“It’s Dying”
I went to Suffolk Downs on Thursday afternoon to see a horse and place a Kentucky Derby future wager. There was a small clubhouse crowd of regulars marking up the Form and trading stories about the horses they almost had. In the grandstand, the TVs were turned on, but the first floor concourse was empty and I watched a race alone before heading out the far doors and toward the backstretch. I called my trainer friend to ask in which barn I’d find the horse, and, as long as I had him on the phone, asked what he thought of Suffolk’s decision to cancel its open stakes program this year. “It’s dying,” he said. “It’s the clearest sign yet that the track is dying.”
That’s pessimism. And my friend’s not the only one who feels that way. Another trainer told John Connolly of the Boston Herald that, “We’re looking at the beginning of the end here,” and connected the track’s decision to the state lottery’s announcement the day before that a new Keno-style horseracing game would be unveiled this fall. Suffolk COO Robert O’Malley insists the call was made for strictly financial reasons. “We had a terrible first quarter,” said O’Malley. “I’m a half-million behind in money for purses. And the [purse account], from which we got $1.2 million in 2003, and $800,000 last year, will give us only $200,000 this year. The account is practically empty. I’m just about $1 million short, and this will give us $1 million in savings.”
So, canceling the MassCap and the rest of the open stakes saves a million this year. And the year after that? “The handwriting is on the wall for racing around here,” O’Malley said. “We were forced to give up the frills this year with the elimination of the MassCap, and if we don’t get slots this year, or are adversely affected by a virtual racing game, next year we would probably be forced to cut daily purses to survive” (Daily Item of Lynn). Of course, if Suffolk does that, it will be even more difficult to attract horsemen to Massachusetts for the short meet. A new racing bill must be passed by the end of 2005; perhaps hope for Suffolk can be found in the state legislature, either by the passage of an equitable racing bill that props up purse money, or by slots legislation.
But slots or state subsidies are only short-term solutions. I confess: I’m a reluctant slots supporter. I’m eager to see Suffolk Downs survive, and if slots can buy the track a few more years, I say bring them in. Yet expanded gaming won’t solve New England’s long-term racing woes, and slots won’t change the reality that the land Suffolk sits on is more valuable as development than it is as a track. The track has two train stops, it’s minutes from downtown Boston, the airport, and the harbor, and it’s one of the largest (if not the largest) parcels of open land in a densely built metro area with an overheated real estate market. It would take more than slots to change that equation.
Thoroughbred racing will leave New England. It’s inevitable. Stan Bergstein, in a Daily Racing Form column on the intersection of racing, globalization, and technology, quotes a lecture given by Bill Shanklin at the recent Thoroughbred Racing Associations and Harness Tracks of America joint conference:
Shanklin told the track operators that all of the graduate business students worldwide could be taught by 200 professors using simulcasting and wireless technology … noting that a university in Philadelphia broadcasts a class at 2 p.m. Eastern so that students in various countries around the world are able to “attend” during their normal waking hours. “How many racetracks would it take to supply the world’s demand for simulcasting and account wagering?” Shanklin asks.
Not many, I’d answer. The major circuits — New York, California, Florida, Kentucky — will find ways to survive, as will tracks such as Oaklawn that host boutique meets enticing to tourists and trainers with quality horses. Tracks like Suffolk, without enough purse money to draw the really good horses, and thus schedule the races attractive to big simulcasting handle, will close.
I think that’s the saddest thing I’ve written on this site.
Related: State Senator Michael Morrissey (D-Quincy) has scheduled a public meeting on the proposed state lottery racing game for Thursday, April 14, at 10 a.m. in room A2 of the State House.
Lottery Bets on Horses
Virtual horses, not live horses. Is the Massachusetts State Lottery trying to off Suffolk Downs? As a beleaguered New England racing fan, it’s hard not to think the most dire thoughts when confronted by news like this:
The lottery’s executive director, Joseph Sullivan, said he hoped to launch the horse-racing game in November or December and expects it to bring in about $150 million over the course of its first full year.
”This game is going to be an exciting game and be received well in the marketplace,” Sullivan said. ”It’s not Keno Plus. It’s a new game.”
Details of the Daily Race Game launch are still being worked out, but Sullivan said the lottery intends to install video monitors in bars and restaurants that would be dedicated exclusively to the new horse-racing game.
