Page 27 - March 2005 The Game

Your Thoroughbred Racing Community Newspaper The Game, March 2005 27
Photo Right: HPItv Broadcaster Greg Unger
Behind the Scenes of The 24-Hour Horse Racing Network
By Peter Gross
You want to know how quickly the state of racing on television is changing? When I started on this article (February 5th) the name of the Woodbine based 24-hour horseracing station was TRN (The Racing Network). By the time you read this, the name will be changed to HPItv (Horse Player Interactive TV).
32 year-old Andrew Macdonald is the VP of Business development for HPItv. That means he strikes all the deals with the cable companies and is constantly working on new ideas to make it easier to watch and wager.
"Eight years ago when we started TRN, we had about 200 telephone accounts and $8 million in wagering," says Macdonald,
"This past year, we've done $160 million in wagering through 38,000 accounts."
38,000 accounts? That means there's more than twice as many telephone horse players as there are Toronto Maple Leafs ticket subscribers. And this year, much more to watch.
Macdonald has his pick of dozens of racetracks around the world to feature on HPITV, but he is ruled by one huge factor.
"All of my decisions are made for bettors," he insists,
"The determination about which tracks are shown are based on telephone wagering."
People vote with their bets. That's why there's much more Aqueduct than Suffolk Downs; more Mountaineer than Rideau.
Strangely, the offices and studios for HPITV are pretty well the hardest premises in Woodbine to find. Maybe they don't want uninvited guests. On the fourth floor, through some narrow, badly lit hallways is an unmarked door. Knock three times, cough twice and shout, "Catscratch in the 5th" and you might get in.
Chris Martin, 43 is the network's supervising producer. As a youngster in Jamaica he grew too large to follow his dream of race riding. Now he jockeys three crews 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
"We have two types of viewers," says Martin from his bunker in the well disguised fortress,
"We have the horse people who want to see their horses running. They want to see all their friends in the winner's circle. The other viewer is watching strictly to bet."
So what's the most important function of HPITV?
"Three things," says Martin, "Wagering, wagering, wagering."
The Woodbine Broadcast department employs about 110 people In the control room, one of them, producer-director Colleen Tribe faces a wall of 48 monitors and gives a steady cadence to her instruc- tions as she tries to answer questions.
"Roll it, fade up, fade up. Stand by VR3. Roll 5. Fade up VR5."
How long is your shift, I ask.
"The day shift is from. Santa Anita changes. we'll take those after the Aqueduct race. 10:30 to 6PM. Stand by six. Roll six... You can be pretty exhausted by the end of the day. What we try to do is get in as much live coverage as we can. We've got four tracks going now.roll sting. Kill audio.we want to give everyone as much information as we can in conjunction with our host and the analysts at each track.stand by four. Roll four. Thank you."
What about today's anchor? What is
she like?
CONT. PAGE 46 - SEE HORSE TV
Photo Left: HPItv control room
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