By Ric Waldman
David Heckerman's series was a sobering, but accurate depiction of why things are as they are. Although the vast acreage of the race track properties were likely on a path for at least partial development regardless of the health of racing, the chickens have come home to roost. I remember the days when individuals (Donn family, Cella family, etc.) and groups of individuals (E.P.Taylor and cronies, Strub et all, etc.) were committed to their tracks perpetuating. Reality has set in with their successors not being motivated similarly. This happens in most businesses.
Years ago when simulcasting began, I thought that the states' legislatures should have required certain percentages of simulcasting handle be spent on marketing. If that had been enacted, it might have been a short term bandaid, or perhaps none at all, as the downward trend line was already in play. However, effective marketing has seemed like a foreign concept since I have been in the industry. Even with present day popularity on the Derby and festival meets, e.g., Keeneland, Saratoga and Oaklawn, horse racing is unable to keep the momentum going. With foal crops continuing their downward trend, and likewise the industry's need for numbers of employees, how salient is the argument to legislatures that jobs hang in balance for state relief?
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