Letter to the Editor: Steve Holland

Regarding the McKinsey study article:

Certainly, McKinsey's study showing that overlapped races reduce overall handle is no revelation. However, as long as this is now being discussed, perhaps three problems can be addressed:

· Overlapped races

· For patrons at live tracks, running nine live races over four hours is not the kind of action in which people these days will find has a sustaining interest. They may have a good time once a year, but repeat attendance is unlikely.

· Bettors like grass races.

The last time I was in England, there would be three live tracks, and the start times would be coordinated–in fact the race names were, for example, the 1:10, 1:20, and 1:30 at tracks one, two, and three respectively, and so on. It can be done.

In this country, coordinating five tracks is probably not possible, and may not be ideal, anyway. In my experience in the cases where there has been “interleaving,” a race every 15 minutes works well–time to handicap, bet, and watch the race.

My suggestions would be:

· Tracks pair off in twos. To best interleave, they would probably have to be in the same time zone.

· The race programs for the paired tracks would have all 18 races, at 15-minute intervals. The paired track's 18 races would all be featured like the live races (on a Jumbotron, on one or more of the simulcast channels, on some of the TV screens at all betting locations).

· When there is no live racing for the paired tracks in the time zone, their patrons would still be able to bet other simulcast races.

· The smaller tracks which are not part of the “national” pairs could create a virtual pair for their patrons by simply interleaving with whichever track they want (or can negotiate a deal with), and publishing their own 18 race program.

· Actually having one national coordinator that prepares a simulcast card of all grass races. Clearly, this would take enormous coordination, with the incentive for each track to move around a grass race being the likelihood of much more betting on the race. If this is initiated, and it works, cooperation will grow. Each betting outlet could then have a simulcast channel devoted to grass racing.

An obvious problem is that the Churchill and Stronach tracks may not want to pair with any other than a sister track. Also, it's not obvious how NYRA, Keeneland, and California would pair. But, the above suggestions are just meant to be a starter for addressing the McKinsey overlap study plus making other improvements to increase horse racing wagering and fan interest.