Posted: 14 Aug 2010 07:57 AM PDT

The centuries-old tradition of horse racing around the country is in danger of extinction. The industry has struggled in recent years as a result of smaller winnings, scandal and the expansion of other betting opportunities. The Solano County Fair in central California is likely an indicator of times to come; there, for the first time, video screens of horse racing events from around the globe have replaced live horse racing.

SCOTT SIMON, host:

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. Im Scott Simon.

Horse racing used to be called the sport of kings. It's now facing an identity crisis with some fans saying it's become nothing more than a lottery on four legs.

As Capitol Public Radio's Emily Green reports, Internet and satellite wagering are causing drastic changes in the sport that are visible at racetracks around the country.

(Soundbite of race track)

EMILY GREEN: When David Martin was a kid, his dad took him to the horse races every Saturday at Californias Golden Gate Park. He says they would always sit in the same spot.

Mr. DAVID MARTIN: My uncles would be there. His brothers would be there. It was like a meeting place. More like a meeting place than anything else. They talked to one another there more than (unintelligible) home.

(Soundbite of laughter)

GREEN: Like his dad, he loves to gamble. But he says the game has changed since his dads era. To begin with, the horses are not nearly as good.

Mr. MARTIN: I even called to the racing secretary one time and told her, I said what the heck is going on here. This is ridiculous. You've got maiden horses, maiden claim horses racing on a Saturday entry - that would never be, especially on a Saturday card or a Sunday card. That was just unheard of on a Saturday. But thats common now.

GREEN: The once unheard of has now become commonplace. Here at the Solano County Fair in Northern California, Martin is watching the races on TV. That's because this year the fair abandoned a 58-year tradition of live horse racing and replaced it with satellite gaming.

Of course horse racing has always had one foot in gambling. But increasingly its about watching it on TV or the Internet and not going to the live thing, says Kirk Breed. Hes director of the California Horse Racing Board.

Mr. KIRK BREED (Director, California Horse Racing Board): I can remember in 1983 when we did the first simulcast race, and we brought in it on TV, and it had a big TV monitor there up there. And it was during the state fair and we were standing there watching it.

GREEN: Breed was with his friend, Jack Clifford.

Mr. BREED: And people were actually betting on this race that was being conducted in Chicago or someplace. And he says that is going to be the demise of horse racing right there.

GREEN: To get people to actually show up at the live races, the horse racing industry is pushing legislation in many states to allow slot machines at the tracks. But experts say the long-term solution to keeping the industry alive is to eliminate all but the biggest meets. This would generate bigger payouts and larger crowds. But it would also mean the end of live horse racing at the little venues.

Already, the number of county fairs in western states offering live horse racing has declined by some 50 percent over the past 20 years. That's according to the executive director of the Western Fairs Association.

(Soundbite of a crowd noise)

Unidentified Man: Come on, six. Come on, six. Here he comes (unintelligible) you see him?

(Soundbite of a crowd noise)

Unidentified Man: Oh no. So close.

GREEN: From Illinois to Montana and California, horse racing is one of the main draws at state fairs. Here in Pleasanton, California, east of San Francisco, the crowd is a mix of men and women, kids and old people.

Frank Blais props up his 10-year old daughter on the fence. Thirty years ago, Blais worked as a jockey and what hes most excited about is...

Mr. FRANK BLAIS (Former Jockey): To see the horses run. You know? And to see how these little jockeys are handling, you know, a 900 or 1,200 pound horse and to be able to control it.

GRAPHIC: Ironically, Blais is blind. And while he can no longer see how the horses run, he loves being here.

Mr. BLAIS: I enjoy hearing the crowd, and just the atmosphere of the track, and smelling.

GREEN: The key, racing experts say, is whether the track can keep them coming back. But already, county fairs around the country are running on wobbly legs. Take the Solano County Fair. Organizers saw a 28 percent drop in attendance this year. One of the main reasons cited for the decline: the lack of live horse races.

For NPR News, I'm Emily Green.

Copyright © 2010 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent.

Horse racing returns to Western Montana Fair after three-year hiatus

Posted: 13 Aug 2010 10:20 PM PDT

Racing form in one hand and a beer in the other, Steve Schneiter didn't have fingers enough left to pinch himself.

But there he was Friday afternoon at the horse races in Missoula – a place he never thought he'd be again.

"I didn't give it much of a chance to come back once they ended it," Schneiter said.

Back it was after a three-year hiatus from the Western Montana Fair, in excesses uncommon even to Friday race cards of the past: lots of mud and thousands upon thousands of people, more as the day wore on.

While there were misadventures on the track – a horse went down on the backside in the second race and jockey Jeff Jones took a mud bath just past the finish line in Race 3 – few on the front side seemed to mind, even as lines of people were shut out at the windows before they could place their wagers.

"If you're from Missoula, this is part of your darn heritage, you know?" said Schneiter, who was born and raised in Missoula and said he's been going to the races "for as long as I can remember."

The mud, courtesy of an overnight gully-washer, wrought a significant change to the card. Officials of Montana Downs, the private company putting on the two-day meet, made the decision early in the day to keep the starting gate in place at the top of the straightway, for fear of damaging the track if they moved it.