The Boston Globe reports that the racing game will operate much like other Keno, with a race playing every four minutes. Players will be able to bet win, place, or show (and possibly bet combinations), and that minimum bets will likely be $1 or $2.
The hysterical reaction: Ohmigod!
The more considered reaction: Suffolk is running out of time. Modest gains in attendance and handle at the end of the last year’s meet weren’t enough to keep the development vultures from circling this winter. Slots legislation appears stalled, even as New Hampshire moves ahead, with a vote on slots in our northern neighbor scheduled for April 7. It’s even possible to read this move by the state lottery as an indication of how unlikely slots are in Massachusetts — the lottery commission was, after all, angling to manage the state’s racinos, should they ever be created. That the lottery has gone ahead and developed a racing game that it expects to bring in $150 million a year could be a sign that lottery powers consider slots dead. And that means live thoroughbred racing at Suffolk might be facing its last year.
Related: “A state Lottery official and the chairman of the State Racing Commission say a new ‘virtual horse racing’ game will not draw fans away from live horse racing or simulcast races. ‘It might well attract greater interest in horse racing in Massachusetts,’ said Joseph Betro, state racing chairman.” (The Enterprise)
Slots, Maybe
The Massachusetts legislature is likely to consider bills this spring allowing slot machines at the state’s four racetracks, including Suffolk Downs. Signs are positive — the new House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi represents East Boston and Governor Mitt Romney supports expanded gaming. But nothing is certain and there’s little word yet on what kind of deal the tracks would get. I’m hoping something passes this year — I fear that without slots, this will be Suffolk’s last year of live racing. (Boston Globe)
All Is Gloom
Without slots in Maryland, writes Andrew Beyer, “gloom and pessimism pervade the sport. Since the legislature killed all of the bids to legalize slot machines in the state, while Pennsylvania approved slots for its tracks, the future of Maryland racing appears almost hopeless. Some trainers are looking to move their operations out of the state. Employees are worried about their jobs. Breeders are worried. Racing fans are disgruntled about the quality of the product.” (Washington Post)
Hope for Suffolk Slots
The change in Massachusetts house leadership could bode well for the future of the state’s tracks. (Taunton Gazette)
New Thinking Needed
Slots aren’t coming to Maryland any time soon, says John Eisenberg, and it’s time for the racing industry and politicians to face up to that: “The racing industry, caught in the middle, can’t afford to wait any longer. It needs to focus on fixing up its own house rather than continuing to lobby for slots. And the politicians entrenched on either side of the stalemate need to recognize they’re causing harm and do something to help.” (Baltimore Sun)
Gloom in Maryland
“If they don’t put slots here … in two years you’ll be talking to an empty bench.” (Baltimore Sun)
Related: “Maryland slots bill ‘undead,’ to return in 2005” (Blood-Horse)
No Harm Done
Worries abounded at the start of the Saratoga meet that competition from the slot machines at Saratoga Gaming and Raceway would drive attendance and handle down at the Race Course. That didn’t happen. In hindsight, it’s easy to see why, writes Bill Finley: “There are still tens of thousands of racing purists out there who love the sport and love the cerebral aspects of handicapping. They flock to Saratoga because it offers everything that is special about thoroughbred racing…. They are not about to be lured away by whatever attraction there may be in pulling a lever and hoping blind, dumb luck is on your side.” (ESPN)
The Exodus Begins
When Pennsylvania passed its slots law in early summer, there was much talk about horses moving from surrounding states — such as Maryland — to the newly purse-rich tracks just to the north. What was feared has begun, reports the Baltimore Sun: “Legislative leaders here have failed in a last-ditch effort to place a slots referendum on the November ballot, and Maryland horsemen and breeders have begun what many in racing said was inevitable as long as slots remained forbidden: the exodus of horses, horsemen and horse farms.”
One Trainer’s Take on Slots
Trainer Tim Woolley has a few thoughts on the new Pennsylvania slots law: “Penn National, the home of cheap claimers, will soon be a mecca for small time trainers. Winning purses will be [worth] more than the claiming prices for which they are entered and the quality of horses will increase. If trainers and owners do not keep up with the new level of play they may sink into oblivion. Playing the game can be like playing the slots, if you don’t feed the machine you will not hit the jackpot.”
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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