Page 14 - The Game November 2006

14 The Game, November 2006 Canada’s Thoroughbred Racing Newspaper
A Conversation with Mike Mackey
A Look at Racing in British Columbia
By Jim Reynolds
Hastings General manager Mike Mackey has done much in his long career. He was born just near Hialeah Racetrack where his father trained horses and over the years has been a tattoo technician, assistant starter, racing secretary, and has held just about every official job in racing. Before coming to British Columbia he was President of Inter-Track Partners, an OTB consortium for four Chicago area tracks operating sixteen off-track Betting parlors. So it is always both a treat and an education to talk to him as I did this past week about racing in general and British Columbia in particular.
Q: There is a current move in the industry towards equine safety. Hastings installed its new surface four years ago. Do you feel the new tracks improve the safety of the horse?
"No question. We’ve been monitoring the addition of the sports-grid to the racing surface and last year started keeping real tight statistics on break- downs, problems, etc. as well as our track maintenance methods. Last year we got additional track conditioners to get it
more even and this year our breakdown rate has really improved. Some of it has to do with track surface, some of it to the care and treatment of the horses but overall its working well. There is always room for improvement. Even with the polytracks we are still looking for better ways to get it settled and how to maintain these surfaces."
Q: Do you feel the horses today are as sound as horses, say, 50 years ago?
"No. I believe wholeheartedly that they don’t have the bone in them that they used to. They’ve bred the bone out for speed. Just look at the average number of starts. It goes down every year. In North America the average number of starts per year is just under seven. That’s a steady decline. Twenty years ago it was probably about 20 starts per year and going back further than that there was an amazing ability for the general horse to run damn near weekly during the season."
Q: Another issue in recent news is the 10-second win odds cycle that will be implemented at the start in the new year for all tracks. How does that work?
"Tote companies have long worked together on this on this along with the Twenty-Twenty Committee to force a win/odds cycle 10 seconds after the race starts and the tote machines lock. So that you won’t be seeing the odds change dramatical- ly as wagering comes in from other sites. It’s simply a change in
the method of shipping pools.
Under this system the win pools
will be shipped instantly as the
first pool shipped over telecommunication lines.
There’ll probably be a little
more drag on the exotics but in say a six furlong race; the last of the pools will clean up before the race is over. This way by forcing the win odds you’ll get one flash 10 seconds after the race is started and that will be your final odds for that win pool so you’re not going to see a diminution which has always had the public believing that there is somebody out there past-posting.
"We know it’s just major wagers being made right at the buzzer but by the time the telecommunication lines went through their cycles from all these sites the information dragged in. So this will be a major confidence builder. They’re still not going to like it when their horse goes down a couple of points after that last flash but it will be 10 seconds after the start of the race and not when they are at the head of the lane."
In an industry that seems to be in flux but unsure of its course of action Mike remains positive that the industry and Hastings will survive and grow.
"The [racing] industry never stops striving for improvement. It just keeps changing. We have to stay as competitive as we possibly can. These issues are all little bits and pieces of the puzzle but they are important when combined.
"We have to keep the industry alive. Back in the old days, when we were the only game in town, basic management philosophy was open the doors. There was no major advertising because they didn’t have to, but now there’s so much competition for the wagering dollar that
we have to find every way possible to get and maintain our customer base, and that’s by going to them. The teletheaters in the lower mainland are a prime exam- ple. Did it hurt here at the track? Yes, but overall we’re seeing additional dollars being wagered between here, Fraser Downs, and the RiverRock and Coquitlam Casinos. There's about 29 OTB’s altogether in the province so we are building through convenience.
"An interesting statistic on that subject came out of the simulcast summit last week in Philadelphia. Wagering opportunities or betting outlets, racebooks whatever term they use, are opportunities for people to walk in and place a wager; France has 146 wagering opportunities per million population and England has 141 wagering opportunities per million; compared to North America’s two per million.
"Look at Ireland. Next to every pub there’s an OTB parlour and there’s plenty of pubs. In France, England and Hong Kong on-track wagering has grown along with the total overall wagering because of opportunities and convenience. That’s an area where we have to strive."
What can we do here to attract customers besides slots?
"We’ve tried a variety of things. Some have worked, some haven’t. What we are seeing is a feeling of improvement. But our overall handle is up this year and that’s not the trend in North America."
Q: What about the issue of slots at Hastings? Anything to report on that
front?
"There isn’t much to comment on. We are just waiting patiently for the process to go through the appeals court and get started on the renovations. I’ve heard estimates of six to ten months [before that happens]. I don’t expect an issue like this that is in my mind a frivolous issue, to take precedence over things like appeals for murder convictions. I expect the court has to go with a date as scheduled attitude, first come first served. So it’s out of our hands. There’s no way we can speed up the process. As far as dealing with it, it’s our parent company dealing with the city so it’s out of our hands.
And if we don’t get slots?
"I don’t even consider that. We’re going to get them. It’s not if, it’s when and I can see no way its not going to happen here."
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