Here's what the people who run Laurel Park are willing to do to get you and me, betting customers, through the gates between now and the end of the year: half-price beers every time a randomly selected jockey wins a race on a Friday; a "special surprise" if one of us grabs the lucky rubber ducky out of the Laurel Lucky Duck Pond between 11 a.m. and noon Nov. 8; free apple or pumpkin pie to the first 5,500 fans on Thanksgiving Day; "Live Pasta Station" every Thursday in the Terrace Dining Room; free ice scraper to the first 4,000 fans Dec. 13.
They're also giving away $10,000 in mutuel vouchers - in amounts varying from $2 to $1,000 - to the first 1,500 fans over 18 who walk into the track this Saturday.
All of which is nice. All of which means they're trying to encourage customers to spend their entertainment dollars on the horses. Things have been tough at the tracks - the customer base has been slowly dying off - so every little bit helps. I don't knock the little bits. But what's needed is big bits, a whole new approach to getting people to the tracks, assuming it's even possible and not too late.
When Marylanders go to the polls a week from today to vote on the slots referendum, those who vote yes on Question 2 will be voting to keep a legacy sport going in Maryland. That's horse racing, of course, the beneficiary of a portion of the proceeds from up to 15,000 slot machines that would be installed across the state. It's a sport that has been in decline for years, with fewer betting customers in attendance, racing dates reduced and more and more Marylanders regarding the whole scene as a quaint anachronism.
While the revenue from slots will give the sport an injection of funds for purses, potentially making the meets at Laurel and Pimlico attractive again to trainers and owners, it's not going to bring new customers through the turnstiles or increase handles.
That's a shame. Even when I lose money, a day at the races beats just about anything around here for live entertainment. The track is a great place to watch human beings of all colors, shapes and styles of dress as they size up horses and jockeys, make bets and watch their money take a ride. The horses are exquisite athletes. There's an emotional buildup to every race and a burst of drama as the horses come down the stretch, all that muscle and flesh and hooves rumbling through the sand, with the crowd, however meager, rising and screaming.
