Can Smarty Jones Be Jackpot for Racetracks?

May 29, 2004 -- A four-legged lobbyist?

When the little colt Smarty Jones bolts from the gate to catch the Triple Crown in the Belmont on June 5, the competition won't only be running alongside.

He'll also be running for the entire racetrack industry against booming riverboat gambling and Indian casinos, both now raking in profits and stealing horse race fans.

"It's absolutely astounding what's happened with Smarty Jones this year!" says Alan Foreman, chairman and CEO of the Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association.

Something magic about this plucky little chestnut has raised the hopes of racetrack owners that he may be their emissary to state legislatures, inspiring them to ease gambling restrictions on tracks and help revive the struggling horse race industry.

Hopes shot up when Smarty Jones won the Triple Crown's first two races — despite having earlier cracked his skull when rearing up in a starting gate, almost dying, and requiring tricky eye surgery while his skull reknitted.

Seabiscuit Effect

Much smaller and shorter than his serious rivals, Smarty Jones has fed hopes that he will create some sort of Seabiscuit effect — like that revived in American memory by the recent movie about that heart-warming undersized winner of 1938.

Smarty Jones offers striking similarities. "He's a little horse but his got a great stride on him," say his trainers.

And when he pranced to victories with a long lead in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, he made it look not only easy but inevitable.

If he takes the Belmont to become the first Triple Crown winner in 26 years, horse race executives hope it would generate a new romance about horseracing and convince more state legislatures they should legalize slot machines for the tracks.

That would mean more race tracks could become so-called "racinos," with horse racing just one of several attractions.

Your horse loses? Try the one-armed bandits.Tracks around the country that have been allowed to install slot machines have bounded back from the doldrums in which this ancient wagering sport has been languishing.

In addition to drawing new bettors, the slot machines generate much-needed revenues that go into far bigger purses for the horse owners. This in turn brings more style and excitement back into the racing.

Aging Fans

But horse racing is fighting an aging fan base.

As Foreman says, "At one time, the only way you could gamble in this country, other than go to Las Vegas, was to bet on horse racing."

What happened? In a way, it was inevitable — not only due to the legal breakthrough that mushroomed a couple of decades ago with casinos on Indian lands.

The appeal of horse racing used to be both gambling and the horses — back when horses were how people got around. Everyone understood them, the way we now know the difference between a beat-up used car and a sleek new sedan. While NASCAR has boomed, more horse tracks are hurting.

But though general knowledge about horses has largely disappeared, there remains the ancient deep-seated urge to gamble — an appetite track owners know can be stimulated with slot machines.

Industry executives are also reminding legislators that horse racing supports half a million full-time jobs — from breeders and blacksmiths to grooms and jockeys.

Glitz Aversion

Old-school pony fans don't want casinos at the tracks. They hanker after the old atmosphere of a day out in the open air at the tracks, free of the glitz and flashing lures of your modern electronic gambling hall.

But racing analysts say they should get used to racinos.

"The industry needs growth," says journalist Jody McDonald of radio station WFAN in New York. "They need new revenue streams. That's how they can get it, through this casino gambling."

Horse and track owners are praying that when the little horse with the big heart goes for the Triple Crown, he'll run straight into the hearts of a whole new generation of fans and legislators alike.