Winning Bets, Losing Fans
Michael Gee went to the track with newbies on Saturday:
Cornelius, a Bruins fan of note, was the third member of our party. He’s roughly my son’s age. He had never been to a horse race. He didn’t know how to read a program or the Daily Racing Form, at first anyway. But before the nine-race card was half over, Cornelius cashed a big ticket, hitting an exacta that paid $97.20 for a two dollar bet. And he was hooked. By the seventh race, Cornelius had hit another exacta, was deep into exotic wagering, and observed, “maybe it’s a good thing for me this place is closing. I can see how this could get serious.â€
Cornelius was a lost opportunity for Suffolk Downs.
This is another way in which Suffolk’s closing will reverberate through the industry. A region without a racetrack is a region that isn’t feeding a lot of new racing fans and bettors into the game. That’s a hit, especially when the city without a track is as young and populous as the Boston metro area.
