For me, it was always a zesty change of pace from sports where humans do the running. A newspaper guy experiencing the Kentucky Derby. Its beauty of athletes is unique. Churchill Downs patrons always well-fueled. With the race's outcome frequently a surprise.
For many media commentators, Derby Day is the only horse racing they see. I was pretty much like that, spending most of my St. Pete Times year on football, baseball, basketball and golf. I would do a Triple Crown cram on the way to Louisville.
Even from such a hit-and-run perspective, I was bothered by the general health of thoroughbred racing. It was declining fast. Interest from bettors waning. Revenues withering. Most gamblers are intoxicated by stuff that moves faster, offering more options.
Horse tracks searched for a silver bullet, along with greyhound and jai alai facilities. Simulcasting would be a powerful pill, bringing steep relief. Betting now is offered not only on a track where a gambler sits but, thanks to modern electronics, at dozens of emporiums of chance from California to New York.
"We're taking full advantage, offering a huge menu," said Peter Berube, Tampa Bay Downs general manager. "We now have a card room. For a lot of Floridians, the preference is to bet on New York tracks. Now they do that without flying two hours. Other people want all the dog races they can find. It's been a huge financial and artistic lift, creating revenues that allow us to increase purses for Tampa Downs races, from a 1995 average of about $35,000 daily to $135,000 now, a near-quadruple jump. This season, which closes (today), has brought an amazing 12 percent bounce in our attendance, the best jump in the nation, putting us close to 3,500 a day.
"Our sunshine is great in Florida but it is money that motivates horse owners to send their better stock to our tracks. Competition for higher quality horses is rapidly escalating around the country."
Purses are up by as much as 500 percent at tracks in Delaware, West Virginia, Louisiana, New Mexico, New York and Iowa. Simulcast wagering has been the trigger. But, in some states, an ever hotter commodity has become video lottery terminals.
"They are slot machines linked to the state lottery," Berube said. "In order to continue to efficiently compete, we need them in Florida." Gov. Jeb Bush has come out strong against VLTs, decrying an ever-increasing Florida landscape for gambling.
"I think that is an unrealistic stance," Berube said. "Look around, our state offers gambling everywhere, from tribal reservations to cruise ships to parimutuel houses. In the horse-racing industry, it will be difficult for Florida tracks to continue being competitive without going to VLTs."
So, as the Derby mud settles, our minds a bit more attuned to the thoroughbred game than during 51 other weeks a year, the Florida debate on VLTs is sure to get hotter.
Pick yourself a winner.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ... TO ME: Can it be, that I am turning 65? Considering the alternative, there is an excessive grin this May2 morning. Medicare, be with me.
There are downers about growing older, pains both physical and mental, but my luck so far has been strong. There also are abundant pluses in seeing with eyes ever richer in maturity.
I view my world in new ways. Super Bowls, Final Fours and Masters golf tournaments still magnetize, but I now know, with more of my viewing from afar, that nothing was ever quite as large as I used to imagine, being in the cockpit for major sports happenings more than 40 years.
So much is depressing news from the arenas where I trolled for so long, but then along comes a Pat Tillman. There've been jerks in my path, through 45 years of sports reporting, but also some truly great people. Too many to even list.
In a society where the term "hero" is overused to nauseating depths, the legitimate deal is still so golden. Has there ever been a sports figure to surpass, in total being, the soldier from Arizona?
THE LAST WORD: This is about the game of life. A week ago, I drove to Thomasville, south Georgia hometown of Heisman Trophy quarterback Charlie Ward, for the funeral of a family dear, 95-year-old Annie Prevatt Sherrod.
Few knew that Aunt Annie was an eloquent poet. With the world's condition, from the waves of 9/11, these words continue to ring as she leaves us ...
"Free nations grieve, they stand amazed. At treachery's blatant ire. Thy fields run red with native blood. While burning cities light the sky. The aged and helpless were not spared. Nor babes at the break of dawn. When out of calm the impostor struck. And mowed the people down."
