers to advertise its product in a public venue (ain’t happening at present), and a track leadership that understands the importance of strength in numbers.
Horse racing is other than a team sport. It is an individual game more akin to human track and field. When you “contract” you eliminate athletes and participants. Paulick implies “for the greater good”. someone needs to respond to that bogus argument. It is hardly for the greater good to be eliminated from the sport by a few deep pockets, for the sake of what?
December 28th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
California Breeder—you hit the nail squarely on the head. Each organization in Thoroughbred racing cares only about their own self-interests. I think it starts with racetrack management, most of whom want to compete with the casinos rather than improving their own product. Way too much of everybody protecting their own turf instead of looking at the big picture and improving Thoroughbred racing as a whole.
Ray—if you think contracting is a good idea, ask the small owners and breeders who would likely be the first to be squeezed out, how they feel about being downsized. Thoroughbred racing could be the way General Motors used to be, if we had inspired leadership. Why should we settle for a model of the way GM is today?
December 28th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Focus on the top 10% of racing and make it racing an event again. Make it transparent and change the public’s perception of racing by making the top 10% great and fan oriented. If this segment of racing is great then the rest will be improved by the rising tide. This is what they did in Japan and look at the industry there now.
Let the remaining 90% of racing can continue to be run the same way that it always has been. When the public perception of the horse industry is changed by the top tier then the rest of the industry wil benefit. It will cost a lot less to make the top 10% of racing great instead of trying to fix the entire industry.
Quality over quantity.
Stop complaining and moaning about what is wrong and start to come up with some ideas to improve the sport. Not aimed at you Ray but all those who continue to whine on this blog but never give any ideas to fix the sport.
December 28th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Rapid -
Your argument sounds familiiar. Not only did I once agree with it, I was paid to make it. But in the 12 years since, for a litany of reasons, the “sport” has failed to put forth a sustainable plan for growing its revenue base. When that revenue base depends on betting customers for handle growth we have too much product and not enough relevant/coherent distribution. Neither the Tracks and ADW’s nor the horsemen can sustain the status quo.
At the end of the day, what I am now advocating is not necessarily a drastic reduction in horses or tracks anyway. I think we need to re-organize the structure of the game and focus that which gets delivered to the broadest part of the market. I am horsemen enough to know the numbers that it takes to get a full betting card or to get a horse worth writiing about. We must have a critical mass of raw material (broad based racing and breeding) to generate enough high end product (full competitive fields) to be sustainable. I also know that there is some product out there that does no one any good. So, yes, some needs to be taken off the table.
December 28th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Gina –
You are so stupendously wrong that is boggles the mind.
The reason that every major sport restricts franchises is because concentration of quality sells, while dilution of quality sends fans to the exits. The same is true of horse racing.
Why on earth do you think that handles and purses in Hong Kong and Japan dwarf those in the U.S.? And yes, gamblers will respond to better quality racing by betting more, winning more, and returning more often.
Everyone has dreams, but those of small owners and breeders are incompatible with the only possible successful business model that the American racing industry can successfully support.
December 28th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Jeff True said…………”But in the 12 years since, for a litany of reasons, the “sport” has failed to put forth a sustainable plan for growing its revenue base.”
Let’s see……How about……..Lowering takeout?
I’m sure that the “sport” and the many people who are employed in top positions like yourself might/should be able to understand with trifecta takeouts that are 25%-31%, racing has no chance to grow it’s revenue base. Yet nowhere in your comments do you mention takeout reduction would help….just a reduction of racing.
December 29th, 2009 at 6:23 am
I wonder how many people would attend baseball games if the first 8 innings were played by the farm teams and only in the ninth do we see the Yankees vs Red Sox. My guess is not too many.
The industry needs to understand that most races are minor league and that only the connections and hard core gamblers care about them. The high end races are a real sport, not just a gambling opportunity. Packaged right, with much better drug testing and safety for the horses and riders, there is a chance major league racing could have much broader appeal. Is it likely? No.
December 29th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
So again let’s blame it all on the mom and pop operations.The backbone of the industry.If the mom and pops go,this industry will die.
December 29th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
THE FIRST THING THAT ca has to do>>resurface the tracks in the whole state back to DIRT
the most famous horses in the usa since the 1800’s have run on dirt,not that polyxxxx.let the euros & japs run on he turf (breederscup) like they do anyway when they come over here.
December 29th, 2009 at 5:43 pm
I do not, (after a lot of careful thought) believe the contraction of tracks is of any real benefit to horse racing. All major sports are expanding franchises, not contracting. Hockey was only 6 or 8 teams in the frozen north when I started watching 50 years ago. Why is an Atlanta, or Denver, or Kansas City, or Charlotte, (where there is no horse track), better for racing than a city with a track , even is a weak one?
Comparing the USA horse fan to the Japanese horse fan is a real stretch. The leading cause of death in Japan is boredom. Nothing to do, and no place to go, living in a 500 sq. ft box. Racing is almost the only game in town.
We can thank the Japanese for all the complication in our product world too. Most boring country in the world, grid locked, no place to go, nothing to do but set at home and read the owners manual. Might as well, there is no room on the highways to drive so why not spend the weekend in the parking garage playing with the multiple setting, computer controlled, user actuated automatic seat adjuster? Boooooring!!!!
But we are Americans; and we’ve got so many wonderful entertainment alternatives. The winner will be the hobby, sport, or interest that captures our imagination.
December 30th, 2009 at 12:24 am
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December 30th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
“If only we can get our act together”. The key word - IF.
“IF, divides nations”. Wish I could remember who said it.
“If my aunt…… ……… …….. …………. ……….. uncle”.
IF? It will not happen.
December 30th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
You missed one important point. Horse slaughter is legal in Japan and socially accepted. When they are done with the product they slaughter and eat it. Not something we can accept here.