That meant several races that were slated to start on the backside were reduced in distance by more than a furlong (220 yards). Eric Spector, president of Montana Downs, said horsemen who usually need the track veterinarian's approval to scratch their entries could pull out on their own if the shorter distance didn't suit their horses.

Several did just that, and what once were almost full fields of seven and eight horses turned into four and five. In the ninth race, just two horses ran.

It didn't discourage many bettors.

Tammy Erickson stood with Roy Lindsley and Mary Riley in a throng at the beer garden, at the end of a long line at the betting windows before the fourth race.

"When you haven't had racing for three years and they finally bring it back for only two days instead of (six) days, you know the crowds are going to come," Erickson said. "The people have wanted this."

At last year's fair, when there was no racing, the three of them wandered into the beer garden at 2 p.m. Friday.

"I think there were two people in here," Erickson said. "So you can't tell me their beer sales were not down without the races."

"It's a way different atmosphere here than last year," Riley said.

*****

The beer started moving as soon as the races began, according to Brad Pheiffer.

"Like a light switch," he said, as he, Brad Sweeney and Bill Watkins of Zip Beverage formed a busy human chain passing cases of brew from a refrigerator truck into the beer booth.

Sweeney said he hoped to sell 500 cases by the end of the day.

The extra-long time between races didn't bother Herman Berneking of Superior, who started coming to the Missoula races in the 1960s.

"What's 45 minutes when you've been waiting three years?" he said. "Besides I can always go out and get my fair food."

Heidi Czorny-Vestman of Bozeman was four people back in line when the bell rang to cut off betting for the sixth race.

"I don't know, but I don't remember it ever having been this busy," she said, as she and her sister-in-law, Lynn Czorny, turned to watch the horses pound down the stretch. The horse they would have taken to win, Trieste'd N True, was far ahead.

"That's depressing," Czorny-Vestman shrugged, then turned her program to the seventh race.

Sid Billingsley wore two hats. He's a longtime racing fan from Missoula, and he's had his own racehorses for just as long. Billingsley started saddling horses here in the late 1960s.

"I kind of hung it up for a couple of years, but I'm back into it, and the only reason is because Missoula's running," he said. "If it wasn't, I wouldn't start running again. I want to support the racing here as much as I can."

The muddy track was punctuated by a large pool of water at the finish line, but it was somewhat deceiving to trackside patrons. Hooves and boots sunk only a couple of inches, fairgrounds director Steve Earle pointed out early in the day.

"See, it isn't bad. It's got a good base," he said.

"It's too bad we've got a little water, but they're still going to make these races go," Billingsley said. "Even the riders know what's at stake. If we didn't race today, I think it'd be dead. I think it would be over."

But they raced on Friday and the people came. For many, the scene sparked senses of nostalgia, justification and a bit of anger at those who ended racing in the first place after the 2006 meet.

"You start losing parts of what makes Missoula Missoula, and that changes things," Schneiter said. "I really hope they get it back to where things were before."

On horse racing: A newcomer and a veteran

Posted: 14 Aug 2010 01:38 AM PDT

FERNDALE -- A first-time jockey and a long-time favorite were two of the winners.

The 114th edition of Humboldt County Fair horse racing got underway Friday, with nine races providing excitement for the horsemen and a big turnout of fans.

"The fans are absolutely great," said veteran trainer Ray Thomas. "By the second race today we had more people here than on the best day in Santa Rosa.

"I look forward to coming up to Ferndale. The country and the trees are beautiful and the people are so kind."

And if you adhere to the concept that "first impressions are lasting," then one of Thomas' protégés, jockey Luis Godoy, might stay in your mind as the races continue through Sunday, Aug. 22.

Godoy -- in his first race ever at Ferndale -- won the first race Friday aboard a 7-year-old mule named Bar JF JJ.

"It felt good to win. I enjoyed it," said Godoy, 27, who is in his first year riding mules and horses after riding only horses for the past 10 years.

Although he is newcomer to the Ferndale bullring, the jockey did not feel nervous.

"People -- the other jockeys, the trainers, everybody -- have been wishing me 'Good luck,' and telling me 'It's good to have you here,'" said Godoy. "And Ray's been helping me a lot."

Unlike Godoy's first time in the money at the Humboldt County Fair, it was a page out of history for Red Seattle.

Red Seattle, the

14-year-old thoroughbred trained by William E. Morey and James Haverty, and with jockey Nikeela Black at the reins, thrilled the crowd with a two-lengths victory over five furlongs in Friday's fifth race.

The thoroughbred, making its first start in a year, added another chapter to its storied Ferndale career.

Eight of Red Seattle's 28 career wins have come at Ferndale, including winning performances in the Land of Jazz Stakes (2004, 2005) and the Paul Cacci Eel River Starter Sprint Stakes (2004, 2005).

Post time for today's first race is 2:07 p.m.

Horse Racing

Saturday, August 14, 2010

“Horse Racing Losing Both Glamour And Audience” plus 2 more

“Horse Racing Losing Both Glamour And Audience” plus 2 more

0 comments:

Post a Comment

FEEDJIT Live Traffic Feed

Popular Posts